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New Straits Times

 

Pygmy jumbos may be relocated

Roy Goh

 

KOTA KINABALU, Fri: June 10

--

 

Sabah's pygmy elephants will have a better chance of survival if some of

them are moved out of their habitat.

Translocation from one forest to another and exchange programmes, with other

zoos for instance, could help ensure its continued existence.

 

Deputy State Wildlife Department director Laurentius Ambu said such options

could help reduce the number of elephants in certain " hotspots, " hence

allowing better control.

 

Hotspots are areas where plantations or even villages are located close to

wildlife reserves or forests.

 

" In other countries sometimes even culling is seen as an option but here we

do not see its relevance, " he said and noted such actions are aimed at

preventing " human-elephant " conflicts.

 

Laurentius said this in wake of the killing of a female pygmy elephant or

Bornean elephant in the Lower Kinabatangan area on Wednesday. A

investigation is now under way by the department with a team searching for

the carcass in the upper reaches of Sungai Kinabatangan.

 

Its decapitated head, with the trunk chopped off, was spotted floating along

Sungai Kinabatangan near Sukau, a tourist attraction popular for its high

density of wildlife.

 

Laurentius said translocation of elephants is costly apart from being risky.

" Moving them from one place to another would require a lot of manpower and

machines. On top of that once we move them, it would be hard to determine if

the elephants could adjust their way of life in the new place.

 

" Worse still if there are other elephants in the new areas, " he said but

revealed there have been a few successful translocations of elephants.

 

For the exchange programme Laurentius said it’s a normal practice where

countries exchange wild animals for zoos or parks .

 

" Here in Sabah we are in the process of setting up a zoological garden in

Lok Kawi.

 

" I am sure we can benefit if we exchange some of the elephants with other

animals and in the process there would be a transfer of knowledge, " he said.

 

The World Wildlife Fund-Malaysia chairman Tengku Datuk Dr Zainal Adlin said

the recent killing was likely a result of human-elephant conflict.

 

WWF surveys have found that some plantations in the Lower Kinabatangan area

stretch right to the riverbanks causing bottlenecks to wildlife movements.

 

Most elephant herds move about in areas that border plantations or villages.

 

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