Zimbabwe: Poisoned Elephant Toll Reaches 102

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwean wildlife authorities say they have found another 11 carcasses of elephants killed by cyanide poisoning, bringing to 102 the number of pachyderms poisoned for their tusks in a continuing wildlife crisis.

The National Parks and Wildlife Authority said in a statement Tuesday the bodies of elephants dead for less than three weeks were discovered at a waterhole 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the main tourist camp in the western Hwange National Park. Authorities arrested two suspected poachers at a village outside the game park where a small quantity of cyanide was recovered.

The statement said eight vultures eating the carcasses also died. Soaring vultures are often the first sign from considerable distances of an illegal kill by poachers.

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