Around 90 Elephants Found Killed Near Botswana Wildlife Sanctuary in Africa

In a shocking revelation, around 87 elephants were killed near a wildlife sanctuary in Botswana, Africa. An aerial survey discovered elephants' bodies ripped off their tusks and skulls. The incident which is a clear sign of poaching has been very common in Africa. Wildlife conservation organization Elephants Without Borders found the "alarming" rate of dead elephants while conducting an aerial census supported by the Botswana government.

Mike Chase, director and founder said in a statement told BBC, "I'm shocked, I'm completely astounded. The scale of elephant poaching is by far the largest I've seen or read about anywhere in Africa to date. When I compare this to figures and data from the Great Elephant Census, which I conducted in 2015, we are recording double the number of freshly poached elephants than anywhere else in Africa." Elephants Don't Get Cancer! 'Zombie' Genes Protect The Animals From The Disease

Botswana has the world's largest elephant population but a recent census estimated a third of Africa's elephants had been killed in the last decade. In the last five years, 60per cent of Tanzania's elephants have died. Among the recent 87 elephants that died, most were killed in the last few weeks, according to NPR. Poachers also killed three white rhinoceroses in the same area over the past three months.

Chase added saying, People did warn us of an impending poaching problem and we thought we were prepared for it. The poachers are now turning their guns to Botswana. We have the world's largest elephant population and it's open season for poachers. Clearly, we need to be doing more to stop the scale of what we are recording on our survey."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 05, 2018 05:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).