The Greatest Elephant Mystery

Source: CBS News

This year, about 350 elephants died in Botswana for unknown reasons. With every death, scientists were alarmed and unsure of who to blame. Was it poachers? Did another animal kill them? Was it environmental? Why wasn’t it impacting any other species? These are the questions we’ve all been asking ourselves.

While so many were blaming poachers, it was atypical for a poacher’s work. First, none of the elephants had signs of trauma to the face area. No tusks were missing, in fact, the bodies were in perfect form. There were no signs of injury whatsoever. With little to no explanation, this week there was finally a breakthrough in the available knowledge on these deaths.

So, What’s Going On?

Great question. I thought that there was potentially some kind of pathogen like the tuberculosis bacteria or the herpes virus spreading around the population. Simply because these are diseases that only impact elephants. This sure would explain why no other animals were being impacted! However, this was not the case.

Finally, researchers found that there was a lethal combination of neurotoxins in the water. The amount of cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae) in the water is thought to be the actual reason the elephants were found dead by watering holes. It appears that the algae formed thick blooms and when consumed, worked quickly to take down these gentle giants. Some were even found face down in the water, as if they died almost instantaneously.

But then, the news that was even potentially more chilling… this is a direct result of climate change. While I’m aware of the monumental impacts of climate change, even I was thrown off by this news! I couldn’t believe it and all I could think was… this is the beginning. The start of all life falling apart, all because of our mistakes.

The Role of Climate Change

If you too are reading this with no idea how these two things correlated, let me explain. The cyanobacteria that the elephants consumed require photosynthesis in order to make food and thrive in their environment, in other words, they require sunlight to survive. Meaning that they are in their highest abundance during warmer summer months as they are able to out compete other forms of algae, allowing them to take over entire bodies of water.

Blue-green algal bloom

Source: Popular Science

As we talked about on here a few weeks ago in the Fires, Floods, and Fickle Weather post, as climate change progresses we are seeing more severe and frequent weather events… such as heat waves. The summer of 2020 was the hottest recorded summer in the Northern Hemisphere to date. As the climate is changing, the heat waves are getting more intense, longer, and giving algae more time and resources to thrive.

The extended period of warmth is what gave these algal blooms the opportunity to become out of control, therefore causing their toxins to also get out of control!

Why is it Only Affecting Elephants?

Ok this one I don’t have an answer to… but what we do know about this blue-green algae is that it is not fatally toxic in small quantities. It’s only when large amounts are ingested that it can be deadly. With this in mind, scientists have hypothesized that these blooms have only impacted elephants due to the amount of water they consume daily (usually around 200 liters!!). On top of this, they spend a lot of time in the water bathing and socializing.

Since most other species do not consume nearly the amount of water that elephants do, they simply would not be as easily impacted by this cyanobacteria.

So What Can We Do?

I know I usually end posts by telling you what you can do to contribute to a solution, but this week it’s a little different. There is no simple fix; but what I do hope is that this news will encourage you to persevere in the fight against climate change. To continue planting trees, to continue demanding change within the government, to continue asking for better from large fossil fuel producers, to continue cutting back on plastic and single use items.

I hope this also serves as a (not so subtle) reminder that every action matters, every thing we do has an enormous impact. Our actions over the past few decades have been compounding and they are now showing through in situations like this. This means that the positive steps we take now will not necessarily shine through immediately, it’ll take time; and unfortunately as we’re seeing with the elephants, not all of us have the time.

So if you’ve been thinking about making changes, slowly considering if you want to put in the work, I hope this article gives you the reminder that we really don’t have time to mull it all over and to find “the perfect zero waste item to go with our houses aesthetic”. Climate change is happening right before our eyes, all the things we’ve been predicting are happening, how much more do we have to see before taking this seriously?

I personally don’t want to wait for year after year of pandemics, elephants becoming extinct, the air quality not being good enough to step outside. Right now we have a world full of people saying “I don’t need to contribute, other people will”. Imagine what we could accomplish if more of us realized that, in fact, nobody else is doing it. And even if they are, why does that give us an excuse not to?

Action needs to happen now, and nobody is exempt.