Knysna elephants

[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 60,000 hectares of forest managed by SANParks – the only unfenced elephant group in South Africa.

Stone Age: The semi-nomadic Khoi hunted them, and the San people of the southern Cape frequently painted rock art of them.

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.

[5] 1908: Faced with the elephants' imminent extinction, the Cape Government put them under new protection declaring them as Royal Game; meaning they could only be hunted by British royalty or with a license costing £3-25.

An extermination order was given by the Provincial Administration, due to conflict between farmers and the elephants over dwindling water resources and the threat posed to the future agricultural development.

[7] Initially, only a reduction in numbers was contemplated, but, on 1 April 1919, the Administrator of the Cape - Sir Frederic de Waal - argued in favor of total extermination of all the elephants.

From June 1919 to August 1920, the professional hunter Major P. J. Pretorius (i.e. the “Jungle Man”) shot a figure of "120-odd" elephants, that reduced the largest population in South Africa from about 130 to 16 individuals.

[5] The deed was concealed and the tusks were buried, but the carcass was found launching a police investigation and publicized court-case, lasting 9-days, which ended with the accused members of the Dept.

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.

[12][4][13][14] One of the Kruger elephants died within a month of stress-related pneumonia, while the remaining two were relocated to Shamwari Game Reserve in 1999, after they left the forest vicinity and came into conflict with humans.

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.