Malaysia pygmy elephant gores handler to death

A pygmy elephant gored its handler to death at a wildlife park in Malaysia’s eastern Sabah state in a Christmas Day tragedy, conservation officials revealed on Thursday.

Joe Fred Lansou, 49, was treating an injured calf when another captive adult elephant suddenly “tusked him very badly” in the chest and abdomen, Sabah Wildlife director Augustine Tuuga said.

“He died at the scene,” Tuuga added.

The tragedy took place on December 25 at the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park on Borneo island.

“It is truly an unfortunate incident. We will undertake an investigation to determine the cause,” the state’s minister for tourism, culture and environment, Jafry Ariffin, said.

The park serves as a sanctuary for 16 pygmy elephants, an endangered species, but has just six staff members to manage them.

The elephant that killed its handler was the sole survivor of a deadly poisoning that left a herd of 14 Borneo pygmy elephants dead nine years ago, it was reported on Thursday.

In September, an elderly woman was knocked from her motorbike and trampled to death on the fringes of a plantation in Dumpas, Tawau.

Pygmy elephants, unique to Borneo island, are a distinct subspecies of mainland Asian elephants. They are considered endangered, with about 2,000 left in Sabah state.

Because of human encroachment, the construction of highways and the rapid rate of deforestation and commercial logging in Borneo, pygmy elephants have suffered unprecedented habitat loss and are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.