World's oldest captive giant panda, Jia Jia, dies aged 38

After weeks of deteriorating health, the world's oldest giant panda in captivity has died at a Hong Kong theme park. Jia Jia was a gift from Beijing on the second anniversary of Hong Kong's independence from Britain.

Deutsche Welle, 16 Oct 2016

Hong Kong giant panda, Jia Jia

Veterinarians were forced on Sunday to euthanize the world's oldest captive giant panda in Hong Kong in order to prevent the animal from further suffering.

"This is a day we knew would eventually come, but it is nevertheless a sad day for everyone at the Park, especially for the Park's keepers who took care of her over the years," Ocean Park chairman Leo Kung said in a statement.

Giant panda Jia Jia was born in the wild and was taken to a wildlife reserve's breeding centre in 1980, when she was around two-years-old.

Euthanasia to 'prevent suffering'

After taking medication for high blood pressure and arthritis in old age, Jia Jia's condition deteriorated significantly over the past two weeks. As her food consumption plummeted from 10 kilograms (22 pounds) a day to less than three, the panda dramatically lost weight.

"Her state became so debilitated that based on ethical reasons and in order to prevent suffering, veterinarians from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and Ocean Park [authorities] agreed to a humane euthanasia for Jia Jia," the theme park said.

Race to save the species

Although pandas are traditionally symbolic animals in China, Jia Jia carried extra significance as she, along with another panda An An, were gifts from Beijing to Hong Kong in 1999 on the occasion of its second anniversary of independence from Britain.

Jia Jia, whose name translates as 'excellence,' held the Guinness World Record as the oldest living giant panda in captivity. The average lifespan for a panda is only 18 to 20 years in the wild, although that jumps to 30 for pandas in captivity.

Due to their low birth rate and the destruction of their natural habitats, captive breeding programs have become essential to ensuring the species' survival. According to Ocean Park, Jia Jia gave birth five times to six panda cubs whilst in captivity.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that there are fewer than 2,000 giant pandas now left in the wild.

tm/jlw (AFP, AP)

Cow manure power plan steams ahead

DutchNews, October 4, 2016

Grass: a new potential power source.

Photo: DutchNews.nl

Two hundred farmers will soon be generating electricity from cow manure and there are plans to recruit 1,000 in four years, reports NOS on Tuesday.

FrieslandCampina, the largest dairy collective in the Netherlands, set up a business in September called Jumpstart to channel subsidies to farmers who want to install mono-digesters that break down waste into biogas.

Henk Kamp, minister for economic affairs, has committed €150m to the project and turned on the first mono-digester in Friesland on Tuesday morning.

FrieslandCampina plans to pay farmers a surcharge of €10 per thousand litres of milk they sell if they buy a mono-digester, and currently works with 13,500 of the Netherland’s 17,000 farmers. The organisation has committed to carbon-neutral growth, and currently most of the 13% of carbon emissions from the agriculture sector come from methane released by cow manure. 

There has been some debate about whether it is sustainable to generate electricity from cow dung, since mono-digesters only become profitable for a farm of at least 150 cattle. 

On Monday, FrieslandCampina announced that it wants to change its profit-sharing scheme with members, abolishing a quantum allowance and effectively stopping seasonal payments to farmers. It intends to increase its premium for outdoor grazing to €1.50 per 100kg of milk (from €1), and final proposals will be agreed in December.

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Kryon Q&A

(39) Question: Dear Kryon: I've noticed how many children are developing severe allergies to foods (my daughter included). When I've researched this, it seems that most of the allergies are essentially to seeds, grains, legumes, eggs, and dairy. I've noticed that these foods all hold the potential for life, or in the case of dairy, are essentially used to sustain the first stages of life in an animal's baby. My feeling is that because we're not releasing the life force within these foods (that is, sprouting, etc.), they're becoming harmful to us. I would like your impressions of this.

Answer: For thousands of years, these foods have worked for humanity. In these cases you speak about, the main culprit continues to be the way in which these foods are collected and processed. You won't find these allergies in third-world countries, and you won't find them within the children who work on farms, where they eat the foods directly. There will eventually have to come a day when you relax some of your efficiency attributes and go back to the way food was meant to be collected and eaten. And yes... there are effects from how the dairy animals are treated, too. Going back to some basics will help, and so will eliminating some of the procedures that supposedly create a "safer food." These procedures have instead made them begin to look like foreign food to the Human body.

