South Africa Elephant Data

Historical numbers:

• 100,000 before 1652 (Hall-Martin, 1992)
• By 1890’s almost all of the elephants in South Africa have been exterminated (Whyte, 2001, Hall-Martin, 1992; Skead, 1980, 2007)
  • Pockets included Knysna, Addo, Tembe, Olifants Gorge
• In 1920, there were approx. 130-150 elephants in the 4 populations (13 in Knysna, 16 Addo, 100 in the Lowveld, small population in Tembe).

CITES Quota: 150 (300 tusks)

Only 84 properties in South Africa that hold elephants.

• 63% (53) of all properties have less than 30 elephants

Large Elephant Populations in South Africa:

• Madikwe – 1629 elephants
• Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area (GMTFCA) – 1970 elephants
• Kruger, APNR, Sabie Sands, Makuya, Mayaleti, Greater Letaba Ranch
• Addo Elephant Park Eastern Cape – 804
• Hluhluwe-imfolozi – 864

High level, take home messages about elephants in South Africa:

• CITES Appendix II listing
• <0.01% loss of elephants through poaching; poaching is not a threat to elephants in South Africa

• No new elephant properties coming online
• No new space for elephants
• Conservation Status: Least Concern
  • Highest elephant population in South Africa in a century
  • Smaller elephant populations actively contracepted
  • Increasing population

Specific Hotspots for Elephants in South Africa:

Madikwe:

Action, not finger-pointing, is needed for Madikwe’s elephants

At a crossroads: Sustainable solutions for Madikwe’s elephant overpopulation crisis

Kwazulu Natal:

Urgent call to relocate elephants as KZN reserves reach capacity

Kruger National Park:

• 70% of elephants in South Africa are in Kruger
• No hunting of elephants in Kruger
• Trophy hunting under the strictest hunting protocols in Africa occurs on adjacent properties and is not a threat to elephant population numbers in Kruger

Kruger has the best dataset with respect to understanding age vs. ivory weight and length. Study performed by Dr. Ian Whyte and Anthony Hall-martin:

Growth characteristics of tusks of elephants in Kruger National Park

Kruger National Park management plan for elephants:

2012-2022 Management Plan

2023-2028 Management Plan

Podcasts around Elephants in South Africa:

Elephant Statistics:

SANBI NDF 2024

Carruthers et al., 2008

This is a chapter in a bigger book: Scholls, R.J., Mennell,, K.G. 2001. Elephant Management: A scientific assessment for South Africa. Wits University Press, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), through a poem, already indicated the future as it relates to elephants in that, where you have large settled concentrations of humans, one will find either no elephants or very few.

Sub-species of Elephant in South Africa:

Loxodonta africana

Ivory Trade “Touches / Implications”

• Mapungubwe
  • AD900
• Zimbabwe
  • AD1300
  • Shift from Map – to Zim
  • Maybe due to elephant densities / numbers
• Axelson – 9,656kg of ivory for the Sofala Trade in 1517
• Trader lineage of ivory in South Africa
  • Mapungubwe AD900-1300
  • Northern Nguni – southern Mozambique / Northern Kwazulu Natal (1500s)
  • Early 1600’s ivory leaving bay of Port Natal (Durban)
  • 1752 trekboers, Xhosa interaction – substantial ivory trade linked to Delagoa Bay
  • 1822 ivory was being traded between Tswana in the west and the Tsonga in the east.
• Elephant exploitation started north and stretched south before the gold boom
• Eighteenth century traders out of Cape of Good Hope in search of ivory
• 1824
  • Ivory exports from Cape Town 9072kg
• 1836
  • Ivory exports from Cape Town 48,000kg (Ellis, 1998)
  • B.Norden traded 2500kg with Dingane
• 1855
  • 90,000kg of ivory exported from the Transvaal

What the Graph Suggests

The history appears to fall into three distinct phases:

1. 1832–1869: Moderate but highly variable ivory exports, generally between 10,000 and 60,000 lbs/year.
2. 1870–1883: A dramatic boom period, peaking around 165,000 lbs in 1878, likely reflecting intensified elephant hunting and expansion into elephant-rich regions north of the colony.
3. 1884 onward: Abrupt collapse to roughly 5,000–15,000 lbs/year, suggesting severe depletion of accessible elephant populations and/or shifts in trade routes and hunting frontiers.

A reasonable central estimate would be approximately 30,000–40,000 elephants represented by the ivory exported through the Cape Colony between 1832 and 1909.

Population Recollections

• Mid-nineteenth century (1850s) is when elephant numbers plummeted in South Africa
• 1804 according to Barrow’s account there were very few elephants left in the Eastern Cape
• 1830’s Harris recorded large herds of elephants around the Magliesberg 
• 1850’s Thomas Baines visits the same area – elephants nonexistent

Size recollections

• William Finaughty – killed 95 elephants yielding 2,200kg of Ivory
• 23kg / elephant – thats only 50.9lbs per elephant