Potential toxic substance detected in several of 15 elephants found dead in Kenya’s Amboseli national park Officials are investigating the deaths of 15 elephants over the past mont…

Potential toxic substance detected in several of 15 elephants found dead in Kenya’s Amboseli national park Officials are investigating the deaths of 15 elephants over the past month in Kenya’s Amboseli national park. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said 10 of the elephants showed signs of partial paralysis before dying within two days. The remaining five carcasses were too decomposed or had been scavenged, making it impossible to establish the cause of death, the wildlife authority said. Most of those affected were female elephants and their calves, with only one male among the dead. The deaths happened in the Kimana sanctuary and Kuku ranch areas surrounding the park, officials said. Kenya has previously recorded incidents of elephants being poisoned as a result of poaching and human-wildlife conflict. Preliminary tests on samples collected from the elephants by a laboratory at the University of Nairobi detected a “potential toxic substance,” while separate analyses by a government laboratory were negative for the toxins tested. KWS said further tests are under way. “Environmental investigations are also being undertaken, including the analysis of water sources and other potential environmental contaminants within the affected areas, to establish whether the elephants were exposed to a common source,” the authority said in a statement.