Zimparks said that it was “on top of the situation when it comes to poaching” of elephants in Zimbabwe. Our sister organisation, Victoria Falls Anti-Poaching Unit, has had a busy December chasing poachers around,” he said. “It was very noticeable in the Victoria Falls area. Nick Long, who undertakes anti-poaching patrols and programmes in Hwange, also confirmed “a surge in bushmeat poaching countrywide”, especially from November into December.
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In December, with the lean season approaching, USAid’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network said that “most poor households’ own-produced food stocks have depleted”, and most of the country’s food security was at either “stressed” or at “crisis” levels. Workers in Hwange were able to free this juvenile elephant. View image in fullscreen In their desperation, animals try to drink from the mud and the smaller ones get stuck. They added: “What we need to panic about is the possibility that climate change will make this year’s losses of animals due to dry weather look normal.”
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“It was horrible to see orphaned calves waiting aimlessly for death, and it’s horrible to drive around seeing and smelling dead elephants,” said the conservationist, who declined to be named because they did not have permission from Zimparks to comment on the deaths. Later on, the deaths became widespread and were not appearing in clusters, they said.Īnother conservationist said that, during one count in September, more than 1,800 elephants were trying to drink from a single water source.
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Veterinarians and conservationists involved in Hwange said that elephants initially died in a cluster around one of the most used water points in the park. “We will see what we can do to mitigate that, but it will just be survival of the fittest … if there’s another drought we’ll have to go through the same thing again.”ĭroughts have caused mass die-offs of elephants in Zimbabwe before – in 2019, more than 200 died over two months due to a lack of water. “We are aware that we might have an El Niño and a big drought in 2024,” Lane said. They are also installing solar-powered systems on existing boreholes to extend pumping hours to meet the expected pressure in the hot season from August. Photograph: Courtesy of Bhejane TrustĬonservation groups in Hwange are now rushing to drill more boreholes in a bid to spread the elephants out into areas where food is more readily available. View image in fullscreen Elephants clustered around a water outlet at Tshompani Pan in Hwange national park in November. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its November update that this was likely to result in the “delayed onset of rainfall and prolonged dry spells”, and could lead to drought conditions in Zimbabwe.īy the close of 2023, it said, “the greater part of Zimbabwe had received less than 50% of the seasonal accumulated rainfall when compared to the long-term average”. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast a strong El Niño weather phenomenon between October and this March, resulting in hot, dry weather and little rainfall. “There was low nutrition, very high temperatures and a shortage of water this contributed to massive stress, and it might happen again in 2024,” Lane said. In 2023, there was no rainfall between February and November in the Hwange park, said Trevor Lane, the co-founder and head of the Bhejane Trust conservation group inside Hwange.
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Persistent dry weather, droughts and prolonged dry periods are intensifying across southern Africa. The elephants that died were mostly young, old or sick, the park said. Most of the animals were dying between 50m and 100m from water sources.” Tinashe Farawo, a spokesperson for Zimparks, said on Tuesday: “We have been doing tests, and preliminary results show that they were dying due to starvation. The Zimbabwe Parks & Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) confirmed the deaths of the elephants in the park, and attributed them to drought.