By Bob Walker
BBC News, Perak state, Malaysia
Elephants and humans are coming into contact with each other more often in Malaysia. The areas where elephants used to roam are being built upon or used for agriculture. Some favour relocating them to a national park – but is this the right thing to do?
There were only two things that scared our native guides: Tigers and elephants. When I asked them what was dangerous about the jungle they said – in all seriousness – everything.
But it was the faint possibility of unwittingly stumbling across a tiger that had them slightly on edge. Or an elephant. The latter scenario became more of a distinct possibility with every step we took.
We knew this because our radio detection receiver began to click ever more loudly, indicating that somewhere in the thick undergrowth lurked an elephant that had recently been captured near a village, tagged with GPS and radio beacons, and released safely here in the national park.
It seems to me there is an inherent contradiction in tracking elephants. You put a great deal of effort into finding them, but they say if you see one then you are too close.
They are known to charge humans. And you cannot outrun them. The advice is find the biggest tree you can and hide behind it.
We had spent three hours hacking through overgrown logging paths, pulling leeches from our bodies, swatting away mosquitoes and running from a swarm of wild bees. The plan was to find traces of our tagged elephant – more specifically its dung – and take samples for laboratory analysis.
A team from the University of Nottingham is investigating the impact of the relocation process. Certain hormones can indicate a rise in stress levels with potentially serious consequences for the animal’s health.
In the weeks before, eight elephants had been captured near a village in Perak state and released 100km (62 miles) away, but there is no consensus on whether translocation is actually effective over the long term.
The GPS collars have revealed that some make their way back home. Elephants it seems, really never forget.
For much more on this click here
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Malaysia: Humans and elephants at loggerheads
By Bob Walker
BBC News, Perak state, Malaysia
Elephants and humans are coming into contact with each other more often in Malaysia. The areas where elephants used to roam are being built upon or used for agriculture. Some favour relocating them to a national park – but is this the right thing to do?
There were only two things that scared our native guides: Tigers and elephants. When I asked them what was dangerous about the jungle they said – in all seriousness – everything.
But it was the faint possibility of unwittingly stumbling across a tiger that had them slightly on edge. Or an elephant. The latter scenario became more of a distinct possibility with every step we took.
We knew this because our radio detection receiver began to click ever more loudly, indicating that somewhere in the thick undergrowth lurked an elephant that had recently been captured near a village, tagged with GPS and radio beacons, and released safely here in the national park.
It seems to me there is an inherent contradiction in tracking elephants. You put a great deal of effort into finding them, but they say if you see one then you are too close.
They are known to charge humans. And you cannot outrun them. The advice is find the biggest tree you can and hide behind it.
We had spent three hours hacking through overgrown logging paths, pulling leeches from our bodies, swatting away mosquitoes and running from a swarm of wild bees. The plan was to find traces of our tagged elephant – more specifically its dung – and take samples for laboratory analysis.
A team from the University of Nottingham is investigating the impact of the relocation process. Certain hormones can indicate a rise in stress levels with potentially serious consequences for the animal’s health.
In the weeks before, eight elephants had been captured near a village in Perak state and released 100km (62 miles) away, but there is no consensus on whether translocation is actually effective over the long term.
The GPS collars have revealed that some make their way back home. Elephants it seems, really never forget.
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For much more on this click here