'Great loss': A three-month-old elephant calf attempts to wake its mother; one of ten pygmy elephants found dead in Malaysia's Sabah state
幼象不斷用鼻子觸碰母象的身體，不願離去。
Pygmy elephant calf desperately tries to wake up dead mother who was one of ten animals found poisoned
A total of ten of the creatures have been discovered in the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, Borneo, over the past three weeks
Conservation officials believe the endangered animals had been poisoned
Estimated to be fewer than 1,500 Borneo pygmy elephants in existence
Again and again, the baby elephant nudged its mother’s head hoping desperately for a sign of movement.
It was to no avail. She had become another victim of a mysterious spate of deaths in the tropical rainforest.
If wildlife officials had not led the three-month-old infant to safety, it would probably have remained beside its mother until it, too, died.
Its distress moved the rescuers to tears, and left them desperate to discover who or what caused the tragedy.
In total, ten Borneo pygmy elephants have been found dead in three weeks at the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve.
The bodies were all near to each otherand while poisoning appears to be the likely cause, it has yet to be determined whether it was intentional.
The animals still had their tusks, indicating that they had not been killed by poachers, and none had gunshot wounds.
The reserve’s head vet Sen Nathan said the elephants were all thought to be part of the same family group,and were aged between four and 20.
It has been said that Walt Disney could not have created a cuter creature than Borneo elephants, which have distinctive baby-faced features, oversized ears and long tails.
They grow to 8ft tall, a foot or two shorter than mainland Asian elephants. Fewer than 1,500 are believed to be in existence.
Attached: The baby elephant sticks close to the body of its mother, while a wildlife department official gives it a drink
Suspicious: Conservation officials believe the elephants, discovered in the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, had been poisoned
Will Travers, who founded the Born Free Foundation with his actor parents Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, said: ‘I have seen on numerous occasions that where the mother has died and the calf has nowhere else to go, it often stands by her until it too dies. So I’m not surprised by the image but I’m deeply saddened by it.’
He added that elephant calves are not fully weaned until they are three and a half or four. A male is likely to stay with its mother until it is around ten, and a female possibly for life.
Many animal behaviour experts believe that elephants mourn their dead just like humans.
Mr Travers said that a combination of close social bonds, excellent memory and long lifespan leads to the animals experiencing emotions similar to our own.
‘We call it grief, in elephant language it is something else, but it is the same emotion.’
'Sad day': A total of seven female and three male pygmy elephants have been found in the forest over the past three weeks
Tragic: The carcasses of the endangered animals were found in the forest over a period of three weeks
Oxford University research found elephants mourn their dead by ‘kissing’ their bodies with their trunks and even rocking to and fro with grief.
The creatures also show compassion towards the sick and dying, trying to nurse them back to health.
A separate study found that elephantsseem to be compelled to visit carcasses over and over again – even whenthe animal is long dead.
And calves orphaned by poachers are known to suffer nightmares, before losing the will to live and dying of grief.
Elephants are not alone in exhibiting human-like emotions. For instance, magpies hold ‘funerals’ for fallen friends, laying ‘wreaths’ of grass along roadside corpses.
And dolphins will stay by the side of stillborn calves for days.作者: WuSoLo 時間: 2013-2-6 01:12 AM
象是一種很著重家庭的動物，不知那些幼象失去長輩段會如伺呢 ...作者: markhamwong 時間: 2013-2-6 09:35 AM
看得難過死了。雖然很多英文看不太明白。
如果是人為的，真應該也把這些人都毒死！！作者: fidodidow2k 時間: 2013-2-7 07:00 AM
感謝大大分享.
既然象牙沒有被拿走.相信是吃到有毒植物吧.
一大家子都吃所以....作者: copycat201 時間: 2013-3-13 03:45 AM
If they got poison by nature, I have nothing to say. If it is not, I think those people should be shot as to kill endanger animal for money.作者: dickysan 時間: 2013-3-23 02:58 AM
