Sounds like a Trump strategy - Kill them to save them.
A bit like his foreign policy.
These huge creatures do not breed and come to independent adulthood quickly.
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The baby stage lasts from birth until the elephant has been weaned off its mother’s milk completely. This can be anywhere between 5 and 10 years of age. Being weaned means that the calf no longer drinks milk from its mother, but is able to live only on solid vegetation. For the first 3 to 5 years, most elephant calves are totally dependant on their mothers for their nutrition, hygiene, migration and health. This period is used to teach the young one all they will need to know about the herd and their environment in order to be able to survive alone. These lessons include the proper use of their trunk for feeding, drinking and bathing. The calf is born after a gestation period of almost 2 years (22 months). The first calves of the season are born about 2 months before the first rains, meaning that vegetation is soft and lush when they start to feed on it.
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