The stench of rotting elephant carcasses hangs in the air in western Zimbabwe, where wildlife officials say at least 91 elephants were poisoned with cyanide by poachers who hack off the tusks for the lucrative illegal ivory market.Huge bones, some already bleached by the blistering sun in the Hwange National Park, litter the landscape around one watering hole where 18 carcasses were found. Officials say cyanide used in gold mining was spread by poachers over mineral-rich salt licks. They say lions, hyenas, and vultures have also died."The magnitude of what we are witnessing today is much higher than what has occurred previously," Environment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere told reporters in the park Monday.Cyanide attacks the bloodstream, kills almost instantly, and causes rapid decomposition. The chemical is commonly used by illegal gold panners to separate the metal from surrounding ore.Nine suspected poachers have been arrested in the last month after the biggest, most brutal poaching rampage on record. Three men were sentenced to up to 16 years in jail. The park, stretching over 5,400 square miles, has one of the highest concentrations of elephants in Africa.Kasukuwere, newly appointed after disputed elections won by President Robert Mugabe in July, said Zimbabwe would intensify efforts to campaign around the globe - including Asia, where there is the highest demand for ivory - to curb a trade declared illegal by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.Tusks are thought to have been smuggled into neighboring South Africa through illicit syndicates that pay desperately poor poachers a fraction of the $1,500 a kilogram (2.2 pounds) that ivory can fetch on the black market.
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