Elephant Deaths: Cash Reward Offered

Malaysian authorities are to offer a cash reward for information on 14 rare Borneo pygmy elephants found dead last month if it is confirmed they were poisoned.

Masidi Manjun, environment minister for the state of Sabah on the vast Borneo island, said he hoped the $16,000 (£10,200) reward would help get them new leads.

"There is a reward for information leading to the arrest, prosecution and conviction of the alleged culprits if the chemist report confirms that death was due to intentional poisoning," he said.

He said the report is due to be completed on Friday, about a fortnight after a group of eight elephants were found dead near an oil palm plantation.

More bodies were later found decomposing in the Gunung Rara forest reserve.

A three-month-old calf photographed nuzzling its dead mother is now staying in a wildlife park.

Joe, as he is now known, is fed every two hours with formula milk, and runs around the compound at Lok Kawi zoo with his keeper.

A young calf was seen nuzzling its dead mother

He will eventually be introduced to the reserve's 16 other injured and orphaned elephants.

Until he reaches the age of six months, he is still at risk of death.

Officials believe the pachyderms - an endangered species - may have been poisoned, possibly by substances left out by workers at nearby plantations to deter them from eating the palm fruit.

Poisoning is suspected due to severe ulceration and bleeding in the animals' digestive tracts.

Mr Manjun has vowed to push for severe punishment including a stiff jail sentence for anyone found to have maliciously poisoned the animals.

WWF-Malaysia has blamed the deaths on rampant felling of forests by planters, which had forced elephants to find alternative food and space and put them in conflict with humans.

The group says only about 1,200 Borneo pygmy elephants, which are smaller and have more rounded features than full-sized Asian elephants, are estimated to be left in the wild.

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