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Dugong deaths in Sri Lanka lend urgency to calls for stronger protections

Dugong deaths in Sri Lanka lend urgency to calls for stronger protections
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Prisons in the Jungle

Part 1 dealt with how that icon of Uda Walawe, Rambo the mature bull elephant who has been conditioned to accept food from those passing the national park, now faces the prospect of imprisonment in an Elephant Holding Ground. What are these holding grounds? Do they have any conservation purpose? The dictate of politics not conservation Elephant Holding Grounds (EHGs) are there to appease politicians who seek a quick fix to please the immediate needs of their voter base, irrespective of whether it is the right thing to do. Rather than follow the evidence of research and the understandings of science in seeking a long term solution to the problem of Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC), building elephant prisons is what they want.

The Uncertain Fate of Rambo the Elephant

Photo courtesy of Maximus Rambo, the mature male elephant that has become an icon of the Uda Walawe National Park, was doomed to be captured from within the park and imprisoned in a so-called Elephant Holding Ground at Horowpathana to live the remainder of his life deprived of freedom and, possibly, of food. Why? At political behest because Rambo had begun to venture out of the park and into adjacent cultivations in search of food. The human conditioning of Rambo Most have heard of Pavlov’s dogs and their classical conditioning using food and a bell. In Rambo’s case, food came with the sounds of humans passing, so he began to associate humans with food. A decade or more ago, Rambo was presented with food by someone going by when he was by the fence. He liked it, as did the humans watching and soon others joined in. Rambo learnt that if he stood by the fence, he would be gifted with tidbits from passers-by, high in nutrition in comparison to his natural diet. Although what he r

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