A gentle giant is watching me. Its eyes hold memories. Its stillness conveys trust. I hold my breath.

I am sitting in a vehicle, a few metres from a wild elephant, one of the iconic and intelligent giants of South Africa. We are in its territory. And, even though it would have every reason not to trust human beings, she stays there, watching us with calm and curiosity as we complete another monitoring circuit. No forced displacement. No killing. Just our presence. Just the attention we devote to these animals, after 25 years of continuous monitoring of the same elephant population, as part of a long-term research programme conducted by Humane World for Animals (formerly known as Humane Society International), in collaboration with the local academic partner, the Onderstepoort Veterinary Population Management Laboratory.

This moment represents what conservation can be: ethical, respectful and grounded in science. But it has not always been this way.

For decades, elephant population management has involved translocations (intentional movements, usually for conservation purposes) or culling. African elephant populations have suffered for decades due to habitat loss, poaching and human-wildlife conflict driven by competition for resources. Confined to fragments of their former territories, often within fenced reserves, elephants can double in number every 10–15 years, and managers have frequently responded by "removing" animals — translocating or culling them. These methods, while sometimes dictated by necessity, often entail enormous stress, the breaking of social bonds and serious ethical dilemmas. As a conservation biologist, registered ecologist and animal protection advocate, together with my team, I have spent more than twenty years charting a different course — one that places elephant welfare at its centre, both as individuals and as members of ecosystems.

It is called immunocontraception, based on the use of porcine zona pellucida (porcine zona pellucida). And it is quietly transforming the future of elephant protection.

A new paradigm: fertility control without coercion

Immunocontraception represents a non-invasive method for managing elephant populations that does not rely on hormones and works in harmony with these animals' natural biology. The treatment is administered at a distance using darts, and allows female elephants to avoid pregnancy without compromising their social or physical health. It is a safe and reversible method that can be tailored to each herd or reserve.

Unlike more invasive interventions, this technique allows elephants to remain in their own environment, within their original family groups. Mothers continue to nurse, matriarchs continue to lead the herd, and the herd stays together. It is simply a variation on a sporadic natural event — such as a drought — that lengthens the interval between the birth of one calf and the next. Overall, this produces demographic effects on herds and populations that are aligned with the reserve's management objectives.

I embarked on this path in the early 2000s, at the Greater Makalali Private Nature Reserve, where our international research team first applied this approach to free-ranging African elephants as a population control method in a closed system. Since then, our work has expanded to more than 50 reserves, involving over 1,700 female elephants outside the Greater Kruger National Park (the park does not adopt this methodology because it does not affect elephant movements and space use, which are among the management objectives of the protected area).

Nonetheless, immunocontraception is recognised as best practice for the ethical management of elephants in the "National Norms and Standards for the Management of Elephants in South Africa" (2008), as provided for under the current "National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act" (Nem:ba).

Humane World for Animals South Africa @humaneworldsa

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Elephant immunocontraception and collaring during the @HumaneSociety #HumaneJourneys expedition, as part of @HSIAfrica's ongoing elephant-human conflict mitigation initiative 🐘💉🩶. #wildlifeconservation

♥ 5 4 set 2023 · Apri su X →

The legal landscape is changing. And it must

South Africa is currently examining a proposed biodiversity bill — the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Bill (Nem:Bb) — designed to create a more flexible regulatory framework, moving beyond what some consider the rigid permit system of the existing legislation (Nem:ba), while preserving its core conservation objectives. What makes the new proposal noteworthy is its shift in language and intent: it does not merely speak of "biological resources", but of welfare and a duty of care, and identifies the State as the custodian of biodiversity.

If adopted and properly implemented, this law could mark a turning point: legal recognition that animals like elephants are not merely ecological units to be "managed", but sentient beings, with interests and lives that matter.

For conservation to be ethical, it must ask a question that goes beyond the simple "what works?". It must also ask: what is right?

One welfare: connecting human beings, other animals and nature

Drawing on the principles of One health and One welfare (which are grounded in the close interconnection between the health and wellbeing of human beings, other animals and the environment), a recent study applied the One wellbeing principle to elephant management in South Africa. The study examined twelve different management interventions, both past and present. Analysis of more than 3,300 interventions and their relative impact on environmental, animal and human wellbeing yielded very clear results: immunocontraception ranked as the most effective and acceptable direct intervention. While some interventions produced positive outcomes, such as immunocontraception, many others — including culling and the use of fencing — caused unforeseen harm, not only to elephants, but also to people and ecosystems.

The study highlighted that ethical conservation strategies do not merely involve saving animals. Adopting such strategies means grounding them in principles of coexistence, safety, equity and sustainability — the building blocks of a holistic framework that embraces human, animal and environmental wellbeing.

Humane World for Animals South Africa @humaneworldsa

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UPDATE: Last week we relocated Riff Raff to a new reserve as he's considered a 'problem or damage-causing elephant' & was going to be killed. Remarkably, despite our best efforts & expectations, Riff Raff walked almost 40 miles back home & now it's a race against time to save him

♥ 33💬 4 29 mar 2018 · Apri su X →

Honouring individual lives in a collective story

Elephants are capable of experiencing a wide range of emotions, they form complex social relationships and are profoundly intelligent. Each one of them holds precious memories. Every herd has its own specific culture, tied to the region it belongs to, the experiences it has lived through and its own origins. This kind of "animal culture" is recognised by the Convention on Migratory Species (Cms), which underlines how older female elephants pass on useful knowledge (related to feeding, movement and so on) that has a positive impact on their herd's reproductive success, and that they know how to navigate conflicts with human beings. Destroying this culture through our reliance on outdated management tools means disregarding the extraordinary scientific discoveries about elephants' inner lives.

In a 2013 study, my colleagues and I argued that elephant conservation must be designed at biologically relevant scales, not only for reasons of efficiency, but also to ensure ethical and biological integrity. This serves to avoid "scale mismatches" — discrepancies between the scale of natural ecological processes and that of the institutions responsible for managing them — which frequently manifest in the development and implementation of policies for large mammals.

These gentle giants are not numbers. They are members of their families and of entire generations, alongside the trees and ecosystems they shape. The management practices adopted by human beings often focus on short timeframes, with specific objectives tied to the duration of political mandates, and frequently rely on methods such as the analysis of photographs taken from fixed observation points to monitor elephants. Yet ecosystems evolve through a continuous flux, not a rigid structure, and elephants — which live on average 60 to 70 years — far outlast the temporal limits of human management practices, which are often confined to ten-year animal management programmes or, at most, twenty-year biodiversity management plans.

The future of elephants

On the occasion of World Elephant Day, Humane World for Animals South Africa puts forward this vision: a conservation strategy in which science and compassion go hand in hand. Where management does not mean dominance. And where policies reflect our awareness that wild animals deserve more than mere survival—they deserve to thrive. This idea is reiterated in South Africa's "White paper on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity".

An inclusive and transformed society living in harmony with nature, where the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable use of resources ensure healthy ecosystems capable of generating new benefits equitably shared among present and future generations.

White paper on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity

Just as elephants know no borders—76 per cent are transboundary—neither should our elephant policies be geographically confined. Immunocontraception can be applied across several elephant range countries; it is a matter of scaling up resources and rethinking the strategies adopted, for example by focusing on critical zones or areas of particular interest (bearing in mind that parks and reserves have already identified these), and considering that elephants have a strong bond with their home territories.

Immunocontraception is certainly