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Elephant Trust expands to Addo Park
A donation of R55 000 has been made by the Amarula Trust to fund a research and training programme on elephant ecology and biology that is focusing on the impact of the elephant population on the biodiversity of the Addo Elephant National Park (AENP) in the Eastern Cape.
The grant goes to the Centre for African Conservation Ecology (ACE) at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in Port Elizabeth.
The trust has already donated a total of R4.25 million to fund other elephant research under the directorship of Prof Rob Slotow of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he is based at the School for Biological and Conservation Studies. His research project addresses the conservation, protection and management of African elephants in their natural environment is active in reserves such as the Pilanesberg National Park, the Pongola Game Reserve, the Makalali Private Game Reserve, the Kruger National Park and the Pinda Private Game Reserve.
Field study findings aim to improve elephant management
Gaatjies, the oldest bull in Addo, was born in 1954, the year the park was fenced.
The latest Eastern Cape funding is being used to train NMMU under-graduate and post-graduate science students in field research techniques such as assessing herbivore densities using dung count; the impact of elephants on landscape functioning, including soil erosion; elephant behaviour in the park; and how to identify individual elephants. Findings from the field studies, involving 12 students thus far, will be used to improve elephant management in the AENP.
The university's centre also maintains an extensive photographic and life history database accounting for every elephant within the park, as far back as the 1930s. This makes it the longest-spanning record of elephant life history information in the world.
For more information on the Trust go to www.amarula.com.
