Shakari,

I also enjoy Thomson's wriing on the subject. His books were some of the first I read about Elephants.

From what I have read... In many places in Africa Elephants are very badly overpopulated. IMO they are heading for a huge die off. From my limited knowledge on the subject I believe that culling should take place. I also really belive it is a mistake to shoot/translocate parts of a herd of Elephant. It needs to be an entire herd or none at all.