River Keeper Unit Established In Sabah To Protect Elephants

 

KOTA KINABALU: A special River Keeper Unit has been established in Sabah's Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (LKWS), an initiative aimed at protecting Borneo pygmy elephants and other wildlife.

"Honorary wildlife wardens" from local communities will be tasked with checking for illegal activities such as encroachment on reserves, illegal logging and hunting along the river.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu said the unit will complement efforts of his department as their resources were insufficient to cover the whole state.

He said the River Keeper Unit would assist in monitoring wildlife as well as threats to wildlife along the river and within the LKWS.

The unit is headed by community members Mohd Syafendy Yajit and Sudirman Sawang, who are well suited for the job as both have years of experience working with the Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Programme under HUTAN, a French NGO involved in conservation activities.

HUTAN's scientific director Dr Marc Ancrenaz said that the local wardens also had a lot of field experience with elephants.

"The unit will conduct day and night patrols to monitor and prevent illegal activities such as encroachment in riparian reserves, illegal logging and hunting along the 260 kms of river within the LKWS, from Lokan to Abai villages," Dr Acrenaz added.

The River Keeper Unit was established jointly by the Wildlife department, HUTAN and Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) and is being funded by Elephant Family and the Kinabatangan-Corridor of Life Tourism Operators Association (KiTA).

The River Keeper Unit will be based at the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) in Kinabatangan and will also monitor tourism activities along the Kinabatangan river, stopping any boats getting too close to the elephants.

DGFC director Dr Benoit Goossens said although tourism can boost economic development, ill-managed activities could also be a nuisance to elephants and their habitat.

"With this in mind, one of the major roles of the River Keeper Unit will be to investigate elephant responses to tourism activities along the Kinabatangan and to come up with wildlife-watching guidelines that will be provided to the different tour operators in the Kinabatangan with the goal of minimizing tourism disturbance for wildlife," he said.

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Ten wandering pygmy elephants in Sabah translocated to Tabin elephant range

photo credit: Borneo Insider

LAHAD DATU: Ten Borneo pygmy elephants that had ventured more than 45 km from the Tabin Managed Elephant Range, ending up 10 km from Lahad Datu town, were rescued over a period of one week from Jan 18.

The effort coordinated by the Wildlife Rescue Unit (WRU) under the Sabah Wildlife Department saw nine female elephants taken back to the Tabin Wildlife Reserve, while a sole young male aged about four years was sent to Lok Kawi Wildlife Park near Kota Kinabalu due to severe injury to his trunk, which was probably caused by a snare trap.

WRU senior officer Jibius Dausip said a team was dispatched after receiving a call from a man at Sri Tungku Simpang Ladang Permai to complain that elephants were roaming near his house.

He said the elephants, of various ages, were most likely part of a family group that had ventured beyond its traditional range.

In a statement issued jointly by the Sabah Wildlife Department and Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) on Wednesday, WRU wildlife veterinarian Dr Diana Ramirez said the injured male had to be sent to Lok Kawi Wildlife Park as it would have had minimum chance of survival in the wild.

She said two of the biggest females were collared with satellite units provided by the DGFC to track their movements.

However, tracking after a month has shown that the two females named Bikang 1 and Bikang 2 had yet to meet following their release on Jan 20 and Jan 23 respectively.

The department's senior officer and WRU manager Dr Senthilvel Nathansaid it was impossible to translocate and release the whole group in one day for logistic reasons.

"We are currently studying the possibility of releasing future translocated herds together to prevent them from separating.

"It might cost more and it would be logistically more challenging because we would need to set up a pre-release holding area and rent more transporting lorries.

"However, our main concern is the elephants' welfare and to keep the group dynamics intact," Nathan said.

DGFC director Dr Benoit Goossens said extensive agriculture through plantations such as oil palm had considerably reduced the habitat of elephants and other wildlife in Sabah, therefore increasing human-elephant conflicts.

He said the recent death of 14 elephants was most likely a result of human-elephant conflict in elephant ranges and hence, there was an obvious need to better manage the landscape within and around plantations by providing routes for wildlife to move from one forest to another.

"After one month of satellite monitoring, we can confirm that the two females have been exploring the reserve and have not (yet) ventured into the plantations around Tabin.

“If they ever return to the vicinity of Lahad Datu, we will be able to analyse their migratory pattern and advice the plantation owners on how to fence their land to avoid any more intrusion.

"While establishing corridors within plantations and between forest reserves can be a solution to mitigate conflicts, there is also an urgent need to stop any land conversion in elephant ranges as stated in the recently launched State Elephant Action Plan.

“All forest reserves in elephant ranges should be upgraded to Class One, providing a haven for elephants," said Goossens.

He said elephant translocation was part of a long-term programme that the Sabah Wildlife Department and DGFC kick-started last year to tackle human-elephant conflicts in plantations such as oil palm.

Funding is currently provided by The Asian Elephant Foundation and the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund. - Bernama

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Police open investigation paper on elephant death

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah police have opened an investigation paper on the mysterious death of 14 Borneo pygmy elephants in the Rara Forest Reserve in Tawau.

Sabah police commissioner Datuk Hamza Taib said the case would be investigated under Section 429 of the Penal Code for mischief by killing or maiming of an animal. The offence carries a maximum imprisonment for five years or with fine or both.

