HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwean officials say poachers killed five elephants by poisoning them with cyanide.

Violet Makoto, spokeswoman for Zimbabwe's forestry commission, said Monday that rangers discovered the carcasses of the elephants with their tusks removed in a western forest last week. No arrests have been made.

Makoto said the poison was laced on salt licks, a method now regularly used by poachers to kill elephants in Zimbabwe.

She says poachers killed four other elephants in the same area in February.

The wildlife-rich southern African country has battled cyanide poisoning of wildlife by poachers for the past three years. Poachers killed 62 elephants by that method in October.