Hundreds of elephants spotted dead in Botswana: Has COVID-19 began to affect animals as assumed by scientists?

Hundreds of elephants spotted dead in Botswana: Has COVID-19 began to affect animals as assumed by scientists?

 Mystery circles the "completely unprecedented" mortality of hundreds of elephants in Botswana over the past two months.

Dr. Niall McCann stated colleagues in the south African nation had found more than 350 elephant corpses in the Okavango Delta since the start of May. No one has knowledge of why the animals are dying, with lab results on specimens still weeks away, according to the government.

Botswana is residence to a third of Africa's dwindling elephant population. Dr.McCann, of the UK-based charity National Park Rescue, reported the BBC local conservationists first informed the government at the beginning of May after they undertook a flight over the delta. "They spotted 169 in a three-hour flight," he stated. "To be able to see and count that many in a three-hour flight was extraordinary".

"A month later, further investigations identified many more carcasses, bringing the total to over 350." "This is totally unprecedented in terms of numbers of elephants dying in a single event unrelated to drought," he continued. Back in May, Botswana's government ruled out poaching as a reason - remarking the tusks had not been eliminated. Other indications lead to something other than poaching.

"It is only elephants that are dying and nothing else," Dr. McCann stated. "If it was cyanide used by poachers, you would expect to see other deaths." Dr. McCann has also temporarily ruled out natural anthrax poisoning, which eliminated at least 100 elephants in Bostwana last year.

Either way, without identifying the cause, it is unlikely to rule out the probability of a disease crossing into the human population - particularly if the cause is in either the water sources or the soil. Dr. McCann tends to the Covid-19 pandemic, which is considered to have commenced in animals.

"Yes, it is a conservation disaster - but it also has the potential to be a public health crisis," he stated. Dr. Cyril Taolo, acting director for Botswana's department of wildlife and national parks, reported the Guardian they had so far confirmed at least 280 elephants had died and were in the process of confirming the rest. However, they did not know what was causing the animals' deaths.