Scientists have finally discovered why hundreds of elephants mysteriously dropped dead

Over three hundred elephants in Botswana suddenly died in 2020, and scientists have worked out what the reason is.

After the sudden death of so many elephants in Botswana, baffling conservationists, scientists think they might have worked out what happened to them.

Following on from these deaths, 35 more elephants in Zimbabwe died, and experts conducted some tests to see if they could get to the bottom of the problem.

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Results came back and showed that the elephants had suffered from blood poisoning, caused by a rare bacteria named Pasteurella.

Researchers believe that this is the same cause of death for the elephants in Botswana.

It was written in the Nature Communication Journal that: “This represents an important conservation concern for elephants in the largest remaining meta-population of this endangered species.”

African savanna elephants are decreasing by 8% every year, and the sad reality is that it is due to poaching.

There are currently only 350,000 left in the wild.

And this new bacteria is only adding to their list of problems.

The lead investigator on the project, Dr Chris Foggin, a wildlife veterinarian at the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust, has said that looking into these mass deaths has been a ‘challenging’ time for the team.

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“Identifying and then reaching the carcasses in time to obtain useful samples is one problem we often face.

“However, we also didn’t know what disease we may be dealing with.

“We initially suspected that it could be anthrax, which is known to occur in the area; or possibly some other disease that might pose a risk to human health.

“We therefore had to be cautious when undertaking the postmortem examinations on elephants which, in itself, is a difficult task with such a big animal, especially working in field conditions.”

Scientists faced problems as the samples they collected were from animals who were already sadly rotting, and they were unable to visit the neighbouring site Botswana.

Their investigation says their findings of blood poisoning within the elephants ‘may represent an ongoing phenomenon in the region’.

And even more could be found that were missed due to a lack of being able to test them.

What makes up the bacteria is called Bisgaard taxon 45, and traces of it have been found in tigers and lions, alongside chipmunks and psittacines.

According to the researchers, this was found by testing bite wounds in human skin.