Sabah Wildlife Dept: Elephant carcass found at Kinabatangan river a victim of poaching

KOTA KINABALU: The bull elephant that was found floating in Kinabatangan river on Sept 25 could have been caught in a snare trap.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said the pachyderm was estimated to be between 15 and 20 years old. It was killed about three days earlier.

Augustine said the carcass was spotted by a guide with a group of four tourists on a river cruise.

He said a post mortem on the elephant carcass showed that apart from its tusks, the left hind limb and part of the skin on the left side had been sliced off.

The post mortem did not find any evidence of gunshot on the body indicating that the elephant was caught in a snare trap that caused it to die of exhaustion, he said.

"Our investigation is now focused on finding the possible area where the elephant died or was killed upstream of the Kinabatangan river where the carcass was thrown into," Augustine added.

The elephant was the second pachyderm found dead in Sabah in less than two weeks.

Another bull elephant was found dead at a plantation area in the southeastern Kalabakan area on Sept 10 with its tusks removed as well.

While there is a high demand for the tusks in China, Augustine said these were highly sought in Indonesia where they were used as wedding dowries particularly among the Timor community.