South Africa is liftning the ban on elephant culling

South Africa is about to lift the ban on elephant culling. From what I can gather both the "pro-cullers" and "anti-cullers" base their standpoints on emotional values, and not on scientific facts: The former looking back on the "pristine wilderness" of the era when elephants were on the verge of extinction, and wanting the national parks to be conserved in that state. Whereas the latter acknowledge elephants a higher value than other animals on the criteria that they "are more like humans".

Both these arguments are sadly ignorant. We, humans, can not hope to preserve nature if we at the same time want to inhibit the ecosystem’s potential of evolving and finding own solutions to its problems. Furthermore, we can not claim that some species are worth more than others on the premises that they hold human characteristics. What humans hold is not all of benefits for other animals, and they should therefore not be punished for not copycating us...

Ps. More attention should be brought to the forest elephant, a sub-species of the African elephant, which is becoming extinct due to habitat loss in central and eastern Africa.

Mail & Guardian