BY nature, elephants knock down trees. So, this reads like a reversal of roles. Hence it has come as a shock to communities in the northern Zimbabwean town of Chirundu, bordering Zambia, that an elephant has been found dead after a huge tree fell on the giant animal sleeping under it.

It could not be ascertained how the tree got uprooted and landed on the jumbo. Witnesses are surprised. Among witnesses is Juan Kamara.

“I am surprised. This is uncommon. How a clever animal die in this manner? Nature is undeterminable,” the puzzled man said. Another resident of Chirundu said this had never occurred.

“I am truly shocked, how can an elephant die because of a tree. It must have been sick or very tired,” he said.

Anthrax is in most cases, the main cause of death in elephants, the largest land mammal on earth. It is a bacterium that causes high fever, shivering, ulcers and swellings. This disease may be spread through contaminated water or soil.

Other illnesses are trunk paralysis and elephant pox.

– CAJ News