This footage was filmed and produced 4 November 2023.

The cause of the mysterious African elephant deaths has finally been determined, and scientists releasing a new report say the outbreaks are more likely to occur amid conditions created by the current climate crisis.

Thirty-five African elephants in northwestern Zimbabwe dropped dead in puzzling circumstances between late August and November 2020. Eleven of the huge herd animals died within a 24-hour period.

That same year, some 350 elephants in neighboring northern Botswana also died suddenly over the course of three months.

At first, authorities and experts were at a loss to explain these deaths, which occurred in Africa's largest elephant population. Poaching, poisoning and drought were pointed to as the culprits.

It turns out that a bacterial infection killed the elephants, according to research based on samples taken from 15 of the animals that died in Zimbabwe.

An analysis, published Oct. 25 in the journal Nature Communications, showed evidence of infection by a little-known bacterium called Bisgaard taxon 45 that caused septicemia, or blood poisoning.

SHOTLIST
1. various elephants in Zimbabwe (November 4, 2022);
2. various elephants in Zimbabwe (February 6, 2021).