Disclaimer: The pictures in this article are disturbing. Reader discretion is advised.
Around 350 elephants have been spotted dead in the Okavango Delta of Botswana since May, a disturbing report from BBC has revealed.
What makes the situation worse is, not knowing the reason behind it. The lab results will still take some days to arrive and till then these sudden deaths remain a mystery.
Heartbreaking 💔
— animals_innocent_creatures (@AnimalsInnocent) July 1, 2020
More than 350 elephants drop dead in mysterious mass ‘die off’ clustered around water holes in Botswana’s Okavango Delta
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The carcasses are yet to be tested for pathogens or poison despite the first dying in EARLY MAY. https://t.co/tiSGyisEpB pic.twitter.com/xgFCEZ6nIP
UK-based charity National Park Rescue’s Dr McCann told BBC:
This is totally unprecedented in terms of numbers of elephants dying in a single event unrelated to drought.
Hundreds of elephants found dead in Botswana https://t.co/rYo5DFExfo
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) July 1, 2020
Since the tusks on the Elephants are intact, the Botswana government has ruled out poaching as the reason.
And for now, the authorities are looking at disease or some sort of contamination as the cause of deaths.
More than 350 elephants have died in northern Botswana in a mysterious mass die-off described by scientists as a “conservation disaster”https://t.co/0ulhtWJkjN
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) July 1, 2020
Around 500 elephants have died in Botswana in last few days. Described as a ‘conservation disaster’ in which elephants are dying mysteriously in clusters. Tragic. https://t.co/ZcGKM5zonK pic.twitter.com/GgQtw4mtBA
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) July 2, 2020
This is devastating…. Elephant deaths: Mystery after hundreds of animals die in Botswanahttps://t.co/KZtkp8WWH8 pic.twitter.com/JkF0uZSjKW
— Jacqueline Hilton (@Jacquelinehilto) July 1, 2020
It has been reported that many elephants fell on their faces, while others were seen going around in circles. This could suggest that there is something affecting their neurological system.
This could be because of a disease that might even transfer to humans.