The mystery of elephant deaths in Botswana continues. In 2021 the toll rose to 39 dead specimens, in addition to the more than 300 pachyderms found lifeless during 2020.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
The mysterious deaths of elephants in Botswana continue. Since the beginning of the year, the toll has risen to 39 dead specimens, in addition to the more than 300 pachyderms found lifeless in 2020. The carcasses of the animals were found in these days inside the Moremi wildlife reserve, but the causes of the death of the poor elephants have not yet been clarified.
If, in fact, last year the Ministry of the Environment had related the deaths of animals tocyanobacteria poisoning, this time no trace of anthrax or bacteria emerged in the reservoir water.
“Further laboratory analyzes are underway. Extensive field and air surveys have revealed no mortality of other wildlife species within the area, ”the ministry said in a statement.
“Preliminary investigations into a fresh wave of elephants deaths in Botswana have ruled out anthrax and bacterial infections as the cause, the environment ministry said on Wednesday, as this year’s death toll rose to 39 from the 11 reported in January.” https://t.co/o7bDasVzcD
— Global Elephants (@GlobalElephants) March 28, 2021
The thesis of cyanobacteria poisoning, however, had not completely convinced some animal rights and environmental organizations that had criticized the ways and times with which investigations had been carried out in Botswana. And now the mystery deepens again and concern grows for the survival of this extraordinary species, already threatened by poachers and from the silent killer of habitat loss.
The population of African elephants, in fact, is increasingly declining and one step away from extinction. Recently theInternational Union for Conservation of Nature (Iucn) has included both the forest elephant and the savannah elephant on the red list of "endangered" and "critically endangered" species. And if until the last century the African continent was home to one and a half million elephants, the last large-scale census, carried out in 2016, indicates the presence of only 415 thousand pachyderms. Between poaching, habitat loss and mysterious death, there is no peace for African elephants.
Fonte: Reuters/Facebook
Read also:
- The cause of the mass death of elephants in Botswana has been discovered: the fault of cyanobacteria
- Too many elephants in Botswana, but there is an alternative solution to culling
- African elephants are on the verge of extinction due to poaching and habitat loss