'Puppy farm capital' Ireland dogged by trafficking

Yahoo – AFP, Douglas Dalby, October 3, 2016

Some of the 59 puppies that were rescued at the port of Dublin during an
operation involving the DSPCA, Gardai and Customs officials (AFP Photo)

Dublin (AFP) - Illegal dog-breeding on an industrial scale has turned Ireland into the "puppy farm capital of Europe", according to campaigners who say a recent crackdown is failing to curb the lucrative business.

Thousands of puppies worth hundreds of euros (dollars) each are shipped to British ports and then on to mainland Europe every year, many of them secreted in the back of vans and cars.

Ireland's canine trade is "a national disgrace", said Brian Gillen, head of the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA).

"Our aim is to put them out of business," he said. "The more we interrupt their trade, the more it hits them where it hurts: in their pockets. We want to make it uneconomic for them to continue."

Although buoyed by recent seizures at various ports throughout Ireland, welfare agencies continue to face an uphill battle against an export industry -- much of it illicit -- involving at least 30,000 pups a year worth up to 20 million euros ($22 million).

Seven intelligence-led seizures at Irish ports over the past two months alone have yielded 150 puppies.

Some of the 59 puppies that were rescued at the port of Dublin during an

operation involving the DSPCA, Gardai and Customs officials (AFP Photo)

Most were so-called "designer breeds" such as Beagles, Bichon Frises, French Bulldogs or King Charles Spaniels. One shipment discovered in a car boot was worth just under 30,000 euros.

Many of the puppies are too young to travel, lack mandatory pet passports and microchips and are a potential health risk due to a failure to inoculate them against the deadly rabies virus.

All of them, according to welfare agencies, will likely develop mental and physical illnesses as a result of in-breeding and their treatment.

Raids on illegal puppy farms have found cramped conditions, little or no exercise or interaction, poor sanitation and even lack of access to water.

Campaigners say that the vast majority of smuggled puppies continue to escape detection.

Prosecutions are rare and to date nobody has been jailed for even the most flagrant breaches.

"We do not believe that local authorities are best placed to enforce the regulations," said Suzie Carley, a spokeswoman for Dogs Trust, a Dublin-based animal welfare group, calling on the central government to take control of the crackdown.

'A money racket'

The DSPCA has already worked with government agencies in Britain to develop a co-ordinated strategy for stemming a trade facilitated by the immediacy of the internet and the popularity of certain smaller breeds.

Some of the 59 puppies that were rescued at the port of Dublin during an

operation involving the DSPCA, Gardai and Customs officials (AFP Photo)

The twin-track approach involves high-profile seizures of "cargo" at ports in Ireland and Northern Ireland as well as public education campaigns to raise awareness among would-be buyers of the animal cruelty they are facilitating and the potential trouble they face for purchasing dogs illegally.

Gillen said the export trade from Ireland is particularly prevalent due to "historically useless" legislation and "lax controls", although the government has toughened laws in recent years.

Official figures show there are 73 registered puppy farms in the Republic of Ireland producing at least 30,000 dogs a year. In contrast, 895 establishments in Britain produce only around 70,000 puppies.

According to welfare organisations, some farms have more than 500 breeding bitches. The DSCPA said it would like to see them limited to 10 or fewer.

"It's certainly a money racket. I would hesitate to call any dog a 'fashion statement' but there is little doubt that celebrity culture combined with the instant gratification enabled by the internet is fuelling this horrible trade," said David Wilson, spokesman for the Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Northern Ireland.

"Traditionally, you would contact a reputable breeder who would put you on a list but nowadays people are not prepared to wait.

"You can go online now in the morning and pick up the dog in a car park without any questions being asked -- it's that simple nowadays."

Global trade in African grey parrots banned

Yahoo – AFP, October 2, 2016

African Grey parrots on sale at a bird market in Kuwait City (AFP Photo/
Yasser al-Zayyat)

Johannesburg (AFP) - Delegates at a global wildlife conference on Sunday voted to ban international trade in African grey parrots, one of the world's most trafficked birds.

