Pygmy elephants found dead in Borneo after 'poisoning'

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/29/pygmy-elephants-found-dead-borneo?intcmp=122


A pygmy elephant calf next to its dead mother in Gunung Rara forest reserve, Malaysia. Photograph: Reuters

Ten endangered Borneo pygmy elephants have been found dead in a Malaysian forest under mysterious circumstances, and wildlife officials say they were probably poisoned.

Carcasses of the baby-faced elephants were found near each other over the past three weeks at the Gunung Rara forest reserve, said Laurentius Ambu, director of the wildlife department in Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo island.

In one case, officers rescued a three-month-old calf that was trying to wake its dead mother.

Poisoning appeared to be the likely cause, but officials have not determined whether it was intentional, said the Sabah environmental minister Masidi Manjun. Though some elephants have been killed for their tusks on Sabah in past years, there was no sign that these animals had been poached.

[Nihil]

1. That is heartbreakingly sad.

> In one case, officers rescued a three-month-old calf that was trying to wake its dead mother.