Elephant dies after suspected infighting
KOTA KINABALU: A juvenile male elephant was found dead near an abandoned logging camp of timber operator, Top Merchant, in the Kuamut Forest Reserve.
A Wildlife Department team was sent to the scene to investigate and conduct postmortem to determine the cause of the death after receiving a report on July 19.
The elephant was estimated to be between five to eight years old. Its tusks were still intact and it was believed that the elephant had died three to four days prior to the discovery.
The post-mortem result revealed that the elephant suffered from a severe crack on the left region of its skull which led to its death. The injury was most likely the result of a fight with a larger elephant in its herd.
The Sabah Wildlife Department thanked the staff of Rakyat Berjaya Sdn Bhd who alerted the Wildlife Department about the discovery.
Deputy Chief Minister Christina Liew yesterday expressed serious concern over the death of yet another elephant.
Liew, who is also the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, said she would instruct her officers to give her a report and a post-mortem on the death of the elephant.
“Since I took over the ministry, there have been reports of elephant’s death almost every other week. I would like to see an improvement on this,” she said, when asked by the media after Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Dr Wan Azizah had officiated at the closing of a seminar on PKR divisional annual general meeting and party election for Sabah here yesterday.
On July 16 the carcass of a male elephant was discovered by plantation workers at an oil palm plantation in Ulu Segama, Lahad Datu.
The Wildlife Department found that the elephant had an injured foot, believed due to a snare trap.
The elephant, believed to be between four and five years old, was believed to have died due to the infected wound and parasite infection.
At least eight elephants have been reported dead due to various reasons in Sabah between April and July this year.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal has ordered state authorities to investigate the deaths of these endangered Borneo pygmy elephants.