SANDAKAN – A female pygmy elephant was found dead at Lot 4 of the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, here on Tuesday (August 22).
Sabah Wildlife Department director, Augustine Tuuga, told Scoop today that while the cause of death is still under investigation, damage to the surrounding area showed the possibility that the elephant had fought with other elephants before it died.
“There was no wound on the outside of the elephant’s body. We can yet to identify the cause of death,” he said, after sharing pictures of the carcass covered in mud.
Tuuga said he is still waiting for full details of the case from the Wildlife Department’s personnel in Kinabatangan, and a full statement will be released soon.
The human-elephant conflict on Sabah’s east coast has been a long-running issue, with several cases of elephant deaths reported in Kinabatangan, Beluran, Telupid, and Kalabakan in 2020.
In 2010 and 2011, Sabah recorded 145 cases of elephant deaths due to poaching, revenge killing, and poisoning, as well as accidents, illnesses, and other unknown reasons.
However, cases of elephant deaths appeared to have reduced from the beginning of last year.
The last elephant death case was reported on October 11, 2022, in which an adult elephant was found dead in Kalabakan, Tawau. – August 24, 2023