How did Elephants get to Borneo? Now we may Know the Answer

How did Elephants get to Borneo? Now we may Know the Answer

Bornean pygmy elephants, the planet’s smallest living elephants, are a unique subspecies whose origins have long puzzled experts. The million-dollar question is when and how Asian elephants got to the island, there to split off into a subspecies of their own over time. Now a group of scientists say they…

Another Pygmy Elephant dies from Gunshot Wounds in Sabah

Another Pygmy Elephant dies from Gunshot Wounds in Sabah

Bornean pygmy elephants are facing existential threats in Sabah and so the death of any more wild elephants in the state is bad news. Yet just over the past few months several wild elephants have been shot dead by poachers or irate plantation workers. Now another wild elephant is dead….

Another Pygmy Elephant is Shot Dead

Another Pygmy Elephant is Shot Dead

The wild pygmy elephant was found dead near a small river at an oil palm plantation in Tawau. The pachyderm’s remains were riddled with three bullets. It doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out what happened: the bull elephant had been killed either by plantation workers or local farmers…

Pygmy Elephants face an Uncertain Future

Pygmy Elephants face an Uncertain Future

Every now and then reports of orphaned Bornean pygmy elephants being rescued by the Sabah Wildlife Department surface. These baby elephants have become lost while their mothers are nowhere to be seen. In the past seven years 22 baby elephants have been rescued this way. Many of them cannot survive,…

A Wild Elephant is Shot dead in Sabah

A Wild Elephant is Shot dead in Sabah

The female pygmy elephant was found dead on a plantation just outside a forest reserve in the Kinabatangan area of Sabah. The adult jumbo, which was around 10 years old, was riddled with wounds from shotgun pellets. She might have taken days to die of her wounds in great agony….

Taking stock on Endangered Species Day

Taking stock on Endangered Species Day

Malayan tigers. Malayan sun bears. Bornean orangutans. Bornean pygmy elephants. Sunda pangolins. Clouded leopards. Marbled cats. Helmeted hornbills. Hawksbill turtles. The list goes on. The list of endangered animals in Malaysia, that is. May 20 is Endangered Species Day, which has been held for a dozen years worldwide by conservationists…

Save Sabah from losing its Biodiversity

Save Sabah from losing its Biodiversity

Sabah is a hotspot of biodiversity, but the state is losing much of that very biodiversity, and fast. In fact, Sabah’s wildlife is already a mere shadow of its former self because of destructive human activities. Many local politicians openly acknowledge that much. Among them is Pang Nyuk Ming, assistant…

‘Sabre’ the Elephant has been killed by Poachers in Sabah

‘Sabre’ the Elephant has been killed by Poachers in Sabah

Last August a Bornean pygmy elephant made headlines globally thanks to its tusks, which had been growing downwards and backwards, giving the jumbo a sabre-toothed look. Nicknamed “Sabre” by local officials, the adult male elephant helped highlight the wondrous diversity of Sabah’s wildlife. A few months on, Sabre is dead, having been killed by…

Seven Elephants perish in Sabah

Seven Elephants perish in Sabah

Losing one wild elephant is bad enough. Losing seven is absolutely tragic. Yet that is the number of wild Bornean pygmy elephants that died recently at an abandoned quarry in southern Kalabakan after being stuck in mud for more than a week. The pachyderms succumbed to dehydration, stress and hunger….

Elephants are the ‘Gardeners of Forests’

Elephants are the ‘Gardeners of Forests’

They chew down large amounts of vegetation. They roam and forage far and wide in forests. And it’s a good thing too because by doing so elephants serve as the “gardeners” of those forests. So says elephant expert Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, who is the principal investigator for the Management and Ecology…

Saber-toothed Elephant found in Sabah

Saber-toothed Elephant found in Sabah

We’ve all heard of saber-toothed cats, those stately predators of the Paleolithic. But saber-toothed elephants? It turns out that they, too, do exist. Or at least some do. And in the forests of Sabah, no less. Wildlife officials in the Malaysian state have come across a Bornean pygmy elephant with large…

Dead Elephant is found in Kedah without its Tusks

Dead Elephant is found in Kedah without its Tusks

A group of anglers in Kedah state recently chanced upon an unwelcome find on their way to Pedu Lake: the remains of an elephant. The dead pachyderm had had its tusks removed in what seemed to be a professional manner. The animal was likely killed by poachers for its tusks,…

Malaysia’s Wild Elephants Need Help

Malaysia’s Wild Elephants Need Help

A disturbing phenomenon has puzzled and alarmed conservationists: wee little elephant calves are frequently found wandering abandoned and alone, without their mothers and herds. Over the past three years a total of 15 abandoned calves have been discovered near villages on the fringes of Sabah’s forests or inside palm oil…

Sabah’s Wild Elephants are Facing a Dangerous Genetic Bottleneck

Sabah’s Wild Elephants are Facing a Dangerous Genetic Bottleneck

As wildlife populations of endangered species shrink within a habitat, so does their genetic viability. With reduced gene pools, wild animals come to be increasingly at risk of inbreeding – the mating of two genetically closely related individuals. A frequent outcome of that: homozygosity, which increases their offspring’s chances of…