Two rare Indonesian elephants found dead without tusks

Two critically-endangered Sumatran elephants have been found dead in Indonesia's Aceh province with their tusks missing, police said Monday.

The first was found in a palm oil plantation in East Aceh district on Sunday, while the other was discovered in Aceh Jaya district on Friday, Aceh police spokesman Gustav Leo told AFP.

"Officials are still on the way to retrieve the carcass in the latest case," he said.

"But officials have examined the elephant found on Friday and found traces of poison in its faeces," he added.

"We suspect poachers could have poisoned the elephants' food and then wait(ed) for them to die before removing the tusks," he said.

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Appeal launched to help save the Sumatran elephant

In a bid to try and save the Critically Endangered Sumatran elephants in Aceh, Indonesia an emergency appeal has been launched by the UN’s Rapid Response Facility (RRF) on behalf of the local conservation group HAkA.

There are just 500 Sumatran elephants, which are the smallest of the Asian elephants, left and they live in fragmented habitats, as almost 70 per cent of elephant-suitable habitat has been destroyed in the last 25 years.

As a result of this their home, the tropical forests of the Leuser Ecosystem, is part of a designated World Heritage Site in Danger.

And conservationists fear that an increase in poaching could drive this number down even further.

In the first five months of this year, local conservation group HAkA has found and destroyed 139 snares – already more than in the whole of 2013.

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Poison feared as seven Sumatran elephants found dead

Dozens of the critically endangered animals have been killed on Indonesian island in recent years

Seven Sumatran elephants have been found dead in western Indonesia and it is thought they were poisoned, a wildlife official said on Monday.

Dozens of the critically endangered animals have died after being poisoned in recent years on Sumatra as the creatures come into conflict with humans due to the rapid expansion of palm oil plantations that destroy their habitat.

The latest to die were an adult female, five male teenagers, and a male calf believed to be from the same herd, said local wildlife agency spokesman Muhammad Zanir.

The remains were found on 16 February just outside Tesso Nilo national park and it is thought they died five months earlier, he said.

"There is an indication that they were poisoned," he said. "Some people may consider the elephants a threat to their palm oil plantations and poison them."

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Critically Endangered Sumatran elephants poisoned

Sumatra elephants probably poisoned for revenge

November 2012. Three critically-endangered Sumatran elephants have been found dead in Indonesia's Riau Province; local authorities believe that they were probably poisoned in a revenge attack by palm oil plantation workers.

Included a 1 year old baby
The decomposing carcases of the female elephants, including a year-old baby, were found just outside the Tesso Nilo National Park. Park chief Kupin Simbolon said "We believe they died from poisoning. The elephants probably entered a palm oil plantation and destroyed the huts belonging to workers, who then sought revenge by poisoning them."

Palm oil
Indonesia's endangered elephants, tigers, rhinos and orangutans are increasingly threatened by their shrinking habitat in the jungle, which is commonly cleared for commercial farming or felled for lumber. Only 3,000 Sumatran elephants are believed to remain in the wild, a drop of 50% since 1985.

Elephant Flying Squad
In 2004, WWF introduced the first Elephant Flying Squad to Riau Province in central Sumatra, to a village near the newly established Tesso Nilo National Park. It was a way to bring short-term relief to the intense conflict between people and elephants there and to create support for elephant conservation among hard-hit communities.

An Elephant Flying Squad consists of nine rangers with noise and light-making devices, a pick-up truck and four trained elephants that drive wild elephants back into the forest whenever they threaten to enter villages. It has proven to be very effective in reducing losses suffered by local communities near Tesso Nilo.

Sumatran elephants – declining rapidly

By 2008, Sumatran elephants had become locally extinct in 23 of the 43 ranges identified in Sumatra in 1985, indicating a very significant decline of the Sumatran elephant population. By 2008, the elephant was locally extinct in one of Sumatra’s eight mainland provinces (West Sumatra) and at risk of being lost from North Sumatra Province too. Only ca. 350 elephants survived across nine separate ranges in Riau Province, which in 1985 was considered to have the largest elephant population in Sumatra with over 1,600 individuals. 

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