An Interesting Story From the Newspaper About Elephants

Here is an interesting story from Friday, February 25th's Star newspaper. I still think it is pretty cool to be living in a country that still has wild elephants running around.

Captured jumbo ‘persuaded’ to leave forest
By SARBAN SINGH

SEREMBAN: It needed the “persuasive” skills of three female elephants and the experience of their mahouts to get a four-tonne wild male pachyderm out of the Gapau forest reserve here.

The male elephant, nicknamed Buyong by villagers and believed to be in his 40s, had initially refused to budge despite being shot with a tranquilliser by National Wildlife and Parks Department (Perhilitan) officers yesterday.

The three female elephants – Chek Mek in her 50s, Timor and Kala (both in their mid-30s) – had been brought in from the National Elephant Conservation Centre in Kuala Gandah, Pahang, and were taken to the place where Buyong had been tied since his capture on Sunday.

They were then brought together to allow the rangers to secure them with chains.

Animal help: Chek Mek and Kala and their mahouts trying to get Buyong (middle) to get into the truck at the Gapau forest reserve, Seremban. — LOW BOON TAT/The Star

The Asian elephant (elephas maximus), which has an estimated population of 1,200 in Peninsular Malay­sia, is usually found in the jungles of Johor, Pahang, Kelantan, Tereng­ganu, Perak and Kedah.

Perhilitan’s elephant management unit head Nasharuddin Othman said despite having lived in the wild, Buyong was not as aggressive as initially thought.

“We had to bring in the experienced Chek Mek, who has been helping us relocate wild elephants since 1979.

“She does not need to be ‘told’ much,” he said, adding that she had been used to relocate some 500 wild elephants.

He said Timor and Kala had been trained for similar rescue efforts over the past year and seemed to be frightened of Buyong initially.

“But Chek Mek was around to calm them down,” he said.

Nasharuddin said Buyong, which was bigger than the three female elephants, would be relocated to the Tasik Kenyir section of Taman Negara in Terengganu.

State Perhilitan director Mohd Zaide Mohd Zain said the last time a wild elephant was caught in the state was in the early 1990s.

He said 25 officers were involved in yesterday’s relocation exercise.

Villagers in Kampung Gagu contacted his officers on Feb 15 after spotting Buyong in the area.

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If you want to learn more about Asian Elephants then you should check out this article written by one of my ex-students, Cynthia Turnage, and me (mostly by Cynthia). http://www.eoearth.org/article/Asian_elephant