One More Threat to Elephants

In spite of intense conservation efforts, African savannah elephant numbers are declining by 8% per year. This loss is usually attributed to illegal ivory poaching. Poaching is certainly currently the biggest threat but disease seems a growing concern (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/25/scientists-discover-why-dozens-of-endangered-elephants-dropped-dead). In 2020, 35 wild elephant suddenly collapsed and died in NW Zimbabwe. Tests now show they died from an infection with the bacterium Pasteurella Bisgaard taxon 45. This resulted in septicaemia ('blood poisoning'), wiping out that group (and possibly 300 other elephants in Botswana's Okavango delta). African savannah elephant conservation just got harder.