Not only for tourists: Cyanide used to kill elephants in Zimbabwe

Tourism and watching elephants is big business in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is also one of the best countries for elephant tourism. Unfortunately there is also a very dark side on the other side of tourism. It’s poaching and killing Elephants for ivory.

Fourteen elephants were poisoned by cyanide in Zimbabwe in three separate incidents, two years after poachers killed more than 200 elephants by poisoning. This information was released by the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.

Three elephants were killed in Matusadona National Park in the Kariba area in northern Zimbabwe and 11 more pachyderms were found dead in two different spots in Hwange National Park in western Zimbabwe over the past two weeks.

In all cases the elephants were killed by cyanide, according to kidney and liver samples from the dead elephants tested by the Biological Sciences Department, said parks spokeswoman Caroline Washaya Moyo.

In Kariba, poachers laced oranges with cyanide, she said, while in Hwange the poison was put on salt licks.

The ivory tusks had been cut off six elephants at one location in Hwange park but the other five elephants still had their tusks, suggesting the poachers were disrupted. The motive for the killings in Matusadona was not known.

There have been no arrests so far over the latest incidents.