This photo taken on October 13, 2024 shows elephants walking by a pond at the Elephant Conservation Center (ECC) in Sainyabuli province in Laos. Once abundant in the forests of Laos, Asian elephants have been decimated by habitat destruction, gruelling labour in the logging industry, poaching and scarce breeding opportunities. (Photo by TANG CHHIN Sothy / AFP) / To go with 'LAOS-ANIMAL-ELEPHANTS-CONSERVATION,FOCUS' by Stuart GRAHAM
Slow and silent, former logging elephant Mae Khoun Nung emerges from a forest in northern Laos and follows her guide to an animal hospital for a check-up.
Once abundant in the forests of Laos, Asian elephants like her have been decimated by habitat destruction, gruelling labour in the logging industry, poaching and scarce breeding opportunities.
But conservationists are hoping DNA analysis of elephants’ dung will help them track both captive and wild tuskers, so they can secure a healthy genetic pool and craft an effective breeding plan to protect the species.
Laos – once proudly known as “Lane Xang” or “Land of a Million Elephants” – has between 500 and 1,000 of the animals left, just one-third of the population two decades ago, according to conservation group WWF-Laos.
Around 10 elephants die each year for every one to two born, a rate that puts the animals at risk of dying out completely in the South-East Asian nation.
“The ultimate goal would be to secure a healthy population of captive elephants to act as a genetic reservoir if the wild population collapses,” wildlife biologist Anabel Lopez Perez said at her laboratory at the Elephant Conservation Center (ECC) in Sainyabuli province.
Once researchers learn how many individual elephants are in the country – by testing DNA-containing cells in dung – Perez said a breeding plan will help them manage genetic diversity, prevent inbreeding and produce healthier calves that could be introduced into the wild to bolster the declining population.
In the Nam Poui National Protected Area, researchers are now traversing the rugged hills and forests, collecting DNA from faecal samples of the area’s 50 to 60 remaining wild elephants.
WWF-Laos, which is collaborating with the ECC and the Smithsonian Institution on the project, said the DNA analysis from dung would allow researchers to identify individual elephants, determine their sex, track their movements and understand familial relationships within herds.
“Although Nam Poui NPA represents a significant habitat for one of the few large wild elephant populations remaining in Laos, we lack precise data about its composition,” WWF-Laos said in a statement. — AFP
