Mysterious deaths of 350 elephants happened in Botswana of Africa. Image Courtesy – Times Now
Nearly 350 elephants have died in just a couple of months in Botswana, Africa. How the animals died, no one knows. It is feared that the elephants have contracted an unknown disease. Their deaths are considered mysterious deaths.
The number of elephants has been declining for a period of time in the African continent due to mysterious deaths. Elephants are usually killed mainly by poachers. But the situation in Botswana is different. The number of elephants has increased from 80,000 to 130,000 in the last two decades.
Farmers in Botswana often complain that elephants ruin their crops. The country’s government allowed elephant hunting this year. But, hunting could not be started due to the corona epidemic. There is no evidence that Botswana elephants have died at the hands of poachers because no one found any sign of injuries on the body of dead elephants.
Elephants are killed several times by mixing potassium cyanide in their food. But, in this case, there was no evidence of the application of poison. In that case, the vultures and other animals that ate the meat of the dead elephants would have also died. But no animals were seen dying in Botswana.
Read: Scientists are expecting another terrible new epidemic after Covid-19
Many people have noticed that elephants are staggering before they die. It looks like their legs become very weak. A few elephants were seen circling in the same place. Their team is moving forward, but selective animals are unable to go with their team. It seems that these elephants got a disease of the nervous system.
Many elephants were first found dead on the Okavango delta in early May and they were 189 in number. The death toll increased to almost double in the middle of June. Most of the bodies of dead elephants were found near a pond.
The ministry of environment told that samples had been collected from the bodies of the dead elephants. The samples are being tested at the three laboratories in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Canada.
The elephants that have died so far have not had their teeth cut off. The Botswana government has set up guards around the bodies of dead elephants so that poachers cannot approach for teeth.
Scientists are worried about another terrible epidemic deadlier than the coronavirus. The scientists already declared that they were expecting another epidemic to spread from the forest of the Amazon. It is worth mentioning that the Amazon forest has been destroyed randomly over the years and humans are solely responsible for that.
