(MY) lost baby

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Wednesday June 21, 2006 - The Star

 

Orphaned jumbo found

 

*By CLARA CHOOI*

 

*LENGGONG:* For more than a month, an 18-month-old male elephant had been

desperately searching for his mother, not knowing that she had died of

gunshot wounds to her head at Kampung Pulau Cheri near here last month.

 

Hungry and alone, the 300kg calf foraged for food and fed on wild banana

shoots near the villages where he had last seen his mother.

 

Following complaints from villagers that their crops were being destroyed,

Perak Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) officers tracked

the little pachyderm from Kampung Beng and Kampung Luat to Kampung Chepor

here.

 

Their hunt, which began early this month, finally succeeded when the team of

seven Perhilitan rangers from Gerik sighted the elephant near Kampung Chepor

and managed to drug it at 12.30pm on Monday.

 

" He is in healthy condition. When I shot him, he immediately turned to

attack me, " said Perhilitan assistant officer Hamid Basri Itam at the site

yesterday, adding that the calf collapsed 15 minutes after the drugs took

effect.

 

The baby elephant, whose feet measures 18cm in diameter, was sprightly

yesterday afternoon when officers and department director Shabrina Mohd

Shariff checked on him and fed him banana shoots.

 

Recognising Hamid as the one who shot him with a tranquiliser dart, the

feisty calf charged at Hamid but was restrained by the chain binding him.

 

" He is a bit angry now, " said Shabrina.

 

She said the calf was probably left behind by the herd after his mother went

missing.

 

" That was why he kept returning to the nearby villages. He came back to look

for his mother, " said Shabrina.

 

The calf, she added, would have to remain at the site for the next two to

three days before officers from the Kuala Gandah elephant translocation unit

in Pahang come to take him away.

 

" As he is still young, we cannot put him in the Belum forest. He will not

survive there on his own, " she said, adding that the calf would be looked

after well at the Kuala Gandah training centre.