RELOCATION: The capture team, Wildlife Rescue Unit and DGFC, with the bull.
LAHAD DATU: On May 28, the Wildlife Rescue Unit from Sabah Wildlife Department and staff from Danau Girang Field Centre translocated a bull elephant from a plantation near Lahad Datu into the safety of the Ulu Kalumpang Forest Reserve.
The bull was fit with a satellite collar and during the last week, he has been investigating his new home.
Ulu Kalumpang Forest Reserve, with an area of 510 km2, has a very low number of elephants (about 10) and it could be a good site for translocating individuals.
This is part of a long-term programme that Sabah Wildlife Department and Danau Girang Field Centre kick-started to tackle human-elephant conflicts in agricultural plantations such as palm oil.
Funding is provided by The Asian Elephant Foundation and Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, but it will require much more support.
Dr Laurentius Ambu, director of the Sabah Wildlife Department, said one of the solutions that agricultural plantations could use to avoid crop raiding is electric fencing.
“However, despite the fact that some large holders have fenced their estates, we are facing increasing conflicts, when elephants, and especially bulls enter plantations because the owners do not dare to switch on the power of their electric fences,” explained Laurentius.
“If plantations spent money to protect their crops with electric fences, why don’t they turn the power on?,” he added.
Danau Girang Field Centre director Dr Benoit Goossens said extensive agriculture through agricultural plantations such as palm oil had considerably reduced the habitat of the elephant and other wildlife in Sabah, therefore increasing human-elephant conflicts.
“We all agree that oil palm is necessary for the development of the country.
However, there is a need to better manage the landscape within and around the plantations, by providing routes for wildlife to move from one forest to another.
“Our programme will consist of fitting each translocated elephant with a satellite collar. We will then monitor their movements and migratory patterns in order to identify the best areas for conservation and the establishment of elephant corridors,” said Goossens.
“At the end of the programme, we will develop guidelines for human-elephant conflict mitigation specially adapted for the estates established within the Central Sabah Managed Elephant Range and we will assist them in the implementation of these guidelines and propose migration routes or corridors within the oil palm estates. For that, we will need the full cooperation of the oil palm owners in the region,” he added.
Danau Girang Field Centre is a field study centre located within the Kinabatangan.
It is a collaborative project between the Sabah Wildlife Department and Cardiff University.
The Sabah Wildlife Rescue Unit was established by SWD with funds from the Malaysian Palm Oil Council, Shangri-La’s Rasa Ria Resort and Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu.