Kenyan farmers deny cyanide claims after 15 elephants die near Amboseli
The deaths of 15 elephants near Kenya’s Amboseli National Park have triggered a poisoning investigation, after preliminary tests detected cyanide, according to Africanews. Wildlife authorities in Kenya are continuing to examine samples to determine the source and concentration of the substance.
The elephants were found dead in areas bordering the park, which lies in Kajiado County in southern Kenya close to the Tanzanian border. The Kenya Wildlife Service said preliminary laboratory results indicated the presence of cyanide, a compound that has been linked to past wildlife killings in parts of East Africa.
Farmers living adjacent to the park have rejected accusations that they were responsible, as Africanews reported. Communities around Amboseli have long reported crop damage and property losses caused by elephants and other large mammals straying from the reserve, and relations between herders and conservation authorities have at times been strained in Kajiado County.
A long-running human-wildlife conflict
Amboseli is one of Kenya’s best-known wildlife sanctuaries, famous for its large elephant populations and its backdrop of Mount Kilimanjaro across the border in Tanzania. The park draws significant tourism revenue, but it also sits within a wider ecosystem where farmland, grazing land and wildlife habitats overlap, making conflict between people and animals a recurring challenge.
Conservation groups have previously raised concerns about retaliatory poisoning by communities who say they have suffered heavy losses from elephant raids. Cyanide is relatively easy to obtain in rural Kenya, where it is sometimes used in small-scale gold mining and as a pest control agent. Past elephant deaths in other parts of the country have been linked to contamination of salt licks and water sources.
Kenya Wildlife Service officials said further tests were being carried out and appealed to the public for information as the investigation continued.
Sources
This report was written from coverage published by the following news organisations. Follow the links for the original reporting.
- Africanews — Kenyan farmers reject cyanide claims after 15 elephants die in Amboseli
- Jackson Hole News&Guide — Farmers in Kenya dispute that cyanide poisoning could have killed 16 elephants
