00:00Preliminary laboratory tests have detected cyanide in elephants that died in Kenya's Amboseli Kimana ecosystem, where the death toll has
00:08risen to 16.
00:10Post-mortem examinations also found tomatoes in the animal's stomachs.
00:14Wildlife authorities are investigating the source of the poison, while the local farmers strongly deny it came from the agricultural
00:21chemicals used on nearby farms.
00:23When we had done the tests, we got the preliminary results from both the government chemists and also from the
00:31University of Nairobi.
00:33The tests results from the University of Nairobi detected some presence of cyanide, but those were qualitative tests.
00:42So what we are trying to do now is to get the tests done again for quantitative analysis, just to
00:50check on the amounts, the actual amounts of the product were in the system.
00:54The deaths of the elephants have renewed concerns over rising human-wildlife conflict as farming expands around Amboseli National Park.
01:03Farmers in neighboring Kimana insist cyanide is not used in local crop production.
01:10The chemical they are saying killed the elephants, we have never seen it. It is not even used here in
01:15the farms.
01:19How come only the elephants have allegedly died from the pesticide when we have been using these products for years?
01:26Even the older formulations, which were more dangerous than the ones we use today, never caused the deaths of these
01:33animals.
01:33We have lived alongside them for many years without any cases of pesticide poisoning.
01:41Kimana, bordering Amboseli National Park is one of Kenya's most productive farming regions supplying vegetables to Nairobi.
01:48While cyanide is regulated for mining, wildlife authorities say there is no evidence linking the poison to illegal mining in
01:56the park.
01:56The pesticides that are up in the market, they do not contain cyanide.
02:02Cyanide could be used for something totally different, not really for crop production.
02:07So we are yet to find out exactly the source of where the cyanide came from.
02:13Kenya has rebuild its elephant population to more than 36,000, but as farms expand around protected areas,
02:21conflict with people remain the second leading cause of elephant deaths after poaching.
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