New spate of elephant poisoning as ivory targeted
WELL, that didn’t take long.
A glass- bottom bridge built on the side of a cliff in China has cracked just weeks after opening.
Thousands of tourists were walking on the 300m- long path at Yuntai Mountain Scenic Park in Xiuwu county during the week- long National Day holidays when a glass pane broke.
Witnesses said the 68cmwide glass pane cracked when they walked over it, and the screams of one woman yelling “it’s broken” caused a mini stampede.
A tourist posted pictures of what she said was the shattered glass on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. She said she heard a sudden bang and felt a shake under her feet.
Reports said scenic park management blamed tourists for the scare, saying that it was one visitor’s metallic Thermos flask that dropped, and finally proved to be too much for the highly anticipated attraction. FOURTEEN elephants have been poisoned by cyanide in Zimbabwe in three separate incidents, two years after poachers killed more than 200 elephants by poisoning.
Zimbabwe’s National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said three elephants were killed in Matusadona National Park in the Kariba area in northern Zimbabwe and 11 more pachyderms were found dead in two different spots in Hwange National Park in western Zimbabwe over the past two weeks.
In all cases the elephants were killed by cyanide, according to kidney and liver samples from the dead elephants tested by the Biological Sciences Department, said parks spokeswoman Caroline Washaya Moyo.
In Kariba, poachers laced oranges with cyanide, she said, while in Hwange the poison was put on salt licks.
The ivory tusks had been cut off six elephants at one location in Hwange park but the other five elephants still had their tusks, suggesting the poachers were disturbed. The motive for the killings in Matusadona was not known.
There have been no arrests so far over the latest incidents, said Clement Munoriarwa, police commander for Mashonaland West province.
“We have had a number of poaching activities in the province – they are actually increasing each day,” Mr Munoriarwa said. “Some are done through the use of firearms and, of course, we have cases where we suspect that there is cyanide poisoning.”
A $ US400 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the poisoners has been offered by the Matusadona Anti- Poaching Project, a private organisation, which said more elephants may have been poisoned.
The organisation also announced that three suspects had been arrested over the Kariba killings.
In 2013, as many as 300 elephants died in Hwange park after poachers laced salt pans with cyanide. Many vultures died after feeding on the poisoned elephant carcasses and it is feared that will happen again. Cyanide is widely used in Zimbabwe’s mining industry so is relatively easy to obtain.
Elephants are vulnerable across Africa, but Zimbabwe has large numbers. National parks estimates it has more than 100,000, though parks land should ideally only support 40,000.
On Tuesday, a Zambian man was arrested in Zimbabwe for trying to smuggle 25kg of ivory into South Africa.