“The Forestry Department is also investigating, but our investigation will be on crime aspect,” he told reporters
after the opening of a halfway house in Kepayan by Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wira Abu Seman Yusop.

He said police would record statements from local residents to assist investigation.

Yesterday, State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun confirmed that 14 Borneo pygmy elephants had been found dead in the Rara Forest Reserve, about 139km from Tawau. — Bernama

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Fourteenth rare Borneo pygmy elephant found dead

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 31, 2013 (AFP) - A fourteenth rare Borneo pygmy elephant has been found dead of suspected poisoning, Malaysian officials said Thursday, the latest in a series of fatalities that has shaken conservation efforts.

Meanwhile, an official warned that a three-month-old baby elephant, poignantly photographed trying to nuzzle its dead mother, was losing weight fast and may not survive.

The decomposed remains of the latest known victim were located on Wednesday, said Laurentius Ambu, director of the wildlife department in the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island.

Officials believe the animals may have been poisoned, possibly by substances left out by workers at nearby oil palm plantations to deter the animals from eating their palm fruit.

They fear more dead pygmy elephants -- an endangered species -- could be found because they usually roam Borneo's jungles in herds of 50 to 60 animals.

Masidi Manjun, Sabah's tourism, culture and environment minister, warned it would be a "challenging task" to keep the three-month-old orphaned calf alive as it was consuming only half its normal 30 litres (7.9 gallons) of milk daily.

"It is surviving, but it is going to be a challenging task," he told AFP by phone from Sabah of the calf, which has been named "Joe".

It is being kept in quarantine at a wildlife park and has lost 10 kilograms (22 pounds) after being traumatised by an 800 kilometre (497 mile) road journey to the park, the Star newspaper said Thursday.

State officials on Tuesday released photos of the original 10 pachyderms to be found dead, including one of the orphan and its dead mother.

A chemists' report on the beasts would be completed next week and could reveal what killed them. Poisoning is suspected due to severe ulceration and bleeding in the animals' digestive tracts.

Dozens of wildlife officials, police and other personnel have been dispatched to comb through the Gunung Rara reserve, where the carcasses have been found, for other possible victims.

Masidi vowed to push for severe punishment including a stiff jail sentence for anyone found to have maliciously poisoned the animals.

"It is a combination of anger and sadness. I am still grieving. I fail to understand human behaviour," he said.

WWF-Malaysia in a statement blamed the deaths on rampant felling of forests by planters, which had forced elephants to find alternative food and space and put them in conflict with humans.

The group says only about 1,200 Borneo pygmy elephants, which are smaller and have more rounded features than full-sized Asian elephants, are estimated to be left in the wild.

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Orang utan population up by 20% in Sabah’s protected forests

 

KOTA KINABALU: Orang utan population within totally protected areas has increased by over 20 percent in Sabah's lower Kinabatangan since the first census was done seven years ago.

The number of orang utans orang-utans living within totally protected areas (TPA) increased from 38 percent to 60 percent, an orang utan conservationist Dr. Marc Ancrenaz said.

Dr Ancrenaz, who is co-director of the HUTAN Kinabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Programme (HUTAN-KOCP), said the increasing population reflected a commitment by all, especially the state government, to protect more forest areas.

However, he did not disclose the number of orang utans within the totally protected forest areas.

The Sabah Forestry Department had recently increased the areas deemed totally protected forest reserves to help further in the conservation of orang utans and other species such as the Borneo pygmy elephant, Sunda clouded leopard, Sunbear, and hornbills and others.

“The recent areas regazetted as Class I (totally protected forest reserve) are lowland forests which are favoured for agriculture development. But the state government has shown that they value the environmental security in the long term by making them TPAs instead of going for short term profits,” Dr Ancrenaz, a wildlife veterinarian who has been working on wildlife issues in Sabah since 1998.

However, the biggest issue for orang-utan conservation in Sabah remains the problem of isolation and fragmentation of protected forests, primotologist Dr. Isabelle Lackman, who is a co-director HUTAN KOCP said in a statement.

“While the Kinabatangan has been protected by the Sabah Wildlife Department since gazetting in 2005, the Sanctuary is very broken up with some protected forests being totally isolated and this is not healthy for the long term survival of orang utan in the area,” Lackman explained.

“Our studies have shown that we need to reconnect patches of forest to ensure that we have a viable orang utan population for the future and this can be achieved by reconnecting these forest either by having patches of forest that orang utans can travel through or a contiguous corridor of forest,” Lackman added.

She felt that all planned and future conversion of even small forest patches needs to be stopped to ensure the viability of the long-term survival of the orang utan population in the lower Kinabatangan.

 

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ygmy elephant translocated from plantation to forest reserve in Sabah’s East Coast

5th June, 2012

SANDAKAN: A Borneo pygmy elephant was translocated on May 28, from an oil palm plantation near Lahad Datu to the Ulu Kalumpang Forest Reserve, as part of a long-term programme to tackle human-elephant conflicts in plantations.

To track its movements within the 510km square reserve that has only 10 elephants, the bull was fitted with a satellite collar in the programme run by the Sabah Wildlife Department and the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC).

According to a joint press release from the department and DGFCyesterday, the elephant has been “checking out” his new home in the past week, and both parties are hopeful it will adapt to the reserve.

Read More : http://www.newsabahtimes.com.my

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