09 Aug 2007 - Gland, Switzerland
– A new WWF study tracking pygmy elephants
by satellite shows that the remaining herds
of this endangered species, which live only
on the island of Borneo, are under threat
from habitat loss and forest fragmentation.
According to the study, Borneo pygmy elephants
depend for their survival on forests situated
on flat, low lands and in river valleys, the
study found. Unfortunately, it is also the
type of terrain preferred for commercial oil
palm, rubber and timber plantations.
Over the past four decades, 40% of the forest
cover of the Malaysian State of Sabah – in
the northeast of Borneo where most of pygmy
elephants are – has been lost to logging,
conversion for plantations and human settlement.
“The areas that these elephants need to survive
are the same forests where the most intensive
logging in Sabah has taken place, because
flat lands and valleys incur the lowest costs
when extracting timber,” said Raymond Alfred,
Head of WWF-Malaysia’s Borneo Species Programme.
“However, the Malaysian government’s commitment
to retain extensive forest habitat throughout
central Sabah, under the Heart of Borneo agreement,
should ensure that the majority of the herds
have a home in the long term.”
The Heart of Borneo initiative is a conservation
and sustainable development programme aimed
at conserving the last large expanse of contiguous
forest on Borneo. The Heart of Borneo covers
240,000km2 of rainforest that straddles the
border between Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia
and Malaysia. In February 2007, the ministers
of these three Bornean governments signed
an historic declaration to conserve and sustainably
manage the Heart of Borneo.
Satellite tracking
The WWF study, the largest using satellite
collars ever attempted on Asian elephants,
suggests that pygmy elephants prefer lowland
forests because there is more food of better
quality on fertile lowland soils.
But the study also shows that elephants’
movements are noticeably affected by human
activities and forest disturbance. Data gathered
so far reveals there are probably not more
than 1,000 pygmy elephants left in Sabah –
less than the 1,600 or so estimated previously.
One important area for the elephants, the
Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, may
be too small and too fragmented to support
a viable population in the long term.
Five pygmy elephants were darted and outfitted
with collars two years ago by the Sabah Wildlife
Department with WWF assistance. The collars
sent GPS locations to a WWF computer via satellite
as often as once a day.
“Satellite tracking is clearly one of the
most effective ways of obtaining information
on wild elephants in Sabah because they spend
so much time inside the forest,” said Mahedi
Andau, Director of the Sabah Wildlife Department.
“We now have a good idea of the home range,
size and location of some individual elephant
herds.”
Avoiding conflict
Such information might also help predict locations
where elephants and farms may come into future
conflict.
WWF and the Sabah Wildlife Department will
collar another 4 elephant groups this year,
and the information gathered from the tracking
will be used to provide additional and more
specific information towards elephants conservation
in Sabah.
While pygmy elephants can live in logged
and secondary forests, it is crucial that
their remaining habitat is managed sustainably
and not converted into plantations, WWF says.
Logging in elephant habitat should only take
place if there is a long-term forest management
plan in place, and oil palm plantations should
be established on degraded, non-forested land
devoid of elephants and orang-utans.
END NOTES:
• In 2003, WWF determined pygmy elephants
(Elephas maximus) to be a likely new subspecies
of Asian elephant. However, very little is
known about them, including how many there
are. Pygmy elephants are said to be smaller,
chubbier and more gentle-natured than other
Asian elephants. They are found only on the
northeast tip of Borneo, mainly in the Malaysian
state of Sabah.
• Sabah and the lowland forests of the “Heart
of Borneo” still hold huge tracts of continuous
natural forests, which are some of the most
biologically diverse habitats on Earth, with
high numbers of unique animal and plant species.
It is one of only two places in the world
– Indonesia's Sumatra island is the other
– where orang-utans, elephants and rhinos
still co-exist and where forests are currently
large enough to maintain viable populations.
Jan Vertefeuille, Communications Manager
Asian Elephant, Rhino and Tigers Programmes
