Elephants aren't the ecological

For fear of damage to woodlands and savannah by the herds, extreme measures such as culling are often

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The impact of browsing elephants is a continual source of controversy.

(Gabriella Teren)

For as long as elephants have shared landscapes with people, they've also carried the weight of controversy.

In southern Africa in particular, images of toppled trees and stripped bark often spark alarmist claims: too many elephants, woodlands collapsing, something must be done.

These conversations frequently circle back to ideas of carrying capacity and population control. But according to Dr Gabriella Teren, ecologist, founder of the Biodiversity Footprint Company and author of a detailed doctoral study on elephant impacts in Botswana, the reality is far more complex, and considerably less bleak.

"Elephants absolutely change woodlands," she says. "But change isn't the same as damage, and it certainly isn't the same as ecological collapse."

The result is a far more nuanced picture of the relationship between elephants and woodlands than the simple narrative of destruction often implies.