Posted on May, 14 2006

Sumatra, Indonesia – Eight endangered Sumatran elephants were released into Indonesia's Tesso Nilo forest, months after they were found chained to trees without food or water. WWF, which provided daily care and medical treatment for the elephants after their discovery, worked with local government officials to ensure their safe release.

The elephant herd initially numbered ten when they were captured by Riau Forestry Officials after raiding crops in Balai Raja of northern Riau on the Indonesia island of Sumatra — one died of tetanus and one escaped.

Unsustainable logging throughout the province has eliminated much of the elephants’ original habitat and as a result have been moving into more populated areas in search of food.

“These elephants are the latest casualties in the escalating human-elephant conflict in central Sumatra, the direct result of uncontrolled destruction of their forest habitat,” said Nazir Foead, Head of WWF Indonesia’s Species Programme. “These elephants need room to live, which means ending problematic pulp and oil palm development."

WWF has pushed for the protection of Tesso Nilo Forest as a national park since 2004 so that Riau’s elephants would have a safe haven. But the park is still being illegally cleared for commercial activity and may be at its carrying capacity for elephants. The current 38,000ha park is too small to provide sufficient habitat for any additional elephants. The park was originally proposed to be 100,000ha.

"We are calling on the government to immediately declare the full proposed Tesso Nilo National Park and to stop all forest conversion, illegal logging and encroachment,” said Nurchalis Fadhli, WWF’s coordinator for human-elephant conflict mitigation.

In 2004, non-governmental organizations, including WWF, and the Indonesia Ministry of Forestry developed a human-elephant conflict mitigation protocol for Riau that would avoid the kinds of cases that have occurred with this elephant herd.

“Capture of wild elephants has to remain the very last tool when mitigating conflict," added Fadhli. "If the protocol had been in place, it would have taught communities how to mitigate human-elephant conflict without suffering losses and without the need to capture elephants."

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Some of the highlights of the elephant herd’s capture and recovery:

Female #2: This teenage elephant appears to be pregnant. Although she suffers from an abscess on her stomach and wounds on her legs from being kept in chains that were too tight, she appears to be healthy. Despite her young age, it’s clear she’s had a history of violent encounters with people – the tip of her trunk is nearly cut off, possibly from a previous capture, and she has old scars on her legs. After her wounds  healed, this elephant broke free of her chains and was last seen running toward the nearby forest. She has not be found.

Female #4: Three weeks after being found, this 6-year-old adolescent began to show signs of tetanus. Despite treatment with anti-tetanus serum, she developed lockjaw and was unable to eat. Vets force-fed her a mixture of fruit juice and baby food for days. She was healthy when released.

Male #2: This 8-year-old appeared to be healthy when found, but ws stressed and aggressive. A week later, abscesses on his rear right leg appear, apparently from darts used during its capture. His condition turned critical and, despite surgery on the abscesses, his condition worsened. After two weeks of treatment, he developed tetanus and eventually died, three weeks after being discovered chained up.

Male #3: This elephant was in critical condition when found chained to the trees. Abscesses had developed around injuries where he was darted on his upper right leg. Next to the abscess, there are two stabbing wounds near his groin. His front right leg was also swollen and he could barely move it because of an old snare still attached to his leg. After emergency surgery on his infected wounds, the elephant has slowly recovered.