African elephants. Photo:TWD
154 dead elephants in two months - Nobody knows what happened
The World Daily | News Desk | JUNE 16th 2020
Botswana authorities are investigating the causes of 154 elephants that were found dead within two months. To date, poaching and poisoning have been ruled out.
In two months, a total of 154 dead elephants were found in North-Western Botswana. Authorities exclude poaching because, as they explain, intact animal corpses were seen. In their opinion, the reason for death is indeliberate intoxication by humans or the appearance of anthrax among elephants, which sometimes hits animals in this part of the country.
“We are still awaiting the exact cause of death (of elephants - ed.),” Said Regional Wildlife Coordinator Dimakatso Ntshebe.
The total elephant population in Africa is decreasing due to poaching, but in Botswana itself, which is inhabited by almost a third of these animals of the entire continent, it is different. Since the end of the 1990s, the number of elephants has increased from 80 to 130,000 due to good management of the reserves. However, farmers perceive them as increasingly onerous and destructive towards their crops.
Last year, the president of the country, Mokgweetsi Masisis, lifted the five-year hunting ban imposed by the previous head of state. The hunting season in April, however, did not begin, because the restrictions on travel around the world caused by the COVID-19 pandemic prevented hunters from many other countries from getting to Botswana.
© The World Daily 2020 | News Desk
