Management options for Shimba Hills elephants after fencing of the reserve

Abstract

Only an abstract and the summary of the presentation and following discussion are published. The paper examines the management options available at the end of 1997 by which time the 250 sq km Shimba Hills National Reserve and adjacent Mwaluganje and Mkongani forests and their population of 300-600 resident elephants will be completely surrounded by an electric fence. Habitat change is a prime consideration once the elephants are confined within the fence which has been constructed to offset the extreme human/elephant conflict situation. Three options appear to be wait and see what happens, organize to translocate animals or to cull animals.