El Niño phenomenon blamed for death of hundreds of elephants in Africa

At least 100 elephants have died in Zimbabwe’s largest national park due to drought. Experts from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) say elephants died in Hwange National Park due to lack of water.

The national park, Zimbabwe’s largest, is home to about 45,000 elephants, as well as more than 100 other mammal species and 400 bird species, Sky News reports.

The park has 104 solar-powered wells to maintain water sources for the animals. But park officials say there aren’t enough and the wells can’t withstand the extreme temperatures that dry up existing water bodies and force wildlife to travel long distances in search of food and water.

“The hardest hit are the young, old and sick elephants who are unable to travel long distances to find water,” says Tinashe Farawo, a spokesman for the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Authority.

The elephant deaths are a sign of what wildlife authorities and conservation groups say are the impacts of climate change and the El Niño weather phenomenon.

“El Niño is exacerbating an already difficult situation,” according to Tinashe Farawo.

El Niño is a natural and recurring weather phenomenon that warms parts of the Pacific Ocean, influencing weather patterns around the world, Sky News explains. It occurs every few years in a cycle with the opposite phenomenon, La Niña, in which sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean are slightly below average. This phenomenon usually lasts 12 months and peaks in December. However, research shows that climate change could intensify El Niño, leading to more extreme effects.

While El Niño has already brought deadly floods to East Africa this year, southern Africa is expected to receive below-average rainfall.

Zimbabwe has recently experienced a period of increasing heat and lack of rain. And, although there is little rainfall now, the forecast is for an overall dry and hot summer ahead.

Authorities fear a repeat of 2019 – another El Niño year – when more than 200 elephants in Hwange died due to severe drought.

“This phenomenon is repeating itself,” said Phillip Kuwawoga, director of IFAW’s landscape program, which raised the alarm for Hwange’s elephants in a report this month.

Zimbabwe’s rainy season once reliably began in October and continued until March. However, it has become unsustainable in recent years, and conservationists have noticed longer and more severe periods of drought.

“Our region will see significantly less rainfall, so drought could soon return due to El Niño,” said Trevor Lane, director of the Bhejane Trust, a conservation group that assists Zimbabwe’s parks agency.

He said his organization pumps 1.5 million liters of water into Hwange’s reservoirs every day from more than 50 boreholes it operates in partnership with park authorities. Hwange has no major river running through it and relies on about 100 solar-powered boreholes to pump water for the animals.

An average-sized elephant requires about 200 liters of water per day. The oldest female elephants remember the location of water sources they used to visit and can lead their herds to them from hundreds of miles away.