STEPHANIE LEE The Star 2 Dec 14;
KOTA KINABALU: An adult female elephant found dead by the roadside near Danum Valley on Monday was a victim of a mating ritual gone awry.
Sabah Wildlife Department director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu said foul play had been ruled out in the incident as post-mortem results showed trauma in the elephant's head and shoulder region as there was evidence of brain congestion and haemorrhage.
"From the injuries found on her, we believe the female elephant was a mating ritual victim," he explained on Tuesday.
"Based on reports, there was a group of 40 elephants in the vicinity and there is a strong reason to believe that there was fighting among some of the bull elephants prior to the female elephant's death," he said.
The carcass of the elephant is believed to be aged between 15 and 20 years old, and was discovered by a group of tourists and their guides heading towards the renowned research site, some 78km from east coast Lahad Datu.
Adult elephant found dead near Danum Valley
STEPHANIE LEE The Star 2 Dec 14;
KOTA KINABALU: Wildlife officials are looking into the death of an adult female elephant near Danum Valley.
The carcass of the elephant was found lying on the roadside by tourists and their tour guides who were heading towards the renowned field research station and conservation area some 74km from east coast Lahad Datu on Monday morning.
Assistant Wildlife director Dr Sen Nathan said it was too early to determine the cause of its death, adding that a post-mortem is being carried out to ascertain how or why the elephant died.
“There are no indications of how it died. There was no gunshot wound as well,” he said on Tuesday.
“We are investigating but for now, we need to wait for the post-mortem results first,” he said.
A picture of the dead elephant, which was posted in Facebook, saw many people expressing their concern that elephants were again being killed.
In Jan last year, 10 pygmy elephants were found dead in east coast Tawau.
The elephants were reportedly poisoned but the incident remains a mystery as there was no evidence.
Dept probes death of female elephant
The Star 4 Dec 14;
KOTA KINABALU: Wildlife officials are looking into the death of an adult female elephant discovered not far from Danum Valley.
The carcass of the elephant was found on the roadside on Monday morning by tourists who were heading to the Danum Valley Field Centre which is a prominent rainforest research establishments in the region.
Sabah Wildlife Department assistant director Dr Sen Nathan said a post-mortem was being carried out to determine its cause of death.
“There are no indications of how it died. There was no gunshot wound,” he said.
A picture of the dead elephant which was posted in Facebook saw many people expressing concern that elephants were again being killed.
In January last year, 10 pgymy elephants were found dead in Tawau.
Signs showed that those elephants were poisoned but the deaths still remain a mystery as no evidence was found or arrests of culprits had been made until now.
