The first elephant to die in Zimbabwe was an eight-year-old male. It was found on August 24, 2020 near the border of the Panda Masuie nature reserve.
At first, vets thought it was anthrax, a common disease in elephants and other animals. But over the next two days, a total of ten dead elephants were found in the same area.
The number quickly increased to 35 dead animals. And just two months earlier, 350 elephants had been found mysteriously dead in Botswana.
Bacteria is behind it
Elephant death was a mystery for a long time.
But now, three years later, researchers have been able to establish that it was an unusual form of the bacterium Pasteurella that caused blood poisoning in the animals. That together with extreme heat.
Now it is feared that the bacterium may reap even more victims and spread to other animal species.
“But the most worrying thing is that we think Pasteurella may have the potential to kill large numbers of elephants,” said Dr Chris Foggin, a veterinarian at the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust.