KOTA KINABALU: An endangered Borneo pygmy elephant was found brutally killed along the Kalabakan road in Sabah’s east coast Tawau district.
A video of the elephant with its head decapitated and parts of its limbs cut emerged on social media on Sunday.
This was after motorists spotted it along the Kalabakan-Sapulut road, about 25km from Sabah’s famed lost world, Maliau Basin.
According to social media posts, the Sabah Wildlife Department had been alerted to the gruesome discovery.
Newly appointed department director Soffian Abu Bakar said the case is under investigation but did not disclose details.
“We cannot give any information for now. The matter is still under investigation,” he said when contacted.
Wildlife Department sources said an investigation is underway and they are carrying out a post-mortem, as well as assessing events that led to the elephant’s death.
They also lodged a police report and urged those with any information to contact the department’s Tawau office.
Conservationists, who did not want to be identified, suspect the elephant was shot before it was decapitated.
The incident marks one of the most brutal attacks on Sabah’s gentle giants.
Previously, there were cases of tusk removal but rarely do poachers decapitate elephants.
There are only 1,500 to 2,000 Borneo pygmy elephants left in the wild in Sabah.
