ROBBER ELEPHANTS.

Shannon News, 6 October 1925, Page 4

ROBBER ELEPHANTS.

RAIDS BY DESTRUCTIVE MOBS. Despite the slaughter of elephants in South Africa, the elephant is in no danger of extinction. In Kenya and Tanganyika there are over half a million. Raiding th e farms these herds do thousands of pounds' worth of damage every year. Timid wild elephants once turned "robber" become cunning and savage, losing all fear of man. They raid in mobs ten to a hundred strong, choosing pitch dark nighls, and moving on their objective silently. But once under cover of the plantations they throw caution to the winds. Fruit trees are sent hurtling to the ground; crops are trampled in mad havoc. The bulls trumpet fiercely; the cows squeal in defiance. To shoot into the pandemonium is to ccurt almost certain death. At the slightest sound the mob stampedes, intent on killing. . On the other hand, to leave the herd till dawn is to lose it, for to an elephant 50 miles is a morning's stroll. Surh a robber herd lives in the TJmtondea Bush, north of Mombasa. Every year the great tuskers raid the plantations, uprooting valuable palms. This herd has been outlawed by the Government, but elephants are so cunning that only a dozen have been killed. Another savage herd recently held the Rufigi district of Tanganyika in a state of siege. In a few nights they destroyed crops over a tract of land four limes the area of Surrey, and, kneeling on the low huts, crushed the structures and killed scores of villagers.

A hunter killed 50. But the survivors moved up to Victoria Nyanza, and are at present pillaging: the potato gardens, ewhere many will fall into native pit-traps. Were they not plantation robbers, would be an asset to East Africa. A pair of good tusks yield •JOO lbs. of ivory at 30s a pound. The license to shoot two elephants costs the hunter £45, and the hunting trip gives work and wages to scores of natives who would otherwise be unemployable.—" Daily Mail."