In 2020, the mysterious deaths of more than 350 elephants in Botswana's Okavango delta during the span of May and June left scientists and researchers utterly baffled. The lifeless bodies of these majestic creatures were scattered across the northwestern regions of the African nation, devoid of any visible injuries that might suggest the involvement of poaching.
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Elephants of varying ages and both genders were impacted by this shocking event, showing a troubling pattern of walking in circles before experiencing sudden deaths, often collapsing onto their faces. Furthermore, approximately two months later, an additional 35 elephants suffered a similar fate in the northwestern region of Zimbabwe.
According to The Guardian, at the time, the deaths in Botswana were attributed to an unspecified cyanobacterial toxin, government officials said, and no further details were published. But tests on the elephants that died in Zimbabwe have finally come back and shown the cause was a little-known bacterium called Pasteurella bisgaard taxon 45, which resulted in septicaemia, or blood poisoning.
The bacterial infection has not previously been linked to elephant deaths, according to the paper published in the Nature Communications journal. Researchers believe it could have been the same one responsible for the deaths in neighbouring countries.
"This represents an important conservation concern for elephants in the largest remaining meta-population of this endangered species," researchers wrote in the paper.
The research paper was authored by a collaborative team of international researchers hailing from esteemed institutions, including the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust and the University of Surrey, as well as research laboratories in South Africa. Notably, it also featured contributions from experts at the UK government's Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).
African savanna elephants are declining at an alarming rate of 8% per year, primarily due to poaching. With only 350,000 remaining in the wild, a new study suggests that infectious diseases should be added to the list of threats facing this endangered species.
