Borneo Pygmy Elephant

Thanks, @Daniele for the SOTD :)

Thanks to @Chun for sharing this place to me and further explaining how things works at that Plantation.

Thanks too, @Maria, @Antonio and @Leuba for your kind words and support :)

Congratulations Albert ! Your trip must have been fascinating. Thanks for sharing this positive story.

Congrats on the SOTD Albert :-)

Oh, thanks so much for that explanation and information, Chun! It highlights the challenges that wildlife protection ventures face and how your project is working to deal with them. This makes it all the more interesting!

Hi Maria. Villagers do actually care that their crops are damaged by elephants but since all the villagers there are employed by the plantation which impose strict rules to not harm elephants, they would not dare to do anything to the elephant. Since the villagers are plantation employees, they are paid monthly wages for their work so farming is just an extra source of income, not their main one that they depend on. Although Daniele mentioned that these elephants are relatively tame, they can actually get aggressive and have a history of killing workers in this plantation. This is another reason why many farmers will not try to anger these elephants in fear of being attacked. Elephants are still labeled as a pest for their destruction in this plantation that is why our organization - 1StopBorneo Wildlife is trying to promote "conservation tourism" there so that the plantation will see the value of these elephants and know that they can get profit from tourism to cover damage costs from elephants. We are also doing reforestation projects to create a wildlife corridor in the plantation so that these elephants will find sufficient foods in the wildlife corridor and reduce their need to enter plantations and farms for food source.

Congratulations on the SOTD! It sounds like a wonderful project. I'm still curious about why the villagers are ok with the elephants coming into their gardens and farms as it could involve a loss of daily food or products for market.

Congratulations Albert, these magnificent elephants are our Spotting of the Day! We are also taking this opportunity to highlight the work of Chun and 1StopBorneo Wildlife:

This magnificent bull Borneo Elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis) is our Spotting of the Day! Borneo elephants are restricted to the northern and northeastern parts of Borneo, and share threats common to other Asian elephant populations today such as human-driven habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation. This spotting provides us with a rare opportunity to share some positive conservation stories. Elephants is this spotting were seen in a plantation with a policy of encouraging eco-tourism and elephant sightings on their ground. Also, the spotter was on his way to a wildlife corridor where native trees (mostly Dipterocarpus sp.) were replanted with volunteer group 1StopBorneo Wildlife.
Spotted in Sabah, Malaysia, by Albert Kang. For more images and the whole story: https://buff.ly/2sh3m6k
Did you know? Our name “Noah” is an acronym that stands for Networked Organisms and Habitats. Throughout our 9 years of existence we’ve been proud to network people, building lasting local and worldwide friendships around appreciation and concern for the natural world. 1StopBorneo Wildlife was co-founded by Project Noah ranger and long-time member Chun Chin Wong. Last year Project Noah was present at the 2nd European Citizen Science Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, where we had the opportunity to showcase our platform and highlight the profile of just a few of our most inspiring or most active members, including ranger Chun.
Our poster presentation is now published on the conference website and can be seen here: https://buff.ly/2sfyyTA
More ECSA 2018 presentations about citizen science projects from around the world: https://buff.ly/2M3irRZ
#citizenscience #ECSA #ECSA18 #biodiversity #1StopBorneoWildlife

Thanks for the link to the tree planting Albert! Well done, Albert and Chun and
1StopBorneoWildlife. I too am curious about the point made by Maria. I wondered whether their smaller size may result in less damage and conflict, but available information indicates adults are similar in height to their counterparts in peninsular Malaysia. Here they are described as relatively tame, a reason why scientists think they may descend from a domesticated population: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borneo_ele...

Very interesting spotting. Why is it that the people don't mind if the elephants even come into their farms and gardens to feed? Are they compensated in some way for the loss of income?

Congratulations on the nomination Albert...beautiful spotting.

Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!

Thanks, @Antonio for your kind words and support :)

Thanks too, @Daniele and Happy New Year to you too.
I shared pics of the tree planting at my Facebook, the trees replanted were selected by PN Ranger ChunXingWong and his NGO !StopBorneoWildlife, mostly the Dipterocarpus trees :

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=...

Amazing series and inspiring story Albert! I would love to see the trees you planted. Happy New Year!

Awesome series Albert,fantastic,congrats and thanks for sharing