Corona Daily 402: The Elephant Mystery

Recently elephants have been in the news in a big way. On 27 May, in the Indian state of Kerala, a 15-year old pregnant female elephant ate a pineapple. It was stuffed with explosives, probably meant for a wild boar. Since March, the beginning of the lockdown, 13 elephants were found dead in the Coimbatore forest, 14 in Odisha, 6 elephants including a 20-month pregnant female died in Chhatisgarh, and 10 in Sirumugai forest range.   

In Bangladesh, three elephants were found electrocuted on 14 June. In search of food, they probably ventured out to places they normally don’t go to.

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Elephants are expensive to maintain. They eat 300 kg of grass and vegetables every day. A special place with lots of cubic feet needs to be rented for them. Monthly expense for their upkeep can easily go up to $6000.

In Thailand, nearly 4000 elephants living in zoos or sanctuaries relied on tourists. Once the lockdown began, it became impossible to maintain them. More than 100 elephants, escorted, walked 100 miles from Mae Wang to Ban Huay to reach their original villages. Some of them went home after twenty years, and expressed their happiness by musically lifting their trunks. Many others have been sent back to the wild to fend for themselves.

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What is happening in Botswana has mystified scientists. With more than 135,000 elephants roaming freely in unfenced parks and open spaces, Botswana is the number one elephant country. Almost 400 elephants have mysteriously died in the last three months, 70% of them from May onwards. During a three hour flight, conservationists spotted 169 carcasses, an extraordinarily high number. On further investigation, 350 carcasses were found. This is in the area of Okavango Delta (grassland), one of Africa’s natural wonders.

The victims are male and female, of all ages. They have not been killed by poachers; the (ivory) tusks are intact. Nobody tried to take away the tusks. Cyanide or other poisoning is ruled out because no other animal in the vicinity has died. Neither have the scavenging vultures feeding on the carcasses. Many elephants have died in an upright position, suggesting sudden death. The ones who are alive look lethargic and disoriented. One elephant was found circling aimlessly, unable to decide the direction.

The lockdown has delayed post-mortems, collecting and analyzing samples. The samples collected so far have ruled out Anthrax or poisoning. Biologist Dr Niall McCann suspects something is attacking their neurological systems.

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A legend says old wild elephants leave the herd when they sense approaching death. Alone, the old elephant walks away and goes deep into the jungles or on mountains to die. This is called the ‘elephant graveyard’ legend. Zoologists call this an unresolved mystery. A single herd can comprise of fifty to hundred elephants.

Finding hundreds of elephant carcasses is an unusual event. It has never happened except during a drought.

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With poaching, anthrax and poison ruled out, the other possibility raised by Dr McCann is some sort of an epidemic (other than coronavirus). Something that can be transmitted to humans as well. Other than being a conservation disaster, it then becomes another public health crisis.

Following the Botswana mystery, India should also investigate the true reasons for dozens of elephants dying across India in a short span of time.

Ravi