June 16, 2020
Andrew Campbell
Wildlife officials in Botswana are investigating the mysterious deaths of 154 elephants over 3 months in the Okavango Delta in the northwest of the country. Nowadays Botswana is the home to almost a third of the world’s elephants and has the world’s largest elephant population at about 130,000.
Scientists have ruled out both poaching and poisoning as causes of the deaths. Officials also ruled out anthrax as a cause of death and have been waiting for test results on the exact cause of death as blood samples have been sent to South Africa for further analysis.
Meanwhile, wildlife officials have begun removing tusks from the carcasses. After removing the tusks in the dead elephants, wildlife officials then started burning the carcasses. In addition, local villagers were warned not to consume the dead animals’ meat.