Out of Africa

When I went on my token tourist safari during my time in Zambia, I was surprised to learn that, of all the animals touted as dangerous - namely crocodiles, lions and hippos - locals were most afraid of elephants. It seems that because of their intellect and propensity to compete with humans for territory and staple crops like maize, the erstwhile gentle giants can be quite malicious, sometimes fatally so.

Back in the bad old days of rampant poaching and the legal ivory trade, there was no such thing as too many elephants. But for African countries that have managed to create the conditions under which pachyderms have thrived - places like Zambia, Botswana and now South Africa - there seems to be such a thing as too much protection.

After trying all manner of tricks to keep elephants away from crops and people, South Africa has recently enacted a new conservation plan that calls for, as a last resort, 'culling' to keep numbers at manageable levels (the population has more than doubled to 18,000 individuals over the past decade). But because of the animals' complicated social structure, this can involve killing entire family groups.

As undesirable as that sounds, it's important to remember that this is, essentially, a conservation success story in a continent full of failures to protect important species. Better to debate what to do with a swelling population than figure out how to bring one back from the brink of extinction.