ZIMBABWE-CLIMATE-ANIMALS-ELEPHANTS

An elephant feeds as it starts to rain in Hwange National Park in Hwange, northern Zimbabwe on December 16, 2023. The 14,600 square kilometres (5,600 square mile) park is home to more than 450,000 savanna elephants, so many that they are considered a threat to the environment. The scene is still heart-breaking. Blackened corpses scar a landscape where the rains have been more than six weeks late and scorching temperatures have regularly hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). Some have fallen in dried up water-holes, some spent their final hours in the shade of a tree. Many are infant elephants, but all that is left is the shrivelled skin over the rotting carcass. The intact tusk is a sign that it was a natural death. But there is a heavy stench around the elephants. Marozva and his colleagues go on daily hunts for the bodies. The elephants have been demanding growing attention in recent years. (Photo by Zinyange Auntony / AFP) (Photo by ZINYANGE AUNTONY/AFP via Getty Images)