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BOTSWANA-ELEPHANTS-POACHING
Nearly 100 elephants killed for ivory in Botswana
GABORONE, Botswana, Sept 4, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Ninety elephant carcasses have
been discovered in Botswana with their tusks hacked off, a charity said
Tuesday, in what is believed to be one of Africa’s worst mass poaching
sprees.
Most of the animals killed were large bulls carrying heavy tusks, Elephants
Without Borders said.
The grim discovery was made over several weeks during an aerial survey by
Elephants Without Borders and Botswana’s Department of Wildlife and National
Parks.
“We started flying the survey on July 10, and we have counted 90 elephant
carcasses since the survey commenced,” Mike Chase, the charity director, told
AFP.
“Each day we are counting dead elephants,” he added.
The animals were shot with heavy calibre rifles at watering spots near a
popular wildlife sanctuary in the Okavango Delta.
“The scale of elephant poaching is by far the largest I have seen or read
about in Africa to date,” Chase said.
The poaching coincided with the disarming earlier this year of Botswana’s
rangers, according to Chase.
The country has the largest elephant population in Africa at over 135,000.
The number of African elephants has fallen by around 111,000 to 415,000 in
the past decade, according to the International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN).
The killing continues at a dizzying pace of about 30,000 elephants a year
to meet demand for ivory in Asia, where tusks sell for around $1,000 (864
euros) a kilo (2.2 pounds).
Chase said elephants in Zambia and Angola, north of Botswana, “have been
poached to the verge of local extinction, and poachers have now turned to
Botswana”.
Botswana Tourism Minister Tshekedi Khama confirmed to AFP that dozens of
elephants had been poached, but gave no further details.
The government was not immediately available to comment on rangers being
apparently disarmed earlier this year.
Botswana previously had a zero-tolerance approach to poaching, with a
“shoot-to-kill” policy against poachers.
Poachers have also targeted rhino, said Chase, after six white rhino
carcasses were found in recent months.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1528 hrs