Wildlife park where pygmy elephants died to be restructured

KOTA KINABALU: A restructuring in management of the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park where two endangered pygmy elephants have died will be implemented within a month from now.

Sabah deputy chief minister, Christina Liew, who is also Tourism, Culture and Environment minister, said the restructuring would see more engagement and dissemination of information between park and the public.

“This is so that the park will be able to officially inform the public of any movements, activities or incidences happening at the zoo, without them speculating and getting unverified information from third parties,” she said.

Apart from that, there will be a disciplinary committee and a council involving vets and relevant stakeholders from the private sector.

Liew said the council of vets and other private sector individuals would be able to help the zoo management with suggestions and advice on how to better manage the zoo and animals.

The disciplinary committee would oversee the whole management and staff on how they handle the animals, among others.

Liew said they were still trying to find out the cause of deaths involving the two elephants on May 8 and June 26 respectively.

“We are still not sure what caused the death of the three-year-old calf which died in May,” she said.

“As for the other elephant, it had actually been suffering from illness for about 15 years,” she said.

She said the Sabah Wildlife Department director and vets told her that the adult elephant was rescued from Lahad Datu more than a decade ago.

“At that time, experts from Japan told them that the elephant could not be cured anymore and had the most five years left to live,” Liew said.

However, it managed to live on till the age of 15 before it died on June 26.

As for the condition of the zoo, she maintained that it was in good condition and the animals were all treated well.