More than 360 elephants have died in mysterious circumstances in Botswana in the past three months, according to local conservationists.

Some carcasses were found clustered around waterholes, while others appeared to have died “falling flat on their faces,” according to Niall McCann, director of conservation at United Kingdom charity National Park Rescue.

Live elephants seen nearby appeared physically weak, and one was walking in circles, unable to change direction, observers said. Other species in the area did not appear to have been affected by whatever struck down the elephants.
The Botswana government is testing samples from the dead elephants, but is yet to determine a cause of death.

“It’s appalling — we need to know what the hell is going on,” he said, adding that he couldn’t recall another time when so many elephants had died from a mystery cause.

McCann said there were a number of possibilities for what could have caused the deaths, including an elephant-specific parasite — or even Covid-19.

“What I would like to emphasize is that this has the potential to be a public health crisis,” he said.

Whatever the cause, McCann said it was important to get to the bottom of it as already the loss of elephant life was “significant globally,” he said.