It is with regret that African Parks reports the recent poaching of two elephants in Zakouma National Park in Chad and five in Garamba National Park. In addition, the new African Parks team in Liwonde National Park also recently discovered the carcass of an elephant that had been poached.
The incident in Zakouma involved the poaching of two adult females in the west of the park; a tragedy that also left two calves without their mothers. The younger of the two calves, estimated to be less than two months old, was transported by the Zakouma plane to the park headquarters. It was being hand-fed until it died on Monday after succumbing to the trauma it had experienced.
© Lorna LabuschagneThe situation in Zakouma was detected during a routine aerial surveillance flight when the park's pilot observed a herd of about 30 elephants congregated in a defensive position and two poachers and their horses hiding under a nearby tree. He alerted the control room at Zakouma and a nearby anti-poaching horse patrol was instantly diverted to the area during which they discovered that the tusks had been removed from one of the carcasses. Immediate efforts to track the offenders were hampered by rain which covered their tracks but follow-up operations are still underway and a reward has been offered for information leading to their arrest.