Indonesia: Killing of endangered Sumatran elephant sparks anger

The elephant was found dead close to the camp where he lived with his one-metre long tusks hacked off, leaving bloody stumps in its place.
Channel NewsAsia 21 Sep 15;

JAKARTA: A critically endangered Sumatran elephant who had patrolled Indonesia's jungles to help protect threatened habitats has been killed for his tusks, an official said Monday (Sep 21), sparking a surge of anger online.

Yongki, a tame creature who worked with teams of elephant keepers, was found dead close to the camp where he lived in a national park on the western island of Sumatra, said park official Timbul Batubara.

His one-metre (three-foot) tusks had been hacked off, leaving just bloody stumps, and his legs still bore the chains put on him by his keepers to ensure he stayed in the camp. There are estimated to be less than 3,000 Sumatran elephants remaining in the wild. They are frequently targeted by poachers for their tusks, which fetch a high price for use in Chinese traditional medicine.

Batubara, from the Bukit Barisan Selatan national park, said it was not yet known how Yongki was killed. His body, which was found Friday, bore no bullet wounds but he had a blue tongue. Elephants have in the past been poisoned.

Yongki, aged about 35, was well-known among the local "mahouts" or elephant keepers. Nazaruddin, the head of the Indonesian Mahout Forum, said keepers in the area were "very shaken".

"We are mourning the lost of an elephant who has been helping us in handling conflicts and helping forest rangers patrol the forest, and he was a good elephant," Nazaruddin, who goes by one name, told AFP.

The elephant was involved in patrols aimed at reducing tensions, with the tame elephants stopping wild elephants from rampaging through villages. The patrols also help rangers keep a lookout for illegal logging and poaching that threaten Indonesia's vast rain forests.

There was anger on social media after pictures of the elephant's body circulated, with users posting comments on Twitter next to the hashtag #RIPYongki. "It is time we enforce life sentences for hunters of legally protected animals," said Facebook user Aprilia Putri.

Protection group the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the Sumatran elephant as critically endangered. It is one of many species that are under threat in Indonesia.

- AFP/yt

Elephant poaching in TNBBS probed
The Jakarta Post 23 Sep 15;

The management at the South Bukit Barisan National Park (TNBBS) in Lampung has launched an investigation into the killing of Yongki, a tame Sumatran elephant that was found dead recently with his ivory tusks missing.

In a written statement, TNBBS Center head Timbul Batubara said the 35-year-old male elephant, which had been a member of the park’s elephant patrol team over the past several years, had been found dead on Friday at 7:30 a.m. local time with severe wounds found at the base of his missing two tusks.

Yongki’s body, according to Timbul, was discovered just 300 meters behind his patrol camp in Pemerihan, West Pesisir regency, which is situated some 120 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital of Bandar Lampung.

“There are indications that the elephant was killed,” Timbul said, as quoted by Antara news agency on Tuesday.

The center’s provisional investigation, according to Timbul, found no gunshot wounds in Yongki’s body. Apart from a suspiciously bluish tongue, Yongki’s mouth also showed no trace of foam that might indicate poisoning.

Yongki’s internal organs, meanwhile, looked normal despite the finding of a colon infection caused by a paramphistomum parasite worm.

“This [killing] case is now under investigation,” he said.

Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Indonesia recently revealed that the elephant population in Sumatra had continued to decline over the past decade mainly because of poaching, particularly in Riau, Aceh and North Sumatra.

WCS said the population of Sumatran elephants was currently no higher than 1,000, or 69 percent lower than that of 25 years ago.

The decrease in the population of Sumatran elephants has caused the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to list the species as endangered.

Indonesian Mahout Forum chairman Nazarudin, who helped captured Yongki in the wildlife, said the elephant and his herd used to attack crop fields belonging to local residents in West Lampung regency.

“In 1994, we managed to capture him and several of his friends who lagged behind their herd after storming a crop field,” he said, as quoted by kompas.com.

Yongki was later trained to become a patrol elephant, whose main duty was to anticipate wild elephant attacks on human beings in an effort to prevent deadly conflicts.

After several years patrolling in the Way Kambas National Park area, also in Lampung, Yongki was transferred in 2009 to the TNBBL area. In his new patrol camp, Yongki lived with four male elephants — Karnangin, Renggo, Tomi and Sampot — and a female elephant named Arni.

Nazarudin, who works in Way Kambas, said Yongki was among just a few patrol elephants able find traces of wild elephants. Yongki was also able to help park officers find their way back home after conducting a patrol in the heart of a forest.

“I have lost count of how many times Yongki was involved in our conflict prevention operations,” Nazarudin said. “[His involvement] helped reduce the number of elephants killed by humans.”

Yongki’s killing has also sparked anger among netizens. On Tuesday, Twitter, for example, reported that the hashtag #RIPYongki had become a trending topic in Indonesia.

“It is a very sad story to hear #RIPYongki,” said humanitarian worker Syamsul Ardiansyah on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

Budhi Astika, another Twitter-user, also shared his condolences.