350 elephants possibly died from 'climate induced toxic water'

A new paper suggests that the mysterious death of more than 350 elephants in Botswana was probably caused by drinking poisonous water.

The mass deaths of the elephants in Botswana’s Okavango delta were described as a “conservation disaster” as the animals of all ages were observed walking in circles before they collapsed then just died, according to The Guardian.

Elephant carcasses were first spotted in the north-eastern region of Botswana in May and June in 2020 and the cause of death was under discussion with cyanide poisoning and an unknown disease being among them.

This incident is the largest documented elephant die-off where the cause remained unknown, according to the lead researcher Davide Lomeo.

“This is why it sparked so much concern,” he said.

Now, a new paper published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, suggest that the dead elephants were poisoned by the water that contained toxic blooms from the blue-green algae or possibly cyanobacteria.

Researchers used data from the satellites to analyse the distribution of the carcasses relative to watering holes. They could not directly test samples because no samples from the sites were available.

The researchers believe that the elephants walked over 100km (62 miles) from the waterholers and died within 88 hours of consuming the water.

They examined 3,000 waterholes and found that the elephants who experienced increased cyanobacteria blooms in 2020 had high concentration of carcasses.

“They have no choice but to drink from them,” said Lomeo.

The researchers revealed that it is possible other wild animals died from the same water but bodies may not have been spotted from aerial surveys and it is possible that some small animals could already have been taken by predators.

“Globally, this event underscores the alarming trend of sudden, climate-induced diseases,” they said.