Death by cyanide: poachers kill 40 elephants in Zimbabwe as China drives ivory demand
Spate of deaths comes as conservationists report that a well-known elephant in South Africa is feared to have been killed in recent days
The elephant died in agony. When they found his body, his eyes were closed, and a stream of blood trickled from his trunk.
He was a middle-aged male, one of 40 elephants poisoned in Zimbabwe in recent weeks.
“I get choked up, even as I speak,” said Debbie Ottman, of the Kariba Animal Welfare Fund Trust in Zimbabwe. She was one of the animal welfare activists who found the carcasses of three elephants near the town of Kariba in northern Zimbabwe late last month; the pachyderms later tested positive for cyanide poisoning. “It makes me very angry and very emotional.”
The killer baited oranges with cyanide, which is used in illegal gold mining and which was found in the gut of the male elephant.
Tanzania’s elephant population plummeted by 60 per cent to 43,330 in the five years ending in 2014, according to the Great Elephant Census, carried out by a coalition of wildlife groups. Mozambique lost half its elephants in the same period, falling to 10,300.
The statistics underscore the toxic mix of determined criminal gangs, corrupt government officials and a strong market for smuggled ivory in Asia — particularly in China, which has deepened its economic ties to Africa in recent years.