The climate crisis is increasing the intensity and severity of harmful algal blooms, reducing the amount of potable water.
In Africa, more than 350 elephants may have died due to contaminated water. The Guardian writes about this on Friday, November 29, with reference to a graduate student in geography at King’s College London, researcher, David Lomeo.
He noted that more than 350 elephants have died on the continent due to toxic water, the largest documented death of these animals.
“Elephants of all ages walk in circles before collapsing and dying. Animal carcasses were first seen in northeastern Botswana in May and June 2020. Similar elephant deaths continue to this day ,” the newspaper reported.
Lomeo suggested that the elephants died because they drank water that contained toxic blooms of blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria.
“Elephants typically walked over 100km from waterholes and died within 88 hours of drinking. A total of 3,000 waterholes were examined. Those with increased cyanobacteria blooms had high concentrations of carcasses around . However, the elephants have no choice but to drink from them,” Lomeo said.
The scientist added that there could be more corpses, but they were taken by predators.
“This study explains how climate change may affect the mortality rate of beetroot animals in the wild,” said Lomeo.
Meanwhile, African forest elephants are on the brink of extinction, and the common elephant is listed as endangered on the International Red List of Threatened Species. In the past, these animals were considered “weak.”
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.