Knysna elephants

History of decline

Before the arrival of the Bantu from the north and European-origin settlers from the south, the nomadic aboriginal people had lived harmoniously with the elephants and had little incentive for killing them or exploiting the forests. In two centuries the European settlers came close to obliterating the forests and hunting the seemingly inexhaustible wild life to the verge of extinction, so that currently no large herbivores such as hippo, rhino and elephant are found outside nature reserves, the handful of Knysna elephants being the sole exception.

Ivory hunting and loss of habitat to agriculture had all but exterminated elephants from the Cape region of Africa by 1900. The last elephant in the vicinity of the Cape peninsula was killed in 1704 and elephant populations west of the Knysna region were extirpated prior to 1800. By 1775 the remaining Cape elephants had retreated into forests along the foothills of the Outinequa / Tsitsikamma coastal mountain range around Knysna, and dense scrub-thickets of the Addo bush (Dudley 1976a). As far back as 1870 it was estimated that only some 400 elephants remained out of the enormous numbers that had been observed in and about these southern forests in earlier centuries. Captain Harison, Conservator of Forests between 1856 and 1888, petitioned the Cape Colonial Government to formally protect the elephants and forests, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

By 1919 a large herd was centered about the Addo area of the Eastern Cape. Farmers in this area had been sold their farms at greatly reduced rates and favourable terms because of the elephant presence. Nevertheless, these farmers complained to the authorities about damage to their crops, broken water pipelines and reservoirs and even loss of lives, though it later transpired that the lives lost were those of hunters tracking and killing elephants. Responding to the exaggerated complaints, the Cape Provincial Administration on 25 November 1919 hired a professional hunter and celebrated war hero, Major Philip Jacobus Pretorius, to completely exterminate all elephants in the region. Initially only a reduction in numbers was contemplated, but on 1 April 1919, the Administrator of the Cape, Sir Frederic de Waal, argued in favour of total extermination. By January 1920 it was decided to preserve 16 elephants which were to be left in the Addo Reserve.

In the space of little more than a year, between 12 June 1919 and August 1920, Pretorius single-handedly reduced the population of elephants from about 130 to the 16 individuals which were to be spared. As if that were not enough, Pretorius applied for and was granted permission in 1920 to shoot one of the sequestered 16. The shooting took place before a crowd of onlookers and accounted for 5 more elephants by the close of day. Spoils from the initial part of the campaign went to the Province, but from January 1920 on they were the property of Pretorius, who had been approached by various museums for specimens to add to their collections - the South African Museum received four, the Amathole Museum two and eight to the British Museum of Natural History. Pretorius had been requested to record measurements of the elephants he shot, but these were never made available.

Remnants in the 21st Century

The scattered remnants of the herds had to regroup and drastically modify their behaviour in order to survive. Within a very short period they developed specialist skills to live in forest and fynbos and avoid hunters. Besides the enormous reduction in their range, their diet suffered a major change, including almost no grass, and they became adept at moving almost invisibly and in near silence.

There were believed to be as few as four to seven individuals roaming the Knysna forests in 1950, and a survey conducted in 1969-1970 estimated the population at about 14 individuals in 1970. There were believed to be only four Kynsna elephants remaining in the Gouna/Diepwalle forests between 1976 and 1994, and the population was reported in 1996 to have been functionally extirpated with only a single adult female still present (Dudley 1976b). Nonetheless, in September 2000 a forest guard, Wilfred Oraai, videotaped a young bull from a distance of about thirty metres, immediately raising questions about its provenance. Conservationist Gareth Patterson has collected numerous fresh samples of elephant dung for DNA analysis by geneticist Lori S. Eggert from the University of Missouri in Columbia. In its passage through the digestive system, dung scrapes against the walls of the intestines and as a result has a surface rich in DNA. Analysis suggests at least five females within the population, while Patterson's fieldwork suggests the additional presence of three bulls and two calves.

Despite the DNA evidence, official sources insisted that only one elephant survived, an elusive female known as 'The Matriarch' or 'Oupoot', making the Knysna elephant functionally extinct. In the 1990s in an effort to bolster the numbers, some juvenile elephants were introduced from the Kruger National Park. It was believed at that time that the Knysna elephants survived strictly within the forest, and when the introduced elephants were seen feeding only at forest margins and in fynbos, they were thought not to have adapted to the forest environment and were retrieved some five years later.