Knysna elephants

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.

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.

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.

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 fynbos and avoid hunters. Their range had been substantially reduced and their diet had to change as they had access to less grass.

There were believed to be as few as four to seven individuals roaming the Knysna forests in 1950, and a survey conducted in 1969-1970 estimated the population at about 14 individuals in 1970. There were believed to be only four Knysna elephants remaining in the Gouna/Diepwalle forests between 1976 and 1994, and the population was reported in 1996 to have been functionally extirpated with only a single adult female still present.[5] 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 from the relevant animal. Analysis suggests at least five females within the population, while Patterson's fieldwork suggests the additional presence of three bulls and two calves.

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 the 1990s, in an effort to bolster the numbers, some juvenile elephants were introduced from the Kruger National Park. It was believed at that time that the Knysna elephants survived strictly within the forest, and when the introduced elephants were seen feeding only at forest margins and in fynbos, they were thought not to have adapted to the forest environment and were retrieved some five years later.[6][7][8][9]

In 2016, an elephant believed to be Oupoot was photographed by a ranger. SANParks stated a belief that between one and five elephants remained within the park, but did not disclose their location or precise numbers.[10]

• Addo Elephants in the Amathole Museum

• "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)