Borneo Elephants are good seed disperser

Borneo elephants includes their diet to forest fruits. The ingested seeds passed through their digestive system and are deposited far and wide, thereby helping the spread of new plants and trees which serves as food and shelter for other wildlife in the area.

These elephants, found only in Borneo, are shy and generally avoid people as much as possible. they are considered to be more gentle-natured than their Asian cousins in Peninsular Malaysia. As adults, these forest herbivores can eat up to 150 kg of vegetation per day, feeding mostly on palms, grasses and wild bananas. They also love durian and will rool the entire fruit - spikes and all - in mud, then swallow it whole !

The Borneo elephant currently falls under Schedule 1 of Sabah Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997 which makes it a totally protected animal. Yet, there is still heart-breaking news of elephant deaths every year due to two primary threats which are forest conversions resulting in lost of habitat and human-elephant conflicts.



WWF is hard at work to campaign for this cause, currently their initiatives include:

• Conduct elephant satellite collaring - tracking and monitoring elephants for looming dangers
• Promote co-existence between humans and wildlife
• Establishment of wildlife corridors to connect fragmented habitats
• Collaborated with government and non-government agencies

Source: WWF-Malaysia : 51236/W43210