Elephants starve in South African park to make case for trophy hunting

Elephant overpopulation was preventable & manufactured at the Madikwe Game Reserve

PRETORIA,  South Africa––Starving elephants at the Madikwe Game Reserve in northern South Africa appear to be hostages to management demand to reintroduce trophy hunting,  more than a decade after hunting there was stopped.

Only 132 road miles from Pretoria,  the South African national capitol,   the 290-square-mile Madikwe Game Reserve is among the most visited tourist destinations on the African continent.

Designated in 1992 on depleted former farmland just south of the Botswana border,  opened in 1994,  Madikwe was populated with wildlife by Operation Phoenix.

Operation Phoenix brought elephants

Heralded at the time as a major conservation success,  Operation Phoenix relocated to Madikwe entire breeding herds of elephants,  rhinos,  Cape buffalo,  multiple species of antelope,  and eventually predators including lions,  cheetahs,  hyenas,  and African wild dogs.

Overlooked was that the arid,  rocky Madikwe habitat and surrounding region had never hosted large numbers of many of those species.

There had never been elephants in or around the areas bordering the reserve,  according to North West Parks & Tourism Board ecologist Pieter Nel.

But the elephants thrived nonetheless,  for a time.

“More than 1,000 starving elephants may have to be culled”

Now,   “More than 1,000 starving elephants may have to be culled,”  reported Don Pinnock of the leading South African opposition news website Daily Maverick on June 11,  2025,  with a governmental decision due by the end of the week.

“In a scathing parliamentary session on June 10,  2025,”  Pinnock wrote,  “members of the Portfolio Committee on Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment accused North West officials of gross mismanagement and evasion of responsibility for the ongoing elephant crisis in the Madikwe Game Reserve.

“The crisis, years in the making, has led to mass starvation and death among elephants, extensive environmental degradation,  and a controversial proposal to cull as many as 1,200 elephants.”

Elephants at three times carrying capacity

The Madikwe Game Reserve elephant population has increased to about 1,600 elephants – “more than triple the reserve’s original carrying capacity of 500,  and more than six times the 250-elephant maximum suggested by early management plans,”  Pinnock summarized.

The elephant population density within the Madikwe Game Reserve has risen to 2.7 per square kilometer,  more than triple the average of .79 elephants per square kilometer in South African state-managed parks.

Now from 70 to 80 elephants have “died of starvation since August 2024,  with many more in advanced stages of malnutrition,”  Pinnock wrote.

“Population did not explode overnight”

Testified Douglas Wolhurter,  Wildlife Protection Unit manager for the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,  “The elephant population did not explode overnight – these animals breed slowly.  Every warning sign was ignored.”

Resumed Pinnock,  “Questions by a number of parliamentarians cut to the heart of the crisis: why were long-term preventative measures like immunocontraception denied by the North West Parks & Tourism Board even though they were offered repeatedly for free by Humane World for Animals,”  formerly the Humane Society of the U.S.,  “in 1998, 2020 and 2023.”

Why was National SPCA excluded?

And why was the National SPCA,  Pinnock asked,  “despite their legal mandate under the Animals Protection Act,  excluded from the second and subsequent meetings of the provincial task team overseeing the crisis response?  Why has no independent investigation been launched?

“Jonathan Denga,  acting chief executive of the North West Parks & Tourism Board, confirmed that the province had known about the issue for years but offered no justification for the failure to act,”  Pinnock wrote.

“Yes, the elephant population is a serious problem,” Denga told the parliamentary committee on Forestry,  Fisheries & the Environment.

“But many of the management options have been exhausted,”  Denga claimed,  even though some,  like immunocontraception of elephants,  successful for decades elsewhere,  have yet to be tried on a serious scale.

“Game reduction strategy”‘

What the North West Parks & Tourism Board is trying to do,  and has been trying to do for more than a decade,  is re-introduce trophy hunting,  once allowed but long suspended.

“A tender issued in May by the North West Parks & Tourism Board proposes the trophy hunting of 25 elephants,  two black rhinos and 10 buffalo in Madikwe,”  Pinnock mentioned.

“Although sold as a ‘game reduction’ strategy,”  Pinnock said,  “critics argue that the tender was rushed,  non-transparent and economically motivated.”

In other words,  someone hoped to pocket large sums of money from trophy hunters instead of grafting from the much larger but harder to tap cash flow through dozens of tourism lodges,  camera safari concessionaires,  and other businesses catering to visitors that cumulatively employ more than 1,000 people.

Invited proposals from hunters & outfitters

African Geographic shed further light on the situation on June 5,  2025.

Altogether,  the North West Parks & Tourism Board “invited proposals from professional hunters, outfitters,  and culling teams to hunt wildlife in 14 provincial reserves during the 2025/2026 financial year,”  African Geographic said.

