VIDEO: Shock over KNP elephant death surge
Conservation authorities have expressed shock after 12 elephants were found dead in the Kruger National Park.
CONSERVATION authorities have expressed outrage and shock over a surge of elephant deaths in the Kruger National Park in recent months.
Twelve elephant were found dead in September and October, with a further 6 in January and July, all in the north of the park near the borders of Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Communications and Marketing manager for KNP, William Mabasa told sister publication the Lethaba Herald that KNP only lost 2 elephant the whole of last year.
Horrific news: Kruger National Park now a target for #elephant #poaching with 19 elephants killed in 2015 (12 of those in Sept & Oct 2015).
— RhinoRage (@rhinorage) October 22, 2015
‘Given the situation in the rest of the continent pertaining to widespread poaching of elephants, we cannot allow this destabilization of our keystone species to continue further. We are confident that the dedication and efforts which our rangers and partners in the security sector have displayed towards the fight against rhino will prevail over this latest problem,’ he said.
He also told other news services that the lack of borders in the park were partly to blame.
‘We were picking up carcasses every day, but it’s hard to know when exactly they died,’ he told The Telegraph.
‘We knew to expect this. Most probably elephants are becoming more scarce in the northern countries such as Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Mozambique where they have been poaching for some time, so now they have come to Kruger.’
KNP posted the following Tweet:
— Kruger National Park (@SANParksKNP) October 23, 2015
Also read more on Zululand elephants HERE
WATCH: General Johan Jooste, Commanding Officer for SANPARKS Special Projects speaks about the ‘looming Kruger National Park elephant poaching crisis’.
