Cyanide on Tomato Farms Kills 15 Elephants in Kenya’s Amboseli
KENYA · CONSERVATION
Key Facts
—The toll: Fifteen elephants died in the Amboseli ecosystem over about a month, the Kenya Wildlife Service said on 29 July.
—The cause: Preliminary laboratory analysis of samples taken from the carcasses detected cyanide, pointing to agricultural chemicals.
—The source: The agency attributes the poisoning to pesticides sprayed on tomato farms neighbouring the park.
—The worst-hit place: One herd in the Kimana Wildlife Sanctuary lost six animals in a short period, including adult females and calves.
—The pattern of death: Ten animals showed partial paralysis and died within two days; five were found dead, their carcasses partly taken by scavengers.
—Who died: Most of the dead were females and calves, with a single male among them.
The Amboseli elephant deaths were caused by cyanide, the Kenya Wildlife Service said on 29 July, after fifteen animals died over roughly a month from pesticides sprayed on tomato farms beside the park. Nobody has been accused of poisoning them deliberately.
What caused the Amboseli elephant deaths
The Kenya Wildlife Service said on 29 July that preliminary laboratory analysis of samples taken from the carcasses had detected traces of cyanide. Its director general, Professor Erastus Kanga, pointed to agricultural chemicals as the likely source.
The elephants had ingested pesticides sprayed on tomato farms bordering the Amboseli ecosystem. Post-mortem examinations linked the deaths to poisoning from chemicals believed to have come from those neighbouring farms.
The deaths were first noticed late in June, when rangers began seeing elephants fall ill, collapse and die. Fifteen animals died over roughly a month.
Where the farms meet the herds
The worst-affected area was the Kimana Wildlife Sanctuary, where a single herd lost six elephants in a short period, among them adult females and calves. Kimana sits in Kajiado County and is one of its main tomato-growing areas.
That is the whole problem in one sentence. Amboseli’s elephants move constantly between protected land and farmland in search of food and water, and the boundary exists on maps rather than on the ground.
Kenya has spent years building conservancies and corridors precisely to manage that movement. A sprayed field on the edge of one of them can undo a great deal of that work in a fortnight.
How the animals died
Ten of the elephants showed signs of partial paralysis before dying within two days, according to reporting on the agency’s findings. The other five were simply found dead, their carcasses partly consumed by scavengers.
Most of the dead were females and their calves, and only one male was among them. Dr Isaac Lekoolol, who heads veterinary and capture services at the agency, said the animals had shown similar clinical symptoms.
Farmers in Kenya have in the past been suspected of poisoning elephants deliberately to keep them out of crops. The Kenya Wildlife Service has made no such accusation in this case, and has not said who sprayed the fields.
The economics under the story
Amboseli is one of Kenya’s best-known parks, and its elephants, long studied and photographed against Kilimanjaro, are among the most recognisable in Africa. They are also, in plain commercial terms, an asset.
Wildlife tourism ranks among Kenya’s biggest earners of foreign exchange, and Amboseli is one of the handful of places international visitors ask for by name. Losing fifteen elephants in a month is a conservation event and a balance-sheet event at once.
The tension is not between tourism and farming in the abstract. It is between a horticulture sector that depends on pesticides and a tourism sector that depends on the animals those pesticides killed.
What the wildlife service is doing now
Kanga said the agency has contained the situation and warned communities around Amboseli and the neighbouring conservancies to take care with pesticides and other agricultural chemicals. It says it is working with others to prevent a repeat.
Rangers and researchers have stepped up surveillance across the ecosystem and are monitoring herds while investigations continue. The agency has not said whether anyone faces prosecution.
On human health it has been careful. It says there is currently no evidence that the contamination poses a risk to people, while cautioning that livestock also graze in the affected area.
A regional herd, a national problem
Amboseli’s elephants cross into Tanzania and back, which makes a poisoning on the Kenyan side a regional matter rather than a local one. The Rio Times reported in June on a Kenya and Tanzania agreement to jointly manage exactly those shared herds.
The case also lands in a difficult period for East African conservation generally, with sanctuaries elsewhere on the continent losing populations to habitat pressure rather than poison. Amboseli’s problem is closer to home and, in principle, easier to fix.
What makes this episode unusual is that nothing malicious has been established. Fifteen elephants may have died because a tomato crop was protected in the ordinary way, on land that a herd happened to walk across.
Frequently Asked Questions
What caused the Amboseli elephant deaths?
Preliminary laboratory analysis of samples from the carcasses detected cyanide, which Kenya Wildlife Service traced to pesticides sprayed on tomato farms next to the park. Post-mortem examinations linked the deaths to those agricultural chemicals.
How many elephants died and where?
Fifteen elephants died within the Amboseli ecosystem over roughly a month. The worst-affected area was the Kimana Wildlife Sanctuary, where a single herd lost six animals in a short period.
Is the contamination dangerous to people?
Kenya Wildlife Service says there is currently no evidence that the contamination poses a risk to human health. It has cautioned that livestock also graze in the affected area.
Has anyone been accused of poisoning the elephants?
No. Kenya Wildlife Service has not accused anyone and has not said who sprayed the fields, and investigations are continuing.
Connected Coverage
We reported in June on the Kenya and Tanzania pact to guard their shared wildlife, which covers the herds that move through Amboseli. The pressure on African elephant populations is a running thread, from Ethiopia’s Babile sanctuary and its last 200 elephants to the wider contest over African land and resources gathered in Africa: The New Scramble.
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