With elephant carcasses scattered around the local watering hole in the Okavango Delta, this mass death has been under a cloak of mystery. The elephants were seen walking in circles before they met their ultimate demise and collapsed.
Unsplash/Jäger
This horrible occurrence was categorised as the biggest death of elephants without a known cause in history, and an answer was heavily sought to ensure this event didn’t happen again.
As their tusks were still intact, poaching was quickly ruled out as a possible cause of death. At the time, the Daily Maverick reported that the Botswana government predicted that the probable cause was cyanobacterial toxins. However, this theory needed to account for Zimbabwe, a neighbouring country with several elephant deaths on its side.
A scientific paper has since been published, with a highly probable cause theorised in its content. The publication used satellite and aerial surveillance to track and determine where exactly these elephants drank water, how long after drinking water they died, and where their bodies were found.
As this was during COVID-19, direct sampling of the water could not be conducted due to severe laboratory use restrictions. However, the surveillance detected that the probable cause was toxic water conditions from increased algal blooms. The rapid growth of these harmful cyanobacteria was also determined to be a result of climate change.
Researchers affiliated with the scientific paper commented on this devastating cause found and what should be done:
“Globally, this event underscores the alarming trend of sudden, climate-induced diseases.” In the same year 35 elephants died in neighbouring Zimbabwe from an obscure bacteria getting into the blood, which was linked to prolonged drought conditions… Mass-mortality events are becoming more common as the world heats up, and can push species toward extinction,” The Guardian reported.
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