The Giants of Selati Fund generating support for Selati Game Reserve’s elephant contraception campaign.

The Giants of Selati Fund generating support for Selati Game Reserve’s elephant contraception campaign

The Selati Wilderness Foundation (SWF) is taking great strides to conserve the future of the elephants and the biodiversity of Selati. Through the launch of the Giants of Selati Fund in 2020, we reached out to our generous supporters to help us raise the funds necessary to carry out an historic elephant contraceptive operation and reached our target of R400,000. These funds helped us cover the helicopter time, the initial vaccines, and the booster vaccines three months later.

In 2021, with the generous support of Dr. Johan Marais of Saving the Survivors, pilots, ecologists, and conservation managers we will need to repeat the booster vaccinations to ensure the efficacy of the Immunocontraception programme.

We need your help!

It will be an intensive two-day operation in September 2021 requiring both aerial, ground teams, and veterinary services funded by Saving the Survivors, and we are appealing to the public to help us raise ZAR160,000. The Foundation is aiming to raise the funds through its crowdfunding campaign on GivenGain or direct donations by clicking on our Donate button.

We hope that by sharing how important both elephants and biodiversity are for the proper functioning of the greater ecosystem, you’ll be encouraged to help us achieve our goal.

Our land at Selati is one of many fenced reserves in South Africa providing safe havens for elephants, which – elsewhere in Africa – are able to roam free yet are persecuted by poaching on a far greater scale. Providing a home to elephants comes with the responsibility to manage the population according to what our reserve can cope with and ensuring that other species do not suffer.

At 135 elephants on 28 000 hectares, Selati is approaching its recommended carrying capacity as advised by the ecologists. We’ve given careful thought to the various methods of elephant population control and after consulting the experts, we’ve determined that the most humane, ethical, and effective way to slow down our elephant birth rate is to give our mature elephant cows a tried and tested immunocontraceptive vaccine.

How does immunocontraception work?

Immunocontraceptive vaccines cause the immune system to produce antibodies that prevent fertilization, without the side effects of hormonal contraceptives. Reproductively mature elephants will be darted with the pZP vaccine from a helicopter, which is far less invasive than approaching on the ground. A small amount of dye will be released so that we can identify which elephants have already received the vaccine, and the dart will drop off naturally so that we do not have to recover it from the elephant itself.

Any pregnant or lactating cows will be unaffected by the vaccine and are expected to give birth to healthy babies when the time comes. If any of the vaccinated elephants die of natural causes, their carcasses can fall into the natural food chain without any harm being done to other species.

After 12 to 14 months, the effects of the vaccine wear off and are reversed, so the elephants can immediately become pregnant again. Therefore, we need to re-administer the vaccine once a year. The Giants of Selati Fund hopes to generate much needed donations to support this process on an ongoing basis.

Why are too many elephants a threat to other species?

As a keystone species, elephants will adapt throughout the seasons and feed on a wide variety of grasses, trees, fruit, seeds, and plants, at a huge consumption rate. At some point, when there are too many elephants in a closed system, plant species don’t have a chance to recover, and other species can’t compete for food and sustenance. Over time, this can change a landscape and extinguish equally as important and valuable members of an ecosystem.

Considering that elephant cows have a gestation period of 22 months and any pregnancies at the time of implementation will not be affected, we will still have over two years of new births ahead. “The ideal aim is to gradually bring the elephant birth rate down so that it equals the natural mortality rate,” says Alan du Toit, Director of SWF. Therefore, this operation needs to take place on an annual basis in order to maintain the effectiveness of the drug.

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Giants of Selati Fund

Support from members of the public during the fundraiser will radically impact the efficacy of this operation and conserve the wellbeing of Selati’s elephants and its significant biodiversity.

The SWF is appealing to as many people as possible to help by donating towards the R160,000 target on GivenGain during August 2021.

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