1903: No existing living elephants in present Kruger Park surroundings. 1923: At the establishment of the Sabie Game Reserve - the embryo Kruger - the elephant population was 100 elephants that had migrated from Mozambique (Stevenson-Hamilton, 1934). 1967: 6 586 individuals (Whyte, 2001). 1970: the population had grown to 8,821. Despite culling these increased at 7,5 % between ‘67 and 2000. (Between 1980 and 2004 330 elephants were poached, and between 1980 and 1994 109 elephants were culled. The population currently has the “potential to double their numbers every decade.” 2003: Population figure for 2003 given as 13 566. Living capacity for KNP is abt 7 500 elephants. With double that amount, culling will probably be the only solution for the envoronmental problems because of the concentration of elephants in KNP.
