15 endangered Sumatra elephants poisoned and shot in 2009

05/07/2009 05:26:37 Habitat destruction caused by logging and forest clearance creating human-elephant conflict
July 2009. So far this year some 15 highly endangered Sumatran elephants have been killed, mostly shot or poisoned with cyanide-laced fruit, during the ongoing human-elephant conflict in Sumatra. This conflict is the result of rapid logging and forest clearance around the region around Tesso Nilo, so elephants with no place to go are forced to wander in search of food, making farms and commercial plantations an irresistible temptation for elephant-sized appetites.

Several elephants were killed in Sumatra's Riau province in or near oil palm plantations, and forensic tests showed they had eaten cyanide-laced pineapples; others were shot in the head.

Shrinking habitat
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.

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.