The start of 2021 was a fairly quiet month as there were only 3 cases.
One case involved the ear-notching of 6 black rhinos in Tsavo East National Park. The other two cases were elephant post-mortems, but due to the advanced decompensation, a definite cause of death was not determined for either of the elephants. However as the tusks were intact and there was no sign of human activity, or weapons such as arrows or spears present in or around the carcasses, the deaths were assumed to be natural.