Elephant deaths in Zimbabwe and Botswana

Zimbabwe’s Parks and Wildlife Management Authority confirmed this week that more than thirty elephants have died in western part of the country. The parks authority said that the country is planning to send brain tissue samples from dead elephants to the United States to test the cause of the deaths. When Botswana saw the death of 330 elephants this year officials in the country attributed the cause of the deaths to have been caused by toxins produced by cyanobacteria commonly found in water. To assist us on this we are joined by: • Dr Michael Kock, wildlife veterinarian specializing in elephant work and author.• Dr Gerhard Verdoorn, CropLife SA’s operations and stewardship manager