The recent deaths of 15 elephants near a park in southern Kenya were likely caused by the animals ingesting pesticides used on tomato farms, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) says. Last Tuesday, KWS announced it was investigating the elephant deaths in Amboseli. Conservation organisation Big Life Foundation chief executive Benson Leyian says the elephant deaths are a cause for concern. “Thanks to decades of community-centred conservation, the Amboseli elephant population is one of the best protected in Africa, and elephant poaching has been virtually eliminated here. Aside from losses during periods of severe drought, we haven’t seen a cluster of elephant deaths like this for some time,” he says.