Overview

• Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority announced the initial cull will remove 50 elephants to curb overpopulation and supply meat to local communities.
• Elephant meat from the management exercise will be distributed to households facing food shortages, with ivory retained as state property for safekeeping.
• At least 200 elephants have been translocated from Save Valley Conservancy to other parks over the past five years but numbers remain unsustainable.
• Zimbabwe hosts the world’s second-largest elephant population after Botswana and is barred from selling its ivory stockpile under a global trade ban.
• In 2024, an unprecedented drought prompted the cull of 200 elephants—the first major cull since 1988—and the new plan has drawn criticism over its impact on wildlife tourism.