CALF TRIES TO WAKE UP MUM AFTER 10 ELEPHANTS ARE POISONED
This is the heart-wrenching moment a baby pygmy elephant tried to wake its dead mother in a Malaysian forest. The mother was among 10 rare Borneo pygmy elephants found dead in suspected poisoning at Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, Sabah, in the past three weeks.
Some elephants have been killed for their tusks in Sabah in recent years, but there was no sign that the 10 animals — seven females and three males — had been targeted by poachers.
Wildlife authorities have formed a taskforce with the police and WWF to investigate the deaths. Photos of the calf nuzzling the body of its mother were released on Tuesday. “It was a very sad sight to see dead elephants, especially one of the dead females who had a calf of about three months old,” said senior veterinarian Sen Nathan. Borneo pygmy elephants are an endangered sub-species of the Asian elephant; there are fewer than 2,000 left in the wild.
