Botswana’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks revealed on Wednesday that it has witnessed a spike in the number of elephant deaths in Chobe National Park in the north-western part of the country.
In a statement, the department said it has been monitoring the situation closely since May when reports of unexplained deaths of elephant and other wild animals were recorded.
It said the number of deaths has particularly increased during the past two months.
“More than 100 elephants are estimated to have died naturally in the past two months,” the department said.
It said 13 elephant deaths have been registered during the past week alone, nine in the Chobe River front and four in the Nantanga area.
Preliminary investigations suggest that the elephants are dying from anthrax while some have died from drought effects.
“Due to the severe drought, elephants end up ingesting soil while grazing and get exposed to the anthrax bacteria spore.
“The animals are also travelling long distances in search of food, which leaves some (of them) highly emaciated, ending in death,” the department said.
The department and its cooperating partners are carrying out further investigations to determine the exact number of elephants and other species that have died in Chobe and other protected areas.
The Botswana authorities are burning anthrax-related carcasses in order to reduce chances of spreading the disease to other animals.
KO/jn/APA