Prized for their ability to mimic human speech, the birds are a highly sought-after pet, but their numbers have been decimated in recent years by poaching and the destruction of their forest habitats.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in Johannesburg voted 95 to 35 in a secret poll to ban the global commercial trade of the parrot.

The African grey parrot will now have 

"the highest level of protection" (AFP

Photo/Ronaldo Schemidt)

CITES said the vote result would give the African grey the "highest level of protection" by listing it in "appendix 1", which outlaws all international trade in animals facing possible extinction.

Dr Colman O'Criodain of conservation group WWF called the move "a huge step forward" in protecting the bird.

"Fraud and corruption have enabled traffickers to vastly exceed current quotas and continue to harvest unsustainable numbers of African grey parrots from Congo’s forests to feed the illegal trade," he said.

"Banning the trade will make it easier for law enforcement agencies to crack down on the poachers and smugglers, and give the remaining wild populations some much-needed breathing space."

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) estimates that between 2.1 and 3.2 million African greys were captured between 1975 and 2013.

Susan Lieberman of the Wildlife Conservation Society said the parrot had experienced "significant population declines throughout its range in West, Central and East Africa".

"It is extremely rare or locally extinct in Benin, Burundi, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Togo," she said in a statement

"If this bird could talk –- and it certainly can -– the African grey parrot would say thank you."

The CITES treaty, signed by 182 countries and the European Union, protects about 5,600 animal and 30,000 plant species from over-exploitation through commercial trade.

The 12-day conference, which ends on Wednesday, is sifting through 62 proposals to tighten or loosen trade restrictions on around 500 species.

No exceptions to cosmetics animal testing ban: top EU court

Yahoo – AFP, September 21, 2016

The European Court of Justice said EU law bars any cosmetic product containing
 ingredients which have been tested on animals, wherever that may occur (AFP
Photo/Emmanuel Dunand)

Brussels (AFP) - The EU's top court on Wednesday ruled that there can be no exceptions to a ban on animal testing by cosmetics manufacturers in the bloc.

The case arose in Britain after three companies sought to market cosmetics that were developed for sale in China and Japan using animal tests outside the European Union.

The European Court of Justice said EU law bars any cosmetic product containing ingredients which have been tested on animals, wherever that may occur.

"The Court states next that EU law makes no distinction depending on where the animal testing was carried out," the Luxembourg-based ECJ said in a statement.

The law aims to promote the use of alternative methods to meet consumer safety standards and that "objective would be seriously compromised if the prohibitions... could be circumvented by carrying out the animal testing in third countries," it said.

The European Federation for Cosmetic Ingredients (EFCI), which brought the case, had argued that the companies did not break the law since the animal testing had been carried out to comply with regulations in third countries.

Dutch fur farm ban must go back to court, advocate general says

DutchNews, September 19, 2016

A legal case in which the Dutch fur farmers association took on the state to have an impending ban overturned must be heard again, the advocate general said on Monday. 

The appeal court which upheld the ban on fur farming last year did not take the financial impact on individual fur farmers sufficiently into account, Paul Vlas said in his recommendations. The advice of the advocate general is not binding but generally accepted by the Supreme Court. 

The ban on fur farming was introduced in the Netherlands in 2013 and included an 11-year changeover period. In 2014 a lower court  found in favour of fur farmers who are furious at being ordered to shut down their companies without compensation. 

The state appealed against that ruling and last year the appeal court said the new legislation does take the interest of fur farmers sufficiently into account because of the 11-year changeover period.

Financial damage

However, the advocate general said on Monday the appeal court ‘wrongly limited its reasoning to the question of whether the changeover period would limit the damage to fur farmers in general’. 

The Supreme Court will publish its ruling in December. 

The Netherlands has some 160 fur farms producing five million pelts a year. The sector employs some 1,400 people. The Netherlands is the third biggest fur farming nation in the world behind Denmark and China.

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Dutch appeal court upholds fur farming ban

Legal eagles recruited to take down drones after successful police trial

DutchNews, September 12, 2016

Photo: politie.nl 

The Netherlands has become the first country to recruit police eagles to take out drones in mid-flight following a successful trial. 

