Hundreds of elephants die mysteriously in Botswana

[Shiloh]

Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/7131894/elephant-deaths-botswana/

Hundreds of elephants die mysteriously in Botswana
By Josh K. Elliott Global News
Posted July 2, 2020 2:47 pm
Updated July 2, 2020 3:11 pm

WARNING: This story contains images that some readers may find disturbing. Please read at your own discretion.

More than 300 elephants have reportedly died under bizarre circumstances in Botswana, in a mysterious trend that has alarmed local conservationists.

The elephants have been found dead around watering holes, near human villages and on the open savannah. Other live elephants have been spotted stumbling around, weak and confused.

“One elephant was observed walking in circles, unable to change direction although being encouraged by other herd members,” the charity Elephants Without Borders (EWB) wrote in a report on the mystery. The leaked report circulated through various media outlets on Wednesday, including the AFP.

The deaths have been happening in Botswana’s famous Okavango Delta, which is home to about 15,000 elephants. Botswana has the largest wild elephant population in the world with about 130,000 of the animals overall.

“We have had a report of 356 dead elephants in the area north of the Okavango Delta, and we have confirmed 275 so far,” Cyril Taolo, acting director of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, told AFP...

 

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/bot...ts-says-test-results-due-this-week-2020-07-09

Botswana finds more dead elephants, says test results due this week
Contributor
Brian Benza Reuters
Published
Jul 9, 2020 11:38AM EDT

By Brian Benza

SERONGA, Botswana, July 9 (Reuters) - Botswana wildlife officials investigating hundreds of unexplained elephant deaths have verified six more carcasses and say it is still not clear what is killing the animals, around two months after the first bodies were spotted.

Officials told reporters near the Okavango Delta on Thursday that they had now verified 281 carcasses and that the deaths were concentrated in an area of 8,000 square km that is home to about 18,000 elephants.

Flying over the area in a helicopter, a Reuters reporter saw one carcass splattered in droppings from vultures, which had eaten some of the flesh, and red paint from officials marking verified carcasses. Hundreds of live elephants wandered nearby.

"We are not dealing with a common thing, it looks like it's a rare cause," said Mmadi Reuben, principal veterinary officer at the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, adding the death rate in the affected area was below 2%...

 

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/botswana-gets-first-test-results-on-elephant-deaths-2020-07-10

Botswana gets first test results on elephant deaths
Contributor
Brian Benza Reuters
Published
Jul 10, 2020 6:33AM EDT

GABORONE, July 10 (Reuters) - Botswana said on Friday it had received test results from samples sent to Zimbabwe to determine the cause of death of hundreds of elephants but is waiting for more results from South Africa next week before sharing findings with the public.

Wildlife officials are trying to determine what is killing the elephants about two months after the first bodies were discovered. They have ruled out poaching and anthrax among possible causes.

Officials told reporters near the Okavango Delta on Thursday that they had now verified 281 elephant carcasses and that the deaths were concentrated in an area of 8,000 square km that is home to about 18,000 elephants.

"We have to wait for another set of results and reconcile the two to see if they are saying the same thing before we come to a definitive conclusion," Oduetse Kaboto, a senior official in the environment and tourism ministry, said in a televised briefing...

 

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It's not poachers killing elephants in Botswana. That worries conservationists.
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July 20, 2020, 3:30 AM CDT
By Linda Givetash
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A few hundred elephants may be a relatively small percentage of the population. Given the vulnerability of the species, however, the unknown threat is disconcerting, said Keith Lindsay, a conservation biologist based in Oxford, England, who specializes in elephants.
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"It's worrying," Lindsay said. "If it is a disease, then it could be catastrophic."
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But tests have ruled anthrax out, said Botswana's principal veterinarian, Mmadi Reuben.
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Poaching was also ruled out quickly because the elephants' tusks — the main draw of the illegal ivory trade — were intact, Lindsay said. The country wasn't in the dry season when the first deaths were reported, and it hasn't been suffering from a drought, meaning there should be enough vegetation to sustain the animals.

Many of the adult elephants that have died were still in their prime years — too young to be dying of natural causes.

"The way that they were seen from the air sort of dragging their hind legs and walking around all suggests some sort of agent that interfered with our normal nerve communications," Kat said.

Lindsay said that while another disease is always a possibility, the scale and speed at which the elephants are dying makes a disease unlikely.

"The only thing that kills elephants quickly is people killing elephants," he said.

But if not for ivory, then for what? Possible reasons are far from clear.
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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/...ts-botswana-worries-conservationists-n1234139

 

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ENVIRONMENTJULY 30, 2020 / 11:50 AM / UPDATED 4 HOURS AGO

Botswana says natural toxin could be behind elephant deaths

Brian Benza
3 MIN READ

GABORONE (Reuters) - Preliminary tests to explain the reason for hundreds of mysterious elephant deaths in Botswana point to a naturally occurring toxin as a probable cause, a senior wildlife official told Reuters.
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“We have received more test results from other countries including the United States, and so far the results show that it’s highly unlikely that the cause could be an infectious pathogen,” Taolo said.

“Our main attention ... is now on investigating broader environmental factors such as naturally produced toxins from bacteria that are found in the environment, such as water bodies.”
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...could-be-behind-elephant-deaths-idUSKCN24V32X

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Botswana says toxins in water killed hundreds of elephants

September 21, 2020

GABORONE (Reuters) - Toxins in water produced by cyanobacteria killed more than 300 elephants in Botswana this year, officials said on Monday, announcing the result of an investigation into the deaths which had baffled and alarmed conservationists.

Cyanobacteria are microscopic organisms common in water and sometimes found in soil. Not all produce toxins but scientists say toxic ones are occurring more frequently as climate change drives up global temperatures.

 

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Translation Google

The death of more than 400 elephants in Botswana remains a mystery

Since 2020, hundreds of elephants have died in Botswana. Experts are trying to discover the cause of these strange deaths which seem to affect only this species, and are worried to see such a situation reproduce in this remote region.

BY JONATHAN MOENS
PUBLISHED JUNE 3, 2022, 12:42 CEST
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The first group of 44 elephants died in March 2020. By mid-June, conservationists had counted more than 350 carcasses strewn across this remote region of around 7,800 square kilometers. By the following January, the number of these mysterious deaths exceeded 450.
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In September 2020, under intense international pressure from concerned conservationists, the country's authorities announced that they had identified the cause: cyanobacterial neurotoxins . Poisons released by "blue algae" that thrive in stagnant, nutrient-rich water, cyanobacterial neurotoxins attack the nervous system if ingested.

However, a fourteen-month analysis of documents and interviews with investigators by National Geographic found that much of the evidence leading to this diagnosis was unreliable, and that the Botswana government had missed opportunities. crucial to carry out a thorough investigation in time.

Several outside experts, as well as lab officials who have carried out analyzes for the government, say that the tests relating to the various possible causes of the deaths have not been conclusive and that the evidence has been degraded and mistreated. This information is concerning because it implies that what killed the elephants could once again pose a threat.
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https://www.nationalgeographic.fr/a...de-400-elephants-au-botswana-reste-un-mystere