Six runaway elephants return to Kruger Park

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JOHANNESBURG – Six elephants which escaped a renowned South African park through a river returned after a few hours of roaming neighbouring communities, the country’s parks agency said.
“The elephants returned overnight” to Kruger National Park, Ike Phaahla, a spokesman for South African National Parks told AFP.
On Wednesday, the agency said that the large mammals had left the reserve through a river running through the park whose water levels were low.
“They went looking for food,” Phaahla said.
The park initially tried to drive the elephants back using a helicopter, but a large crowd of nearby community members blocked the animals from returning, the spokesman said.
“The communities are quite close to the fence and they have plenty of fruit trees which they (the elephants) can smell from a mile away,” he added.
Escaped elephants from protected parks and reserves in Africa have at times been slaughtered by residents for their meat.
But the national parks agency spokesman said that criminal syndicates on the hunt for game meat were also operating in the area.
“In some instances they lure the animals with fruit,” Phaahla said.
The parks service said police had been deployed to control the situation between the elephants and the residents after it became “dangerous”.