The South African-based Earth Organisation said the government is mulling plans to cull over 5,000 elephants in the park despite no concrete proof to back its claim that the numbers were spiralling out of control.

"An elephant slaughter of this size and scope is unprecedented in international conservation history," Lawrence Anthony, founder of Earth Organisation, told a news conference.

"There is no scientific evidence to conclusively prove that the numbers are beyond control," he said, adding that the motive could be aimed at earning money through the sale of elephant meat and hide.

He said culling would wreak havoc on South Africa's tourism sector, the biggest foreign currency earner.

"The Humane Society of the United States has already publicly stated that they will advise their eight-and-a-half million members to avoid South Africa as a destination," if the cull was implemented, he said.

The elephant population in South Africa's largest and best-known reserve, the Kruger National Park, is increasing at a rate of seven percent a year, which means there will be some 20,000 elephants in 2012.

Elephant culling in Kruger started in 1967 and was halted in 1995 after an outcry from animal rights groups. There are currently some 12,500 in the park and between 14,000 and 15,000 countrywide.

Ian Raper, chief of the Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science, said the best alternative would be non-hormonal contraception administered through darts.

"There are 5,326 female elephants in Kruger and it would cost only 1.4 million rand (208,303 dollars/ 178,459 euros) annually to administer the contraceptive which would work for two years," said Raper.

"When people talk about threats to bio-diversity, it would be well to remember that old bull elephants topple trees, not the females and the calves which are the target of the culling."

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