Police began training the birds of prey in January, despite concerns from some animal welfare experts that the exercise could damage their claws. A spokesman told NRC there had been no injuries so far but protective gear could be introduced.

‘A common or garden drone has no impact on the claws of a bird of prey, but very large drones with powerful motors could cause lacerations,’ he said. ‘We are currently looking at protective measures such as a sort of clawed shoe for the birds’ feet.’ 

‘A lot of drones have perished [during the exercise],’ he added. 

The move is in response to concerns about the growing risk of drones being flown in unauthorised airspace, such as close to an airport, or interfering with other aircraft such as rescue helicopters. 

The birds which were trained in the trial are owned by a private company, but police will now recruit their own flying squad for active service.

‘Police have purchased four month-old American sea eagle chicks. From next summer they will go out hunting drones,’ the spokesman said.

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#NEWSGRAPHIC Eagle vs drone: Dutch police reveal new elite flying squad @AFP https://t.co/g9ZaYt2xdm pic.twitter.com/b2l3vDnyhV

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 13, 2016

World governments urge end to domestic ivory markets

Yahoo – AFP, Kerry Sheridan, September 11, 2016

After fierce debate, including opposition from Namibia and Japan, a motion was 
adopted at the IUCN World Conservation Congress to urge closure of all 
domestic ivory markets (AFP Photo/Tony Karumba)

Miami (AFP) - In a bid to stop the killing of elephants for their tusks, world governments voted at a major conservation conference to urge the closure of all domestic ivory markets.

After fierce debate -- including opposition from governments like Namibia and Japan -- the motion was adopted on the final day of the International Union for Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress, a 10-day meeting that drew 9,000 people to Honolulu, Hawaii this month.

"Today's vote by IUCN members is the first time that a major international body has called on every country in the world to close its legal markets for elephant ivory," said Andrew Wetzler, deputy chief program officer at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"It's truly a landmark moment, and a victory for elephants that will hopefully be repeated later this month at the next meeting of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Johannesburg."

Although the motion is non-binding, it "urges the governments of countries with domestic ivory markets to take all necessary legislative and regulatory efforts to close them," according to the IUCN.

Experts say that domestic ivory markets help fuel poaching by allowing traffickers a cover for their illegal imports and exports.

The United States and China, among the biggest consumers of ivory, have already agreed to enact near-total bans on their domestic markets.

Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) rangers prepare a pyre in preparation for a burning 

of tonnes of ivory, rhino-horn and other confiscated wildlife trophies (AFP Photo/

Tony Karumba)

At the IUCN meeting, Japan and Namibia -- which also have thriving domestic ivory markets -- sought to soften the language of the motion by making 20 different amendments, but those efforts were rejected.

"The global conservation community is stepping up," said Wildlife Conservation Society President and CEO Cristian Samper.

"No more domestic ivory sales. Elephants have had enough of the ivory trade and so has the world."

Poaching persists

CITES banned the international commercial trade in African elephant ivory in 1989.

But illegal poaching of endangered elephants for their tusks persists at dangerous levels, according to research released at the start of the September 1-10 conference, the largest of its kind in the conservation community.

Savanna elephants have declined at a rate of 27,000 -- or eight percent -- per year, with a total of 144,000 lost in less than a decade, said the findings.

Poaching hotspots identified include Angola, Mozambique and Tanzania, where "staggering population declines" were found, said the study funded by Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Paul Allen.

The US and China, among the biggest consumers of ivory, have already agreed

to enact near-total bans on their domestic markets (AFP Photo/Tony Karumba)

Other populations face "local extinction" in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo, northern Cameroon and southwest Zambia.

Wildlife groups hailed the IUCN move and called for more action at the CITES talks in Johannesburg later this month.

"There, we remain hopeful the delegates will be emboldened by the IUCN vote to adopt a resolution submitted by African governments that also calls for closure of domestic ivory markets," said Samper.

"The shutting down of domestic ivory markets will send a clear signal to traffickers and organized criminal syndicates that ivory is worthless and will no longer support their criminal activities causing security problems in local communities and wiping out wildlife."

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Three arrested with suitcases full of reptiles at Schipol

DutchNews, September 6, 2016

One of the suitcases. Photo: NVWA.nl 

Three Spanish nationals have been arrested at Schiphol airport after customs officials found 259 reptiles stuffed into four suitcases they were carrying. 

