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Elephas maximus borneensis
Listed as Endangered by the IUCN. Bornean elephants are genetically diverse from the Asian Elephants, even though they evolved from them. They are considered a subspecies.
This troupe was seen along the Kinabatangan River in Sabah, Borneo. The male in the water was sent ahead as a "scout" to check out the opposite bank for safety.
14 Comments
Great encounter Chris,perfect for the World Elephant Day,congrats and thanks for sharing
Congratulations Chris, your Borneo Pygmy Elephants have been chosen to highlight #WorldElephantDay today! We hope you're doing well.
"Today is #WorldElephantDay! World Elephant Day was created in 2012 to bring urgent attention to the plight of African and Asian elephants. Both African and Asian elephants continue to be threatened by poaching and ivory trading, habitat loss and human-elephant conflict. Today we would like to introduce you to the Borneo Pygmy Elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis), a subspecies of the Asian elephant found in northeastern Borneo. It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and is threatened by habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation. The genetic distinctiveness of these elephants makes them a high priority for conservation.
Find out more about World Elephant Day: https://buff.ly/2vYXuQN
Find out more about the Borneo Pygmy Elephant with 1StopBorneo Wildlife, a non-profit organization co-founded by Project Noah ranger Chun Xing Wong: https://buff.ly/2w6V8iS "
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Hi Chris. Your spotting is featured in the new PN blog post via a link!
http://projectnoah.tumblr.com/post/58511... Cheers
Congrats on the student leader part - a dream job! haha Awful luck with getting sick though!
Me too! I was supposed to go back this year as a student leader. I stopped in India for a week on the way. I caught something nasty and ended up in the hospital. I had to go home. Oh well.
Good times Lenny! I miss Borneo!
Brinez - these are being studied by Dr. Benoit Goossens. They are in fact E. m. boreensis.
Fantastic! What a great series!
Could be a smaller Asian Elephant
I remember that!
Awesome!
Thanks Mick! Plenty more to come...just a quick post to start. :-)
Good photo - more of this spotting?
Thanks! This particular herd had a male radio collared by researcher Benoit Goossens from the Danau Girang Field Center.
Nice spotting of a very rare animal. How did you determine it was the borneensis subspecies and not just E. maximus? By where you found it?