KNP ivory

[100ponder]

Quite some time ago I was corresponding with Kirsty Redman about the elephant museum in Letaba Camp. At that stage she advised that the museum is running out of space and that there soon will be too many sets of "giant" tusks to be displayed.

Ever-since, I had it in the back of my mind that the wondeful tuskers we follow and search with so much dedication during our KNP visits will all die eventually, their tusks will then disappear into the SANPARKS vaults and all that will really remain are some photos on the pages of this website and a handful of other simmilar websites.

The tusks from tuskers such as Masorini and Mabarule ( both were acknowledged by NPB ) never became as exceptional as the legendary giants and will therefore not be priority for Letaba Museum displays.

My idear with this topic is to stimulate discussion and idears on this subject.

[Richprins]

Nice, 100p!

I think policy is to keep the magnificent 7 and then rotate others as big ones are found?

[Toko]

I don't know if vast majority of visitors would be interested in seeing more than that are displayed. They look like a collection of trophies to some.

[Flutterby]

I hate hunting trophies, but these tusks are collected after the animal dies naturally (in most cases), so I think it would be great to display them on a rotation basis.

[Richprins]

Ja, Flutts! One just wonders if money is not spent elsewhere too much?

[100ponder]

Regardless - I hate the thought of those wonderful tusks will be sold on future SANPARKS ivory auctions to be cut-up just to become name stamps or stupid little ornaments ! Certainly our tuskers should not be degenerated to such low levels of human desire !

[Alf]

I think if Sanparks can spend millions on building new hotels etc, they can make plan to extend the elephant museum and make space for new tuskers or guys like Duke etc

Let's face it the elephant museum are a huge attraction with everyone visiting Letaba but at one stage nobody will visit it anymore if you have seen it before because nothing changed and there are nothing new

[Lisbeth]

Somehow I missed this topic

If Sanparks wants to, I am sure that they can find a way to make it interesting for everybody to visit and re-visit and every day there are people who have never been to Letaba before.

[Alf]

Yes Lis. Almost every time we go to KNP we sleep over at Letaba because it's such an amazing camp and we don't visit the museum anymore because nothing changes. Every time it's the same. They need to keep it interesting

[100ponder]

But wasn't the elephant museum upgraded recently ?