Adult elephant found dead near Danum Valley

An elephant was found dead by the roadside near Danum Valley.

KOTA KINABALU: Wildlife officials are looking into the death of an adult female elephant near Danum Valley. 

The carcass of the elephant was found lying on the roadside by tourists and their tour guides who were heading towards the renowned field research station and conservation area some 74km from east coast Lahad Datu on Monday morning. 

Assistant Wildlife director Dr Sen Nathan said it was too early to determine the cause of its death, adding that a post-mortem is being carried out to ascertain how or why the elephant died. 

“There are no indications of how it died. There was no gunshot wound as well,” he said on Tuesday. 

“We are investigating but for now, we need to wait for the post-mortem results first,” he said. 

A picture of the dead elephant, which was posted in Facebook, saw many people expressing their concern that elephants were again being killed. 

In Jan last year, 10 pygmy elephants were found dead in east coast Tawau. 

The elephants were reportedly poisoned but the incident remains a mystery as there was no evidence.