Botswana — A few months ago, as they flew over the Okavango Panhandle, conservationists saw a horrifying sight. Around 356 elephants lay lifeless on the ground. Poachers were not to blame for this one, as the tusks of these elephants were still intact. So what caused their deaths?
As much as the government wanted to investigate the case, it could not because of the pandemic.
“Elephants began dying in huge numbers in early May and the government would normally respond within days to an event of this scale,” director of conservation group National Park Rescue, Mark Hiley, told the Associated Press in July. “Yet here we are, months later, with no testing completed and with no more information than we had at the start.”
Hiley also called it “one of the biggest disasters to impact elephants this century, and right in the middle of one of Africa’s top tourism destinations.”
More than two months later, investigations reveal that the mysterious deaths were caused by cyanobacteria, toxic microscopic algae found in larger bodies of blue-green water, the BBC reports.
But Hiley states that they are still investigating as to why the elephants were the only ones affected, and why it was in that area only.
(Image Credit: Yathin S Krishnappa/ Wikimedia Commons)