Knysna elephants

A feeding Knysna elephant by Hylton Herd (SANParks)

Major Philip Jacobus Pretorius armed for an elephant hunt. Leather suit and .475 cordite Express rifle, "a treasure of a gun" (Pretorius 1947). Addo bush in the background
by Homer LeRoy Shantz (1919)

The Knysna elephants were the relicts of once substantial herds of African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana)^[1] in the Outeniqua/Tsitsikamma region of southernmost South Africa, which as of 2021, have been reduced to a lone adult female. The elephant herds roamed the southern tip of Africa into the 1800s and 1900s, when contact with European farmers and hunters led to their decimation. It is conjectured that about 1,000 elephants historically roamed the Outeniqua/Tsitsikamma area.^[2] A 2006 DNA analysis of dung samples revealed the presence of at least 5 cows and possibly some bulls and calves,^[1] moving within an area of 121,000 hectares of forest managed by SANParks – the only unfenced elephant group in South Africa. By 2019 however, researchers realised that a mature female at the Knysna Forest was the last to survive.

History of decline[]

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 Outeniqua / Tsitsikamma coastal mountain range around Knysna, and dense scrub-thickets of the Addo bush.^[3] 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.^{[citation needed]}

By 1919 a large herd was peacefully 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 complaints, the Cape Provincial Administration on 25 November 1919 hired a professional hunter, Major Philip Jacobus Pretorius, to 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 of all the elephants. By January 1920 it was decided to preserve 16 elephants which were to be left in the Addo Reserve.^{[citation needed]}

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. Later, Pretorius applied for and was granted permission by the government in 1920 to shoot one of the sequestered 16. The shooting accounted for five more elephants. 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.^[4] Pretorius had been requested to record measurements of the elephants that he had shot, but these were never made available.^{[citation needed]}

Remnants in the 21st century[]

A fanciful scene in the Tsitsikamma Forest, strangely showing Asian elephants
by Samuel Daniell circa 1801

The title cartouche of William Faden's 1795 map records the ravages exacted on the colony's elephant population.

The scattered remnants of the herds had to regroup and modify their behaviour in order to survive. Within a short period they developed the skills necessary to live in forest and adjacent fynbos where they avoided hunters.^[5] Their range had been substantially reduced and their diet had to change as they had access to less grass.^{[citation needed]}

As few as four to seven individuals were believed to roam the Knysna forests in 1950, and a survey in 1969/70 placed the population at some 14 individuals, by 1970. Only four Knysna elephants were believed to persist in the Gouna/Diepwalle forests from 1976 to 1994, and by 1996 the population was reported to be functionally extirpated, with only a single adult female remaining.^[6] Nevertheless, 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 contains DNA of the particular animal. The analysis alluded to the survival of least five females, while Patterson's fieldwork suggests the additional presence of three bulls and two calves.^{[citation needed]}

Despite the DNA evidence, official sources insisted that only one elephant had survived, an elusive female known as "the Matriarch" or "Oupoot", making the Knysna elephant functionally extinct. In September 1994, in an effort to bolster the population, three juvenile elephants were introduced from the Kruger National Park.^[5] At the time it was believed that Knysna elephants only frequented the forest proper, and the introduction of the Kruger elephants, which at most foraged along forest margins and in fynbos, was consequently deemed a failure.^{[7][8][9][10]} One of the Kruger elephants died within a month of stress-related pneumonia, while the remaining two were relocated to Shamwari Game Reserve, after they left the forest vicinity and came into conflict with humans.

In 2016, an elephant believed to be Oupoot was photographed by a ranger. SANParks stated their belief that between one and five elephants remained in the park, but did not disclose their location or precise numbers.^[11] In 2019, SANParks concluded that there was no remnant herd roaming Knysna forest, but only the shy and reclusive female. Camera-traps which monitored 38 locations in their former range for more than a year, obtained 140 photos of the single cow, estimated to be 45 years old. She frequented indigenous forest and adjacent fynbos on SANParks and neighbouring land. She was expected to live to the age of 65, which would imply another two decades of her unnaturally lone existence.^[5] A relocation to another herd was considered too stressful, and artificial insemination likely too risky. It was decided to leave her in the terrain with which she was familiar, where she would serve as a metaphor for the lamentable policy failures which doomed the population, and indifferent attitudes towards biodiversity in general.^[5]

References[]

External links[]

• Addo Elephants in the Amathole Museum

Further reading[]

• "Elephantoms: Tracking the Elephant" - Lyall Watson (Penguin, 2003) ISBN 9780143526889
• “The Secret Elephants” - Gareth Patterson (Penguin) ISBN 9780143026136
• "The Knysna Elephants and Their Forest Home" - Margo Mackay (Knysna, 1996)
• "Jungle Man - The Autobiography of Major P. J. Pretorius CMG, DSO and Bar" (George G. Harrap, 1949)