2,000 Elephants to Be Shot in Drought-Stricken Zimbabwe

Wildlife experts plan to shoot 2,000 elephants and herd 1,000 to new food sources in a desperate bid to save wild animals in southeastern Zimbabwe, which drought has turned into a desert.

Officials said Friday that 1,500 buffalo were also being culled in the Gonarezhou National Park, covering 1,900 square miles in the southeastern low veld bordering Mozambique.

In some areas there are no leaves and “there has been no grass growth whatsoever,” said Colin Saunders, part of a three-man committee set up by the Department of National Parks and Wildlife to make on-the-spot decisions to save remaining animals.

“It’s not the 11th hour for these animals; it’s almost midnight,” Saunders said.

Starving villagers reduced to eating nuts and worms will receive meat from the culled elephants, buffalo and impala.

“Giving food to the people should also improve the relationship between the people and the park and should reduce illegal poaching,” Saunders said.

The park, the second-largest in the country, received virtually no rain this year while temperatures have soared to 120 degrees.