In this photo taken on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015, an elephant is seen in Hwange National Park, about 700 kilometres south west of Harare. Fourteen elephants were poisoned by cyanide in Zimbabwe in three separate incidents, two years after poachers killed more than 200 elephants by poisoning, Zimbabwes National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
Fourteen elephants were killed by cyanide in Zimbabwe in three separate incidents. Three were killed in Matusadone National Park in northern Zimbabwe. Eleven were found dead in two separate areas in the Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. The latter park is where Cecil the Lion had lived his life before his untimely death this past summer by United States dentist, Walter Palmer. The deaths occurred over the past two weeks.
Four more were killed in the Zimbezi National Park, near Hwange, in 2014.
These areas have become the targets of poachers who killed them using a “cyanide mixed with coarse salt applied at a salt lick, investigations reveal. Maize cobs were also found at the salt lick suggesting that this could have been used as bait”, said Caroline Washaya-Moyo, Ziimbabwe Parks and National Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks).
In 2013, nearly three hundred elephants were killed in Hwange after poacher laced salt pans with cyanide. Vultures who ingested the remains also died from the cyanide. There is a fear this will occur again.
Elephant populations have tripled in numbers over the past 50 years in Southern Africa. Their numbers threaten their existence. The population of elephants in the rest of Africa are endangered.
Large areas of once grand Hwange National Park are bare, the dead trunks of great hardwood trees stunted; swaths reduced to leafless scrub.
Hwange, in western Zimbabwe, has an elephant population estimated to be 35,000-40,000, far greater than the environment can sustain. The number of elephants in all of their national parks equals more than 100,000. The number the parks can easily support is only 40,000.
A reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the poachers is being offered by a private anti-poaching group.
The reason for the poaching is the ivory tusks. The demand for ivory is “most notably in China and elsewhere in Asia, and the confusion caused by a one-time sale of confiscated ivory have helped keep black market prices high in Africa.” The ivory trade is a lucrative business.
Hopefully, the agreement between President Xi JinPing and President Obama made recently to ban nearly all ivory trade will have a huge and lasting impact on the lives of elephants in Africa where they are being savagely killed for their tusks.
No arrests have been made said Clement Munoriarwa, police commander for Mashonaland West province.
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When do the murders of this species stop???
My heart breaks and I cry for what elephants have gone through by poachers. Killing them so money can be made from their tusks. Elephants are thoughtful and intelligent animals. They also have a good memory. A good memory will come in hand if they see a poacher that killed their family. I hope they trample the poachers.