The recent deaths of 15 elephants near a park in southern Kenya were likely caused by the animals ingesting pesticides used on tomato farms, the Kenya\u00a0Wildlife\u00a0Service (KWS) has said.<\/p>\n
Erustus Kanga, the agency\u2019s director general, told Citizen TV that analysis of samples collected from the carcasses had found traces of cyanide, a chemical compound used in farming as a predator control poison and a pest fumigant, which has\u00a0also been used by poachers.<\/p>\n
\u201cCyanide is a highly toxic chemical,\u201d he said. \u201cIf elephants consume cyanide, they cannot survive a day or two.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deaths occurred in the Kimana sanctuary and Kuku Group ranch areas around Amboseli national park, an area covering 392 sq km (96,865 acres) and that, together with other neighbouring conservancies are home to more than 1,600 elephants.<\/p>\n
Kimana town is a leading tomato producer and a place where researchers at the Route to Food Initiative, a food rights programme, have previously\u00a0reported\u00a0the use of a cyanide substance on the crop.<\/p>\n
Isaac Lekolool, the head of veterinary and capture services at KWS, told Citizen TV that the stomach contents of one member of a herd that roamed Kimana sanctuary included \u201clots of tomatoes,\u201d suggesting agrochemical poisoning.<\/p>\n
Kanga warned that the effects could reach a wider population, as livestock may also eat from farms in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the goats, we have the cattle that are there. Eventually, if this cyanide is truly the one that is in the system, then we are going to see a bigger impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, KWS\u00a0announced\u00a0it was investigating the deaths of the elephants from 24 June and 24 July in Amboseli. It said 10 of the elephants had shown signs of partial paralysis before dying and that preliminary tests had detected a potential toxic substance.<\/p>\n
Benson Leyian, the CEO of Big Life Foundation, a conservation organisation that operates in the area surrounding Amboseli national park, said the elephant deaths were a cause for concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks to decades of community-centred conservation, the Amboseli elephant population is one of the best protected in\u00a0Africa, and elephant poaching has been virtually eliminated here. Aside from losses during periods of severe drought, we haven\u2019t seen a cluster of elephant deaths like this for some time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In\u00a0a statement, the International Fund for Animal Welfare described the deaths as \u201cdeeply alarming\u201d, adding the incident \u201creinforces why we must continue investing in science, monitoring, and collaborative conservation efforts\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery elephant lost is significant \u2013 not only for the species, but for the health of the ecosystems they help sustain and the communities that live alongside them,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Farmers and herders in\u00a0Kenya\u00a0have in the past poisoned wildlife in retaliation for eating their crops and livestock.<\/p>\n
In Zimbabwe, poachers have killed dozens of elephants by\u00a0lacing watering holes and salt licks\u00a0with the chemical compound.<\/p>\n
The Amboseli ecosystem is a major source of tourism revenue, but tensions have been building in recent months as local leaders demand the handover of the park\u2019s management and operations to the government of Kajiado county, where it is located. Earlier this month, a court suspended the county government\u2019s takeover.<\/p>\n
Source: The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The recent deaths of 15 elephants near a park in southern Kenya were likely caused by the animals ingesting pesticides used on tomato farms, the Kenya\u00a0Wildlife\u00a0Service (KWS) has said. Erustus Kanga, the agency\u2019s director general, told Citizen TV that analysis of samples collected from the carcasses had found traces of cyanide, a chemical compound used…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":96238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96239,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96237\/revisions\/96239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}