Earlier in the month, we covered the mysterious circumstances surrounding the deaths of at least 350 elephants in Botswana’s Okavango Delta.

Poaching was ruled out, because the dead elephants’ tusks had not been removed, and in some cases, the deaths appeared to happen so rapidly that the elephants simply dropped on their faces and died on the spot.

At that stage, Botswana’s department of wildlife and national park said that it was waiting on test results that it hoped would shed light on what was going on, with the COVID-19 pandemic having hindered the sending of samples.

Carte Blanche decided to take a closer look:

With only a few clues left behind and thousands of kilometres of wilderness to cover, it seems the equivalent of a modern-day murder mystery is unraveling in the animal kingdom.

Hundreds of Botswana’s majestic elephants have been struck down by an unknown cause, literally stopping them in their tracks. For now, the mysterious disease has killed relatively few of the country’s large population of elephants, but experts are stumped for answers on what might be killing the otherwise apparently healthy mammals.

They fear that if left unchecked, more animals will die. Carte Blanche takes a virtual trek into the heart of the Okavango Delta to uncover this developing story.

It’s heartbreaking to see so many of those noble beasts dying, especially when you consider the complex social structures that exist within each herd.

But, with increased and sustained media attention, and information from the test results, perhaps we will soon find out what is causing the mass deaths:

[source:carteblanche]