Teacher Films Mother Elephant ‘Lecturing’ Her Baby

KOTA KINABALU: The gesture of a mother elephant using her trunk and body to gently guide her calf in the right direction recently caught the attention of Darmin Ladiro.

Not wanting to tell the story without proof, he quickly took out his camera and recorded the moment.

“The mother elephant was trying to stop her calf from going to a nearby river. She was trying to bring the calf back to the forest. The gentle and constant pushing continued for quite a while,” said the 50-year-old calf, who described the moment as “cute.”

Darmin said sightings of Borneo’s iconic elephant, known locally as the pygmy elephant, were rare until seven years ago.

“Lately, they have been going out a lot, maybe to look for food,” said the Bahasa Malaysia teacher at Sekolah Kebangsaan Umas-Umas in Tawau, located in the heart of an oil palm plantation,

Darmin explained that a tree planting project is underway, where non-productive trees are cut down, leaving the edible palm heart exposed.

“I guess elephants are attracted to the heart of palm, it’s a kind of food source for them. That’s why we see them more often now,” he said.

He said he first saw elephants about ten years ago.

“Sometimes they come alone or in pairs. But the largest number I have seen was seven years ago, when a herd of 20 to 30 adults and calves were walking along the Kalabakan Road, which now separates the area that was once their habitat.

“It was both beautiful and frightening. But no humans or mammals were injured in the incident,” he said.

Since then, elephants have been spotted quite frequently on major roads, so much so that signs have been erected to alert motorists of the elephants’ passage.

He said that in recent times, elephant sightings have become common as they are seen “visiting” villages around Felda Umas, Benta Wawasan (Dumpas), Kalabakan and Luasong, which were once their habitat.

Darmin admits that conflicts between humans and elephants do exist, but mainly because the two are fighting for space, adding: “I have not heard of any killing or mistreatment of elephants.”

Recently, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species classified Bornean elephants, a distinct subspecies of Asian elephants, as endangered.

In total, there are about 1,000 remaining, including 400 breeding adults, mainly in Sabah and a small population in Kalimantan, Indonesia. The IUCN is calling for urgent conservation efforts to protect these genetically unique elephants.