These are the shocking and tragic images that show how elephants are being killed by the same people who are paid to keep them safe.

[WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT]

With their heads and trunks cut off, the majestic animals were mutilated with such barbarity that the pictures are too distressing to display.

Sadly, they are just some of around 62 elephants - including several babies - reportedly killed by rangers who at the Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, in a dispute over low wages.

The men are paid to protect the animals from poachers but it is believed they brutally killed them as a form of protest over their poor salary.

They are also said to have removed the tusks from the bodies so that they could sell them for their own benefit.

The method of slaughter is an act of cowardice - around 22 elephants were poisoned by cyanide hidden in salt stones and oranges that they fed on.

A source told The Telegraph that workers were paid late and were not reimbursed for fuel while travelling around the park.

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They said: “I am afraid there are serious management problems within parks.

“Some of the rangers are very dissatisfied with their remuneration and say that they are not getting some allowances they believe they should get.

“So many of us believe that some of the poaching at the moment is organised and executed by some rangers in parks, and we don’t know how this will be sorted out.”

Some 35 tusks have been recovered in the Sinamatela area of the park - the same place where Cecil the lion lived before he was killed by U.S. dentist Walter Palmer.

The source added that several other species are also dying as a result of cyanide on the ground.

Around 300 elephants died last year as a result of cyanide poisoning, with poachers removing the tusks to sell to buyers in eastern Asian countries.

Caroline Washaya-Moyo, spokeswoman for the parks and wildlife management authority, said that sniffer dogs and drones will be used in the fight against poaching.

Pics: Reuters