At least two more elephants are now known to have been shot dead by poachers in Hwange in northern Zimbabwe, where 22 poisoned elephant carcasses were discovered on Monday.
One man has been arrested after he was found skinning one of the elephants, allegedly for meat on Friday, the paper said. He was shot in the thigh when he tried to flee. His three accomplices are still at large.
The independent Bhejane Trust confirmed the killings occurred in the Jambezi area, which is outside Hwange National Park. The trust said it believed three elephants had been killed.
There’s been outrage at the news of the latest elephant cyanide victims at Sinamatella in Hwange, though there is one small thing to be grateful for: the poachers who killed the elephants only got away with three tusks, according to a report on the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC).
State parks rangers managed to get 35 tusks from the dead elephants, the broadcaster reported. It said the other elephants were too young to have tusks.
The latest killings bring to 62 the number of elephants now known to have been poisoned in the last few weeks in Hwange and Kariba, two years after poachers used cyanide to kill dozens of elephants in the park. A haul of 173 kg of ivory was intercepted at Harare International Airport at the weekend, apparently bound for Singapore.
Worried about the bad publicity this is bringing to Zimbabwe, locals are now asking what they can do to stop the killings. “How can regular people help the war against poaching?” asked @Webster_M.
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