Poison Poison suspected in deaths of 10 endangered pygmy elephants in Borneo

Sabah Wildlife Department via AFP - Getty Images

A baby pygmy elephant stands beside a dead adult in the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve in Malaysia'

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 animalshad been poached.

"This is a very sad day for conservation and Sabah. The death of these majestic and severely endangered Bornean elephants is a great loss to the state," Masidi said in a statement. "If indeed these poor elephants were maliciously poisoned, I would personally make sure that the culprits would be brought to justice and pay for their crime."

My Response

This is just too cruel !! I am a lover of wildlife and believes that they are some of life's most wonderful creatures. There are many reasons why one would do this, but a justifiable one is hard to come by.