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The fact that the elephants were killed by poachers looking for ivory can be ruled out because their tusks are intact, a spokesman for the AFP news agency’s wildlife protection and natural parks authority said on Sunday.
The elephants also did not die of cyanide, this can be ruled out because the vultures that ate their carrion showed no signs of such poisoning, agency spokesman Tinashe Farawo said. Cyanide is widely used by poachers in the South African country to kill elephants.
According to Farawo, the first findings indicated that the elephants died from a bacterial infection. The bacteria could have been transmitted from plants that elephants don’t normally eat.
Too many elephants?
According to wildlife conservationists, elephant overpopulation means that pachyderms often no longer find their preferred food and then feed on other, sometimes poisonous plants.
There are more than 84,000 elephants in Zimbabwe. According to authorities, the country actually only offers space for up to 50,000 elephants. The twelve bodies were found in a wooded area north of Hwange National Park. According to wildlife conservationists, they were “young” between the ages of five and six and even younger animals between the ages of around a year and a half.
In neighboring Botswana, the carcasses of more than 300 elephants believed to have died after being poisoned by plants had already been found this year. With around 130,000 animals, Botswana is the country with the largest population of elephants in the world. (SDA)