The proposal to expand elephant and rhino trophy hunting to Madikwe is championed by Bitsa Lenkopane,  heading the North West Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism.

“We have relationships with different organizations like the Professional Hunters’ Association of South Africa,”  Lenkopane told African Geographic.  “We take them seriously and we also view their issues as seriously as we view the issues of communities.”

Dallas Safari Club Expo

Reported African Geographic,  “In January 2025,  Lenkopane attended the Dallas Safari Club Annual Convention & Sporting Expo – arguably one of the largest annual gatherings of hunters in the USA. Lenkopane stated her visit aimed to ‘attract foreign investment in order to revitalize the North West Province’s protected areas network and enhance contribution to South Africa’s biodiversity economy.’

“The North West government asserted at the time it was working closely with the Professional Hunters’ Association of South Africa and the Custodians of Professional Hunting & Conservation South Africa to resolve ‘concerns regarding export quota processes.’”

Cape buffalo and black rhino as well as elephants may be targeted in Madikwe,  African Geographic indicated,  because the black rhino and buffalo populations “are non-translocatable due to the presence of bovine tuberculosis in the reserve.”

Big Five hunting “phased out” at Madikwe

Big Five hunting in Madikwe “was phased out in the mid-2000s,”   African Geographic said,  after “Guests complained about reduced sightings” of the Big Five species:  elephant,  rhino,  buffalo,  lion,  and leopard.

Citing the findings of Pieter Nel,  Green Guardian reporter Sheree Bega exposed elephant starvations at Madikwe on December 14,  2024.

“Plans are under way to euthanize starving elephants,”  Bega revealed.

Drought and uncontrolled growth of the elephant population are the main drivers of deaths in Madikwe,”  explained Bega.

From drought to flooding

But since then,  “Unprecedented rainfall,  more than double the typical amount,”  in February 2025 “caused the Molatedi Dam in Limpopo to overflow,”  resulting in flooding along the Marico River that closed two Madikwe Game Reserve tourist lodges,  reported Dale Hes for Travel News South Africa.

Two months previously,  Nel told Bega that the Madikwe elephant population had recently exceeded the park carrying capacity.

“He noted that earlier in the year there were no signs of any stress among the elephants,”  Bega wrote.

“Then in August and September 2024 things escalated and we had these mortalities,”  Nel explained.  “It shows you that there’s a very fine balance and the moment you pass that threshold,  everything collapses.”

“This is not ‘nature’ or ‘nature’s way’”

The National SPCA had already euthanized several starving elephants.

“Outside Madikwe’s fence line is an abundance of nutritional vegetation,  a stark comparison to what Madikwe has to offer the animals within the confines of the reserve,”  Douglas Wolhuter told Bega.

“This is not ‘nature’ or ‘nature’s way,’”  Wolhuter said,  “as this is a man-made disaster,  with years of inaction addressing the overpopulation and lack of vegetation,  and increasing bush encroachment.

“It is a travesty that this reserve cannot ensure the welfare and well-being of the animals,” Wolhuter continued.

Madikwe management “observed the suffering & did nothing”

The Madikwe reserve management,  Wolhuter charged,  “observed the suffering unfold before them and did nothing.

“Obviously,  we need to drastically reduce the numbers to bring us back to a situation where the system can properly recover and we can have those big trees,  all of those things,  coming back,” Wolhuter continued, .

Wolhuter lamented that “non-lethal methods of managing the elephant population” other than immunocontraception,  which was not tried,  “didn’t yield the desired results.

“There were real opportunities of expanding the park,  and there were some opportunities for translocation,  which unfortunately never materialized,”  Wolhuter said,  “and that brought us to the situation where we are now.  Now,  we will have to look at other ways, including lethal options.”

Former South African National Parks director has pushed for culling since 2005

Offered Hector Magome,  director of the Madikwe Futures Company,  “Especially with the current drought,”  and continuing increasingly arid conditions anticipated due to global warming, “other reserves with elephants,  including reserves in South Africa,  Namibia, Botswana,  Malawi and Zimbabwe, are in a similar situation.”

Magome,  formerly director of conservation services at South African National Parks,  also argued for killing elephants in March 2005,  “strongly leaning towards culling,”  he told Mike Cadman of the Sunday Independent in Johannesburg,  “and we want the public to digest this hard fact.”

Culling both provides an opening for allowing trophy hunting and,  officially,  enables South Africa to stockpile tusk ivory in anticipation of eventually obtaining permission from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to sell the ivory.

Unofficially,  at least some stockpiled ivory tends to disappear into the global ivory black market.

“Everybody is trying to deal with elephant population growth and there is no clear answer except the one which is emotionally very charged,”  Madikwe Futures Company and lodge owner Koos Potgieter told Bega.

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