Who was behind the murders of Pilanesberg’s rhinos in South Africa some years ago? Elephants. Why would elephants kill rhinos? Well, like juvenile delinquents, they had grown up without role models. “I think everyone needs a role model and these elephants that left the herd had no role model and no idea of what appropriate elephant behavior was,” said Gus Van Dyk, Pilanesberg Park’s Field Ecologist. The problem goes back 20 years to South Africa’s largest conservation area, Kruger National Park. Kruger had too many elephants. In those days, there was no way to relocate their large adult elephants. So researchers decided to kill the adults and save the children, who were more easily transported to other parks. The government veterinarian, Dr. Hym Ebedes, who originally approved the relocations, said it was a good idea. He said that he considered the possibility that the young elephants might not adjust well, but that there was no other option. The intentions may have been good, but the program created a whole generation of traumatized orphans thrown together without any adults to teach them how to behave. Years later those lonely orphans developed into troubled teenagers. That’s when the killings at Pilanesberg Park began.

Like a police department facing a crime wave, the rangers photographed the murder scenes and put together rap sheets on the prime suspects, giving them each name. One of the suspects was named Tom Thumb. “We’ve identified that Tom Thumb was in an area where coincidentally…a rhino mortality took place,” Van Dyk said. Tom Thumb was put under surveillance, but other elephants were caught red handed. In addition to killing rhinos, they acted aggressively toward tourist vehicles. Researchers eventually decided to kill five of the elephants. They may have been juvenile delinquents, but there’s no reform school for elephants. Then a teenage elephant named Mafuta began causing trouble for Jock McMillan, who cares for elephants at a private game reserve near the park. McMillan didn’t want to shoot the elephant, so he decided to try to provide some discipline. But Mafuta turned the reserve’s elephant herd, all of whom were orphans relocated without adults, into a street gang. He became the gang leader. “The source of the problem is basically human beings doing something which turned out to be wrong,” McMillan said. “On that basis, we’re pretty much obliged to try and solve the problem before taking the drastic steps of shooting the animals.”