Mysterious death of over 300 elephants in Botswana solved

Some 50 more elephants have died since July, an official says

The carcass of one of the many elephants which have died mysteriously in the Okavango Delta in Botswana (National Park Rescue/AFP/Getty)

The deaths of hundreds of elephants in Botswana in recent months has been linked to toxins produced by cyanobacteria in water, officials have said.

The government said in July it had launched an investigation into the strange deaths of the mammals. The southern African country is home to about a third of the continent’s dwindling elephant population.

“Our latest tests have detected cyanobacterial neurotoxins to be the cause of deaths. These are bacteria found in water,” Mmadi Reuben, principal veterinary officer at the Botswana department of wildlife and national parks, announced at a press conference on Monday.

“However we have many questions still to be answered such as why the elephants only [died] and why that area only,” Mr Reuben added. “We have a number of hypotheses we are investigating.”

The number of dead elephants has risen to 330, from 281 in July, the director of the department told the news conference.

The slew of deaths caused concern among conservationists, who alerted authorities in early May after counting 169 dead elephants during a three-hour flight over the delta. As the animals were found with their tusks intact, ivory poaching was quickly ruled out.

Some 70 per cent of the animals had died near water holes, an aerial survey showed.

Dr Niall McCann of the UK-based charity National Park Rescue described the spate of deaths as “extraordinary”, saying in July: “This is totally unprecedented in terms of numbers of elephants dying in a single event unrelated to drought … It is only the elephants that are dying and nothing else. If it was cyanide used by poachers, you would expect to see other deaths.”

The announcement follows the discovery of more than 20 elephant carcasses in a game park in neighbouring Zimbabwe in September. Authorities believe they died of a bacterial infection.

Botswana is home to the world’s largest elephant population, estimated at 130,000.