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Jakarta Post

Conservation forest energized after birth of third elephant

Baby steps: A newborn elephant walks, guided by his mother, at Conservation Response Unit (CRU) Tangkahan in Langkat regency, North Sumatra

Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post)
Medan
Fri, September 25, 2015

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Conservation forest energized after birth of third elephant Baby steps: A newborn elephant walks, guided by his mother, at Conservation Response Unit (CRU) Tangkahan in Langkat regency, North Sumatra. The 38-year-old patrol elephant, Agustin, gave birth to the calf on Tuesday evening, the third birth at CRU Tangkahan in the past three months.(JP/Apriadi Gunawan) (CRU) Tangkahan in Langkat regency, North Sumatra. The 38-year-old patrol elephant, Agustin, gave birth to the calf on Tuesday evening, the third birth at CRU Tangkahan in the past three months.(JP/Apriadi Gunawan)

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span class="inline inline-center">Baby steps: A newborn elephant walks, guided by his mother, at Conservation Response Unit (CRU) Tangkahan in Langkat regency, North Sumatra. The 38-year-old patrol elephant, Agustin, gave birth to the calf on Tuesday evening, the third birth at CRU Tangkahan in the past three months.(JP/Apriadi Gunawan)

A female patrol elephant on Tuesday evening gave birth to a male calf at Mount Leuser National Park (TNGL) in North Sumatra, making him the third elephant calf born this year at the conservation site.

The 130-kilogram elephant, which is 83 centimeters tall, was born on Tuesday at 11 p.m. local time at TNGL'€™s Conservation Response Unit (CRU) Tangkahan in Langkat regency by a 38-year-old elephant named Agustin.

CRU Tangkahan manager Edy Sunardi said the calf was the first male elephant born at the patrol camp.

'€œCRU Tangkahan now has two male elephants, one adult and one infant. We hope the baby can grow up well and healthy into adulthood,'€ Edy told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Earlier this year, according to Edy, CRU Tangkahan had six female elephants and one male. The elephants, Edy said, were used to patrol the TNGL area, especially on narrow paths unsuitable for motor vehicles, in an attempt to protect the area from activities that may threaten wildlife, including illegal logging and hunting.

Prior to joining CRU Tangkahan, the elephants, which were captured from the wild, underwent a series of training sessions beginning in 2004.

In July, a 22-year-old patrol elephant named Yuni gave birth to a female elephant. Earlier this month, an 18-year-old elephant named Olive also gave birth to a female baby.

'€œOf the three newborns, only the oldest one already has a name '€” Albertina. It was Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya who gave her the name,'€ Edy said.

The decrease in the population of Sumatran elephants has caused the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to list the species as endangered.

Apart from struggling to survive illegal hunting, Sumatran elephants, particularly the young, are also prone to Elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV).

The Medan-based Veterinary Society for Sumatran Wildlife Conservation (VESSWIC), for example, reported that EEHV had killed five young elephants in Way Kambas, Lampung, in 2012 and four others between October last year and February. Another calf, meanwhile, died in Aceh in February.

EEHV-infected elephants suffered lower immunity, swollen faces and blue tongues.

Edy, however, said that the three baby elephants were in '€œvery good health'€. CRU Tangkahan, he said, had built a special cage for the mother elephant and her baby to prevent them from catching diseases easily.

'€œWe also give the mother elephants sufficient food so that they can produce plenty of milk to breast-feed their babies,'€ he said.

Sudiono, a TNGL mahout, said the three elephant calves would later be trained to become patrol elephants. The training, however, will only begin once they reach the age of 5.

'€œYoung elephants will be prone to stress if they receive patrol training too early,'€ he said.

Edy previously said that the concept of elephant management at the CRU included involving locals to help preserve TNGL and at the same time develop tourism potential in the surrounding areas.

The introduction of the concept, according to him, has yielded positive impacts, both for locals and for the habitats of animals including tigers, elephants, orangutans and rhinoceroses. He expressed hope, therefore, that the newborn elephants could also be used to help maintain the ecosystem of the national park once they reached adulthood.

A recent report from Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Indonesia revealed that the population of Sumatran elephants was currently no higher than 1,000, or 69 percent lower than that of 25 years ago, mainly attributing the decline to rampant illegal poaching, particularly in Riau, Aceh and North Sumatra.

Last week, a 35-year-old patrol elephant named Yongki was found dead near his camp at the South Bukit Barisan National Park (TNBBS) in Lampung with his ivory tusks missing, leading to public anger.

The male elephant, which had been a member of the park'€™s elephant patrol team over the past several years, was found dead with severe wounds at the base of his missing tusks but without any trace of gunshots on his body.

The TNBBS management has launched an investigation into the death.

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