Published on: Sunday, June 12, 2005 |
Kota Kinabalu: It may be necessary to relocate Sabah's pygmy elephants if they are to survive. 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 where plantations or even villages are located close to wildlife reserves or forests.
Laurentius said this in wake of the killing of a female pygmy elephant or Bornean elephant in the Lower Kinabatangan area on Wednesday. An investigation is under way with a team searching for the carcass in the upper reaches of Sungai Kinabatangan.
Its decapitated head, with the truck 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.
"Once we move them, it would also be hard to determine if the elephants could adjust their way of life in the new place".
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.
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 stretches right to the river-banks causing bottlenecks to wildlife movements.
