Can elephants sway an election?

By Rachael Bale, ANIMALS Executive Editor

It takes a village to understand why elephants became a big issue in yesterday’s Botswana election.

The country is home to a third of Africa’s elephants—about 130,000. It’s a remarkable number considering that poaching has decimated elephant herds across the continent. But making sure all those elephants can peacefully coexist with people who live in rural parts of the country has become a major political issue.

When I was in Botswana last month, I went to several villages in the Okavango Delta to talk to people about what it's like trying to survive and make a living with elephants tramping back and forth every day to get to the river. Elephants have killed two people in that area this year and destroyed countless livelihoods by eating crops—often a whole field in a single night. People are terrified to go outside after dark. Not knowing what it's like to live alongside five-ton animals, I didn't get it at first. But my interpreter, who's from this area, turned out to be the best interview of the trip.

He said he likes elephants, but: "Lions are better. Elephants don’t take chances. They’re killers.”

Lions—fast, strong, sharp-toothed carnivores—are less dangerous than elephants. Turns out that's the prevailing sentiment in this area—and it's the truth.

Here’s more on the elephants and the voting from the BBC and from VOA.

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Today in a minute

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One last glimpse

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