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EKANBARU: A female elephant gave birth to a healthy male calf (see photo) at the Flying Squad camp in Tesso Nilo National Park, Riau on Jan. 31.

The elephant mother, Lisa, delivered the baby a month earlier than expected. The calf was named Imbo after the word rimbo, which means forest in the traditional Malayan language spoken by the people of central Sumatra.

Imbo is the third calf born at the camp in the past four years. Syamsuardi, an officer at the WWF-Indonesia-sponsored camp, said the birth proved that the elephants were being treated well and had a perfect habitat in which to breed.

The Flying Squad is a joint initiative of Indonesia’s Forestry Ministry and the WWF. The squad comprises two male and two female elephants and eight mahouts.

Since 2004, the Flying Squad has mitigated human-elephant conflicts by using trained elephants to herd wild elephants away from human habitations and plantations and into National Park areas.

Large-scale deforestation and habitat degradation, especially for oil palm plantations, has led to increased human-wildlife conflict.

“The Flying Squad’s elephants are in healthy condition and I’m very pleased that the two other calves are being trained to join the Flying Squad team and support ecotourism activities in Tesso Nilo National Park,” said Hayani, the national park’s head. — JP