Endangered pygmy elephant shot dead on Borneo

A pygmy elephant was shot dead on Borneo island after it destroyed villagers' crops, a Malaysian wildlife official said Thursday, the latest of the endangered creatures to be killed.

The male elephant, believed to be about four years old, was found Monday by the side of a road in the state of Sabah, on the Malaysian part of Borneo, local wildlife department director Augustine Tuuga told AFP.

"(The elephant) was killed out of revenge for destroying crops," he said, adding the crops included palm oil trees.

He said the creature's tusks remained intact, indicating the elephant was not killed by poachers seeking to sell its ivory on the black market.

It was the latest case in Malaysia of human-animal conflict, which happens when human settlements or agricultural plantations expand into a species's natural habitat.

Malaysia is home to vast tracts of rainforest and a kaleidoscope of exotic wildlife, from elephants to orangutans and tigers, but the numbers of many rare species have fallen dramatically in recent decades.

As well as human-animal conflict, many endangered animals are hunted for their body parts which fetch a high price for use in traditional medicine in China, and elsewhere in Asia.

At least 18 pygmy elephants have been killed in Malaysian Borneo since April, The Star newspaper reported. Causes of death included elephants being targeted by poachers and poisoning.

Pygmy elephants are baby-faced with large ears, plump bellies and long tails that sometimes drag on the ground, according to environmental group WWF.

Rainforest-clad Borneo is the world's third-largest island and is shared between Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

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State Govt reward for info on jumbo killers

Kota Kinabalu: The State Government will offer a reward to those with information that can lead to the arrest of those who kill pygmy elephants.

Newly-appointed State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Christina Liew said on Tuesday that the policy will be reactivated to deal with the cause of the killing of the species down at its roots.

She said the killing of pygmy elephants in Sabah is "getting worse", expressing sadness that one of the elephants killed was only about a year old.

"The Ministry will also reactivate the giving of rewards to witnesses. Anybody in the plantations who see elephants being killed and is willing to come forward as a witness will be rewarded," she told a press conference after attending a briefing session with ministry officials on its functions. It was her first day in office.

Liew said the reward policy is one of the measures the Ministry will take to bring elephant killers to justice.

The short term measures she said are to increase the number of field rangers in plantations and to engage with a consultant to advice the State Government on how best to deal with the human-elephant conflict.

She said the ministry has identified an expert but has yet to engage the person.

She also said that the Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal had called her regarding the deaths of the six pygmy elephants. Shafie was reportedly puzzled why the elephant killing still occurred despite many claims of solutions from the previous government.

He was quoted as saying that the previous government perhaps did not have the political will to push through more drastic actions that would affect logging companies and plantations.

He demanded no more lip service but insisted on seeing short and long-term conservation plans to be implemented on a fast track basis.

He also promised that the Warisan government will facilitate the efforts and will not bow dowm to pressure from any groups.

The latest incident was reported following the discovery of an elephant carcass, believed to be a baby elephant, floating in Sungai Kinabatangan last Saturday. - Leonard Alaza


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