iStockphoto
Hippo over anthrax spores
Most people associate anthrax with the attacks that gripped the United States in the wake of 9/11. However, the naturally occurring substance behind that infection can also wreak havoc in the wild, which has been the case at a national park in Africa where dozens of rhinos have died after being exposed to it.
America was already on high alert in the wake of the terrorist attacks that unfolded on September 11, 2001 before a new threat suddenly made headlines just a week after the tragedy unfolded.
A number of media outlets and multiple members of the United States Senate received letters that contained a white powder that was ultimately identified as anthrax, a highly toxic bacterium that claimed the lives of five people who came into contact with the substance and led to seventeen more being hospitalized.
The letters sparked another national panic before they stopped being delivered a few weeks after the first one was opened, and the FBI ultimately determined the most likely culprit was Bruce Edwards Ivins, a microbiologist who was working at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Maryland’s Fort Dix at the time (he died by suicide in 2008 after discovering he was under investigation).
There’s still no concrete evidence concerning Ivins’ guilt, but the lab where he was employed had the ability to synthesize anthrax, which is technically the name for the infection that’s caused by the spores of the bacterial strain Bacillus anthracis.
The World Health Organization believes between 2,000 and 20,000 people fall victim to an anthrax infection each year; the bacteria are primarily found in soil, and the spores can make their way into animals that can subsequently pass them on to humans who consume their meat or handle byproducts.
It can also be found around the globe, and a national park in Africa is grappling with an outbreak that has had a significant impact on its hippopotamus population.
Dozens of hippos have died after being infected with anthrax at a national park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the oldest national park in Africa. The protected expanse, which covers around 3,000 square miles in the eastern part of the country, celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding in 2025.
The park is home to a wide array of fauna, including gorillas, elephants, and lions. It is also home to an estimated 2,700 hippos that roam in more than 170 distinct groups, a population that lost 65 members due to an anthrax outbreak in 2025.
According to The New York Times, they have once again fallen victim to the bacterium, as park officials say 30 hippos have died in another outbreak that began in September. Overseers sent “suspicious carcasses” to a lab for analysis when they started to pop up, and the park was put on high alert after anthrax was blamed.
Things are trending in the right direction, as ABC News reports there have not been any new cases detected in the past two weeks. Heavy rainfall was blamed for exposing the spores that triggered the wave, and the head of the park’s conservation program said she “is cautiously optimistic that there won’t be any further cases.”