Latest reports suggest that at least 160 elephants have died as drought conditions hit Zimbabwe, and with hot, dry weather likely to continue, conservationists fear there could be more deaths to come.
Droughts are reported to 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.
The elephants died between August and December last year in the 14,651 sq km Hwange national park, which is home to endangered elephants, buffalo, lions, cheetahs, giraffes and other species. At least six other elephants have recently been discovered dead outside the park in suspected poaching incidents.
The Zimbabwe Parks & Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) confirmed the deaths of the elephants in the park, and attributed them to drought.
Tinashe Farawo, Who is a spokesperson for Zimparks was quoted on Tuesday as saying “We have been doing tests, and preliminary results show that they were dying due to starvation. Most of the animals were dying between 50m and 100m from water sources.”
The elephants that died were mostly young, old or sick, the park said.
Read also: WEF report shows 14.5 million people will die by 2050 due to climate change
Persistent dry weather, droughts and prolonged dry periods are intensifying across southern Africa. 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.
“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.
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. 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.
By 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”.
Conservation 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. 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.
“We are aware that we might have an El Niño and a big drought in 2024,” Lane said. “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.”
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
