Bounty on elephant poachers rises to RM30,000 as UK group pitches in
KOTA KINABALU, Oct 1 ― A United Kingdom-based orangutan conservation group has pledged an additional RM10,000 to the reward offered for information leading to the capture of poachers behind the brutal killing of a juvenile elephant recently.
Orangutan Appeal UK founder Sue Sherward, who was incidentally in Sabah, pledged the sum to the RM20,000 reward already offered by the Sabah Wildlife Department and an anonymous donor after she heard of the heinous killing of the elephant shot at close range with over 70 bullets.
“I just arrived in Kota Kinabalu two days ago and heard this gruesome news from the Assistant Director of Sabah Wildlife Department, Dr Sen Nathan. He was devastated as he and his team conducted the post mortem and said that in his 25years of working with wildlife he has never come across and act of cruelty as this,” said Sherward.
“This is the right thing to do and I hope more Malaysians can step up and assist in capturing this cruel elephant poachers” she said.
Last week, news that the carcass of 30-year-old elephant was found floating in the Sungai Udin river in Kalabakan had spread online.
In the post-mortem, authorities discovered more than 70 bullet wounds all over the elephant’s body, likely from a semi-automatic gun, including a fatal shot that pierced its skull. Its tusks were also sawn off, leading to belief that this was the work of poachers.
Sherward said she was in Sabah to assist the Sabah Wildlife Department in translocating a pair of rehabilitated orangutans from Sepilok to Tabin when the incident was reported.
Sherward is the chairman and founder of the UK-based Orangutan Appeal UK, which has been working with the department for the past 20 years, funding various activities and staffing at Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre.
Separately, the Federal Water, Land and Natural Resources Ministry also said it would assist the department and police in tracking those responsible for what they described as a cruel and inhumane act.
In a statement, the ministry said the investigations would take after the Ops Bersepadu Khazanah that the national Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia (Perhilitan) have carried out with the police.
Sabah’s pygmy elephant population has been dwindling from threats of poachers, habitat loss and other human wildlife conflicts. It is estimated that there are only around 1,500 elephants left in Sabah’s wild.
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