Sixteen Elephants have been found dead with apparent cyanide poisoning in the Amboseli National Park in Kenya since 24 June 2026. This has raised concerns about a potential new wave of Human-wildlife conflict in the park, where Elephants were once almost wiped out by poaching, but which is now home to a population of 36 000. All of the Elephants died outside of the Amboseli National Park itself, but within the greater Amoseli ecosystem, in the area around Kimana Sanctuary and Kuku Ranch, community-run wildlife projects linking Amboseli National Park to the Tsavo National Park to the east.
Initially, park authorities were concerned that the Elephants may have been poisoned by a cyanide-based insecticide sprayed on crops on one of the farms surrounding the park, as several of the dead Elephants had stomachs filled with tomatoes. Elephant raids on croplands close to Amboseli are a known problem, and while cyanide-based insecticides are illegal in Kenya (which maintains strict rules on the use of agricultural chemicals in order to gain access to lucrative European markets), they are legal in neighbouring Tanzania, with occasional incidents of smuggling and illegal use in Kenya being reported.
However, local farmer's representatives have strongly denied this, claiming that despite the problems of crop raiding, most farmers love the region's Elephants and would not voluntarily harm them. Furthermore, they note that that it would take a considerable amount of cyanide to kill an Elephant, and farms are also impacted by crop raiding by other large Mammals, none of which seem to have been affected.
Another possibility is that the cyanide could have been used in an illegal gold mining operation either within, or close to the Amboseli National Park (while gold is not generally soluble, it can be dissolved in solutions of sodium cyanide, a method which can be used to leach gold from ore rock), although the Kenya Wildlife Service are confident that no such activities are taking place. This makes deliberate poisoning of the Elephants the most probable cause, and while the reason for this is unknown, the most likely explanation would be that it relates to the extensive farmland now surrounding Amboseli and the other parks of the region, which supply vegetables to cities such as Nairobi as well as overseas markets. While many Animals occasionally raid such farms, Elephants are uniquely destructive, with individual Elephants able to consume over a tonne of vegetables within a short period of time.
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