Second elephant poached in Kruger Park

A second elephant has been killed for its tusks in the Kruger National Park's Parfuri region in the last few months, the park said on Thursday (31/07/2014).

The dead elephant was found on Wednesday in Parfuri, 10km from the Mozambican and Zimbabwean borders, KNP spokeswoman Martina Polley said in a statement.

"SANParks officials discovered the two-day-old carcass with its tusks hacked out yesterday morning."

No further details regarding the age or sex of the elephant were available. No one had been arrested in connection with the crime.

A bull elephant was shot dead in the same region in May, and its tusks hacked off.

SANparks spokesman William Mabasa said: "Elephant poaching has been happening for a while now in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, so we did expect that it would at some stage reach our area."

He said Parfuri was vulnerable to poachers because of its proximity to both the Mozambican and Zimbabwean borders.

"It makes it a prime target for criminal syndicates operating on the other side of these borders." - Sapa