What happened to the many elephants found dead in northern Botswana? "We have received a report on the deaths of 356 elephants in the northern Okavango Delta, and so far we have confirmed the deaths of 275 pachyderms," the parks director said Thursday, July 2 National and Wildlife Authority, Cyril Taolo.
The cause of their death is being determined. "Anthrax (or anthrax) is excluded. We also do not suspect poachers since the animals were found with their defenses," he said.
The Ministry of the Environment said that carcass samples were being analyzed at three laboratories in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Canada.
According to a report by the NGO Elephants Without Borders (EWB) dated June 19, 2020 and transmitted to the press on Wednesday, 356 elephants were found dead in the Okavango Delta. EWB estimates that about 70% of them died "about a month ago, while the remaining 30% appear to be more recent, between one day and two weeks".
Other lethargic and disoriented elephants
Living elephants have been observed to be very weak, lethargic, and some disoriented and having difficulty moving, said NGO director Michael Chase, adding that males and females of all ages appeared to be affected by this "mysterious disease ".
"We saw an elephant spinning in circles and unable to change direction despite encouragement from other members," he said.
The pachyderms appear to be "dead very suddenly in some cases," said biologist Keith Lindsay, a wildlife conservationist. "The carcasses are those of animals that fell on their breastbones while walking, which is very unusual," he told AFP.
"So far there does not seem to be any indication" of the causes of these deaths. But "when something like this happens, it's worrying." At the end of May, the Botswana Ministry of Tourism had already indicated that it was investigating the mysterious death of a dozen elephants in the Okavango Delta.
About 130,000 elephants roaming free
Caught between Zambia, Namibia and South Africa, Botswana is home to around 130,000 free-ranging elephants, one third of their known African population.
In 2019, at least a hundred elephants had died in the space of two months in Chobe National Park (north), the largest in Botswana, victims of the effects of drought.
The year before, EWB had created controversy by claiming to have identified 90 carcasses of pachyderms, a situation described at the time by Michael Chase as the "most serious poaching episode in Africa" of which he was informed.
The Botswana government then strongly denied these figures, arguing that the NGO had actually counted only 53 elephant carcasses and that a majority had died "from natural causes or from conflicts between humans and wildlife" .
With AFP
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