Sabah puzzled by deaths of 10 rare pygmy elephants
(01-29 14:48)
Ten endangered pygmy elephants have been found dead this month in Malaysian Borneo and are thought to have been poisoned, conservation officials said.
Wildlife authorities in Sabah, a state on the eastern tip of the island, have formed a taskforce together with the police and WWF to investigate the deaths, AFP reports.
Laurentius Ambu, Sabah wildlife department director, said it received a report last Wednesday of four dead pygmy elephants in the Gunung Rara forest reserve.
But officials found another four animals, a rare sub-species of the Asian elephant, dead or dying, he said.
Wildlife officials suspect poisoning after finding severe ulceration and bleeding in their digestive tracts.
There are fewer than 2,000 Borneo pygmy elephants, which are smaller and have more rounded features compared to normal Asian elephants, left in the wild, according to authorities.
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