More than 350 elephants have mysteriously
died in northern Botswana over the past two months, which scientists describe
as a "conservation disaster." Botswanans view the loss as a blow to
the national tourism economy and in many places, a loss to the community.
"It's the biggest thing that's happened
to elephants in a very, very long time," Dr Niall McCann, co-founder of
UK-based charity National Park Rescue, told ABC News. "Outside of droughts
in the 1970s I don't know of a die-off that has been this significant."
The government of Botswana is investigating.
"To date we have verified 275 carcasses of the 356 that have been reported
so far in the area north of the Okavango Delta," said Dr. Mmadi Reuben,
the head veterinarian of the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National
Parks. The killer could be a natural pathogen, or poison, Dr. Rubean told ABC
News, but, "Poaching has been ruled out as the carcasses were found
intact."
"Anthrax has also been ruled out by the
lab in the country," he said, when contacted by phone by ABC News.
"We do step-by-step elimination of
potential causes of mortality," he explained. "So far, we have not
been able to rule out poisoning or some infectious disease. The diagnostic plan
includes testing for known potential causes as well as novel pathogens."
"Three laboratories in Zimbabwe, South
Africa and Canada have been identified to process the samples taken from the
dead elephants," the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources,
Conservation and Tourism said in a written statement on Thursday.
"Samples from the carcasses,
environmental samples from soil and water as well as samples from the live
animals have been sent to the regional laboratories and abroad," explained
Reuben. "We are awaiting results and continuing the dialogue."
But he said, there may be clues. "Some
of the elephants have profound weakness of their back legs, suggesting the
potential for toxins affecting [central nervous system] function of the
animal."
Most carcasses have been found clustered
around water sources close to the Okavango Delta, in normal times, a major
tourist safari destination. The conditions of the bodies suggest elephants have
been dying for some time as many remains are far more deteriorated than others,
a local conservationist told ABC News.
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Government teams are on the ground, dealing
with the carcasses and Reuben noted, they are "removing the tusks of all
dead animals, to prevent the illegal harvesting of the ivory."
The investigation team, equipped with
complete PPE, he said, continues to treat the disease with necessary
precautions as it's not clear if it could transmitted to humans. The government
has also issued a warning to the local community to stay away from the carcasses.
There could be a chance that the elephants
could be dying of an unknown disease," McCann said. "So, the
possibility of the pathogen jump[ing] into humans is also impossible to rule
out at this point." "Yes, it is a conservation disaster," he
said, "but it also has the potential to be a public health crisis."
Botswana is home to the world's largest
elephant population, with more than a third of Africa's elephants, according to
the latest Great Elephant Census, which Rubean's colleagues at the Department
for Wildlife and Natural Parks helped produce. It is also one of the most
stable countries in Africa with one of the best wildlife records. Tourism
accounts for a fifth of Botswana's GDP.
For all those reasons, "We are really
putting all the efforts to really get to the bottom of this," Rubean said.
"It is a very worrisome situation, the single most perplexing scenario of
elephant mortality I have experienced in my career."
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