Twenty-one Elephant Calves Born at Zakouma

Twenty-one new elephant calves were sighted at Zakouma National Park in Chad over the Christmas period, marking a turnaround in the fortune of the park’s beleaguered elephant herds which were decimated by poaching between 2005 and 2010.  

The six-year poaching onslaught reduced Zakouma’s elephant population from 4 000 to just 450 individuals by 2010, leaving the decimated herd too stressed to breed. Whilst African Parks stabilised the elephant population after assuming management of Zakouma in late 2010, only five calves were born between 2010 and 2013. During the height of the poaching onslaught, elephant calves made up an astounding 23 percent of the diet of lions - a direct result of the poaching that left substantial numbers of calves orphaned.

The flush of elephant calves sighted over Christmas by park manager Rian Labuschagne changes the status of Zakouma’s elephant population from "stable” to a "definite increase in numbers” and is testimony to the success of African Parks’ intensive anti-poaching strategy. Anti-poaching measures have included deploying year-round patrols in the extended elephant range, constructing eight regional airstrips to help provide aerial support for patrols, fitting satellite collars to individual elephants, establishing a park-wide radio communication system and central control room, beefing up intelligence-gathering and a local reward system, providing advanced training for park guards, establishing a dedicated Rapid Response Unit and deploying specialised anti-poaching technology and equipment. As a result of these measures there has been no poaching of elephants in Zakouma for more than two years.