A POST-MORTEM on a female pygmy elephant shot dead near the Malua forest reserve in Sabah suggests it was killed about a week earlier, Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said. 

The elephant had gun shots on the head, stomach and waist. Some of the buck shot and BB pellets penetrated into the elephant’s internal organs.

“The elephant could have been shot by a ‘trigger happy’ hunter or by those angry with elephants damaging their oil palm,” he added. 

The elephant is estimated to be 10 years old and measured 2.4m high, said Tuuga, adding that an elephant herd was nearby at the time of inspection. 

Sabah Tourism, Environment and Culture Minister Masidi Manjun expressing his disappointment over the killing of the elephant, said this is a sign of human-animal conflict and a lack of conservation awareness among Sabahans. 

According to Tuuga, the female elephant was found dead at the Golden Apex Plantation, in Kinabatangan, about 100m from the Malua forest reserve boundary. 

“The animal was first noticed by a plantation worker around 7am on August 4 on his way to work. The animal was still alive and lying on its side.”

The worker then informed the plantation manager the next day and by then, the animal was dead. – August 7, 2017.