Mystery deaths of elephants in Botswana baffling scientists

The mysterious mass death of 275 elephants in and around the Okavango Delta has baffled ecologists, conservationists and Botswana’s Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism.

The deaths started in March, and occurred in villages in the Okavango Panhandle and in the Okavango Delta’s sub-districts, Serongo and Eretsha.

In a statement released on Thursday, Botswana confirmed the deaths of hundreds of elephants, and corrected international media reports on the number of carcasses, saying 275 elephants had died, not 356.

The ministry said investigations into the deaths are ongoing, and that no evidence of poaching has been identified. Samples have reportedly been sent to three laboratories in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Canada.

Poaching cannot be ruled out

Humane Society International (HSI) Africa wildlife director Audrey Delsink said that without laboratory results from samples taken of the carcasses, poaching, poisoning and disease cannot be ruled out.

This despite Elephants Protection Society founder and chairperson Oaitse Nawa telling the Botswana Press Agency on Wednesday that poaching had been ruled out, as the carcasses were found intact, except for missing tusks from two carcasses.

Delsink argued that poachers sometimes leave carcasses to rot, making it easier to remove the tusks.

She also said that elephants stick to certain foods in specific areas, so it is possible that the food they consumed, often whole, such as oranges and pumpkins, was poisoned selectively. She pointed to increasing incidents of cyanide poisoning in Zimbabwe, which is linked to poaching.

She added that Botswana’s delayed statements acknowledging the deaths signalled a lack of urgency attributed to the elephant deaths. This urgency is not just for the animals, but for the potential consequences of nearby villages, Delsink explained.

“We have absolutely no idea what caused this, and people will likely be concerned because we are aware that Covid-19 is animal-related.

“Some people are calling this an ecological catastrophe. It is a significant event. Whatever is going on, it points to government’s poor response in terms of their custodianship.”

Botswana is home to one-third of Africa’s elephant population.

Nawa called on government to better involve communities to promote conservation, and that communities were suffering due to the pandemic’s abrupt halt on tourism activities.

Hundreds of elephants have been dropping dead in Botswana, and nobody knows why. Picture: Twitter / @AnimalsInnocent

Lifting of trophy ban

Last year, the region decided to lift its ban on elephant hunting, due to increase tension between surrounding communities and elephants’ tendencies to feast on and trample crops.

Delsink said that Botswana’s decision was met globally and locally “with consternation and disappointment”.

But the region is heavily dependent on ecotourism, with the tourism sector contributing up to 12% to Botswana’s GDP.

She said that Botswana listed their reasons for lifting the ban, but that around 400 elephants had been tagged as part of the quota set by government.

Limiting the number of elephants to a specific number not only goes against nature’s only constant, which is to be in a state of flux, Delsink said.

“Our perception in this way is not the benchmark for what ecosystems should be.”

Despite their inherent destructiveness, or as some would argue, using what little habitat they have left, elephants are integral to ecosystems.

‘Walking nurseries’

Delsink lamented that elephants are often blamed for many negative environmental consequences within ecosystems. She emphasised that they are essential to ecosystems, describing them as “engineers of change”.

Due to an elephant’s poor digestive system, only 40% of the food it consumes is digested. Most food passes out undigested but masticated, which deposits “nursery bags of manure” across plains and forests.

Despite being blamed for killing talk trees, Delsink explained that elephants are integral for reforestation and tree germination.

Not every tree elephants push over dies, but instead become micro-habitats for invertebrates such as spiders and millipedes. And as spiders are important apex ‘predators’ and indicator species, the state of many other animals, such as birds, can be determined just by the presence of certain spiders.

However, an elephant’s sheer size means its presence must be managed, Delsink said, explaining that anthropogenic factors and manipulating landscapes with fences and artificial waterholes can lead to landscape exploitation, which affects entire ecosystems. If elephants are present in such an area, it will exacerbate landscape exploitation.

More data needed

In addition to the urgency of attaining testing results to determine the elephants’ cause of death, Delsink said it is not yet known what ratio of elephants was taken out.

She said that there were many mature bulls in the area where the mass deaths occurred, warning that “any threats to mature elephants is a further blow to their population demography that we cannot afford”.

She explained that government’s delays in releasing statements acknowledging the deaths of the elephants pointed to possible issues with sample collection.

“The longer a carcass is exposed to the elements and decomposes, the more valuable information deteriorates with it, and evidence rots away. This is especially concerning if unstable substances were involved in the deaths.”

The amount of conflicting media reports adds to the confusion and concern currently being felt around the world, as humans adapt to the new normal.

Delsink and her team hope to receive some clarity on the deaths, and the potential consequences on the Delta’s intricate web of ecosystems.

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