KOTA KINABALU: Authorities today revealed that while one of the elephants that died at Lok Kawi Wildlife Park has been sick for years, the baby elephant meanwhile may have contracted a new disease that was not linked with Borneo pygmy elephants previously.
Sabah Wildlife Department yesterday confirmed the deaths of the elephants which occured during two separate occasions which occurred a few days ago and in May.
State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Christina Liew who was briefed and visited the Wildlife Park - located 45 minutes from the city centre - this morning, said Yapid, a 15-year-old male elephant, was found dead on Tuesday morning (June 26).
He was a ‘disabled’ elephant with stunted growth which was due to his swallowing problem which he had since he was rescued back in 2003, when he was just three months old.
This meant that everytime he ate, he would ‘vomit’ out some of his meal, thus resulting in his stunted growth and he also suffered from chronic gastric problem.
“Samples were taken for analysis to check for anything that might have further contributed to his death. But it was a miracle that he has survived that long,” said Liew, as she was informed veterinarians expected Yapid’s lifespan not to go beyond five years.
Meanwhile Gendu, a 3-year-old female baby elephant was found dead in the early morning of May 8. The calf which was born at the wildlife park with resident elephants parent named Girl and Boy, was still being cared for by her mother and had started eating solid food at the time of her death.
The death came as a shock to the keepers because she was healthy as normal the day before, explained Liew.
“During the postmortem, most of the internal organs were found to have no abnormalities. Samples have been taken for analysis to determine the cause of death since the direct cause of death could not be determined at the time when the post mortem was conducted,” said Liew.
Veterinary officer Dr Symphorosa Sipangkui who is the officer in charge of the wildlife park, added that they are sending Gendu’s samples to a United States disease research centre to determine whether it was caused by Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus, a disease linked to deaths of young elephants.
It is a highly fatal disease especially for animals born in captivity; an acute hemorrhagic disease where the virus attacks the endothelial cells of blood capillaries and victim usually die due to blood loss and shock.
“We did not expect this new disease among Borneo elephants. There were usually occurrences in the US especially Asian elephants, so we are sending samples there to figure it out,” explained Symphorosa.
At present there are 14 elephants in the wildlife park, consisting two calves (below five years old) and five sub-adults.
Liew said she was briefed that all the elephants at the Wildlife Park are cared for according to best practices for animal husbandry, where the pachyderms are given dewormers once in every six months.
Each elephant is given food according to their respective weight twice per day, and the babies are given supplement in their milk by their keepers.
“Utmost care have been given to the elephants in the park but their deaths is inevitable caused by unforeseen circumstances which is very unfortunate, but the veterinary officers at the park are doing their best to prevent any further deaths of the animals,” she said.
In view of that, Liew said the ministry will ask the Sabah Wildlife Department to restructure the management of the park in order for the veterinary officer to concentrate on the husbandry management of the animals. At the moment, Symphorosa is also involved in administrative work of the park.
“She is also involved in field work such as translocation of wildlife and post mortem cases when the need arise. We will also restructure the organisation of the Wildlife Department soon and we will also appoint a panel of animal doctors from the
private sector serving as advisors to the zoo.