The Star 18 Jan 18;
KOTA KINABALU: A scientific study is shedding new light on how Borneo got its elephants.
The mysterious origin of the Bornean pygmy elephant – a subspecies of the Asian elephant which only exists in a small region – has long been debated.
In a study published in Scientific Reports, scientists are more inclined to believe the elephants might have arrived in Borneo during the time of the last land bridge between the Sunda Islands in South-East Asia.
The research team was led by Lounes Chikhi from Instituto Gulbenkian de Cincia (IGC, Portugal) and French National Centre for Scientific Research, Paul Sabatier University (France), Benoit Goossens, from Danau Girang Field Centre (Malaysia), Cardiff University (Wales) and the Sabah Wildlife Department.
But others concluded that Bornean elephants are very different from other Asian elephants and suggested a very ancient separation, perhaps about 300,000 years ago.
However, no elephant fossils have been discovered in Borneo, although fossils from other large mammals such as orang utan have been found, the scientist noted.
To shed light on the mysterious origin, Chikhi and Goossens’ team used genetic data analysis and computational modelling to study the demographic history of these animals.
“It is very difficult to track ancient demographic history of animals, even more when there are no fossil records to guide the work.
“What we did was to create computational models for different scenarios that might have happened. Then, we compared the results from these models with the existing genetic data, and used statistical techniques to identify the scenario that best explains the current genetic diversity of the elephant population in Borneo,” said Chikhi.
According to researcher Reeta Sharma, the most likely scenario is natural colonisation of Borneo around 11,400 to 18,300 years ago as human introduction seems improbable.
This period corresponds to a time when the sea level was very low and elephants could migrate from the Sunda Islands, a south-eastern Asia archipelago to which Borneo belongs, said Sharma, a researcher at the IGC and first co-author of the paper.
With fewer than 2,000 elephants left in the wild, Goossens said the study would be useful for the development of a long-term conservation strategy, as part of the 10-year State Action Plan for the Bornean elephant.
The key to Borneo pygmy elephants' survival
OLIVIA MIWIL New Straits Times 19 Jan 18;
KOTA KINABALU: A BETTER understanding of the origins of the Borneo pygmy elephants in Sabah is vital for their survival.
Danau Girang Field Centre researcher Benoit Goossens said understanding the pygmy elephants’ origins and past demography would be useful for the development of a long-term conservation strategy.
He said the centre, together with the Sabah Wildlife Department and other partners, was drafting a 10-year action plan to protect the elephants.
He said there were fewer than 2,000 pygmy elephants living in an increasingly fragmented environment. With regular news of poisoned or dead Bornean elephants, the future is grim for the endangered species.
A recent study by a joint research team, published in Scientific Reports, revealed that the elephants may have arrived on Borneo island at a time of the last land bridge between the Sunda Islands in Southeast Asia.
The research team was led by Lounes Chikhi from Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia (IGC, Portugal) and CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier (France), Cardiff University (Wales), Sabah Wildlife Department and Goossens.
“Until recently, there are two opposing theories on the origin of Bornean elephants: they could have been introduced by humans, maybe 300 years ago, or they could have diverged from Asian elephants a long time ago.
“There are records that in the 17th century, neighbouring sultans offered elephants as gifts to the Bornean sultans. On the other hand, about 15 years ago, a genetic study showed that the Bornean elephant’s DNA was very different from that of Asian elephants,” said Chikhi.
The team used genetic data analysis and computational modelling to study the demographic history of these animals.
“It is very difficult to track ancient demographic history of animals, even more when there are no fossil records to guide our work. What we did was to create computational models for different scenarios.
“Then we compared the results from these models with existing genetic data, and used statistical techniques to identify the scenario that best explained the current genetic diversity of the elephant population in Borneo.”
The results suggested that the most likely scenario to have occurred was a natural colonisation of Borneo around 11,400 to 18,300 years ago.
The period corresponded to a time when the sea levels were very low and elephants could migrate between the Sunda Islands.
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