The haul included snakes, lizards and tortoises, 10 of which had died during the journey. If they had been traded on the open market, the reptiles would have had a value of some €80,000, officials said. 

The three men were on their way from Mexico to Spain when they were stopped at Schiphol. Many of the reptiles in their bags were protected species, including 14 chucawallas, a lizard found only on the Mexican island of San Esteban. 

Last month, a German man was arrested at Schiphol airport after customs officials found dozens of snakes, lizards and other reptiles hidden in his suitcase. 

The man was on his way from South Africa to Germany to sell the animals at a reptile fair. Some 40 reptiles were stuffed in a plastic box in the suitcase and several had not survived the journey. 

And at the end of August, police and customs officers  seized a record haul of illegal animal products, including swordfish horns, mounted crocodiles and coral from five storage units in North Brabant, together with €500,000 in cash and gold.

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Lizard skins, swordfish horns and two tonnes of coral recovered in police raid

Stray dogs find shelter in battered Gaza

Yahoo – AFP, Adel Zaanoun, September 4, 2016

A Palestinian volunteer trains a stray dog at the Al-Soulala Association for
Protection, Rehabilitation and Training, dog shelter in central Gaza Strip (AFP
Photo/Mohammed Abed)

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - In an impoverished and war-battered territory suffering food shortages and a scarcity of jobs, Saeed al-Ar knew it was a tall order opening a dog shelter in Gaza.

The Palestinian coastal enclave crammed with 1.9 million people has been devastated by three wars against Israel since 2008, and it remains under blockade by the Jewish state and Egypt.

The fate of hundreds of stray dogs outside towns or near the Israeli security fence have been anything but a priority.

"How can we create a shelter for strays when we need shelter ourselves?" is the typical view, as expressed by a 27-year-old unemployed Gazan, Jasser al-Sheikh.

"We must first feed our children and find jobs for thousands of unemployed graduates."

But Ar, a 45-year-old father of seven, has taken it upon himself to intervene, spending his own money to rescue the strays.

Last month, he opened the territory's first dog sanctuary in a relatively well-off suburb south of Gaza City.

His Al-Soulala Association for Protection, Rehabilitation and Training covers 2,700 square metres (29,000 square feet), complete with kennels which currently house around 75 former strays.

Saeed al-Ar used his own money to set up the Al-Soulala Association for 

Protection, Rehabilitation and Training, dog shelter in central Gaza Strip (AFP

Photo/Mohammed Abed)

Behind beige tarpaulin on a vast sandy expanse, dogs are fed and given training to run and jump obstacles.

"This is the first kennel in Palestine that supports stray dogs and domesticates them," Ar told AFP.

He used to run a police unit for dogs specialising in the detection of explosives and drugs, and admits that canines have always been his passion.

When the Islamist movement Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007, Ar found himself out of a job. But he still collects a salary and now dedicates all his time to the dogs.

Shot or poisoned

In the predominantly Muslim territory, religious authorities consider dogs to be unclean or impure.

Some Gazans even shoot at stray dogs that approach their children or orchards, while others find them scary and blame them for accidents.

The authorities lack the resources even if they were inclined to intervene.

In the past they even tried to poison strays, but stopped the culling over concerns that it was also dangerous to humans, a municipal official said on condition of anonymity.

The kennel aims to catch stray dogs, provide veterinary services and help domesticate them.

Since its opening, the kennel has attracted a growing number of visitors, many of them children. Some have asked to adopt a pet, a trend picking up in Gaza.

The phone rings constantly with people reporting strays in their neighbourhood.

In such cases, search teams are sent out, said Mohammed al-Hindi, 24, a recently graduated nurse and one of 25 volunteer helpers.

Every morning, the volunteers tour participating restaurants and stores to collect leftover meat and chicken for the dogs, in a sign of changing attitudes in Gaza.

But Ar said he has already spent $35,000 and cannot make ends meet on his own much longer.

The centre needs $5,000 a month to function properly, said Ar, who has launched an online appeal to animal protection groups and lovers across the world.

"We have to get help because at the moment we are doing this with our own money."

On a brighter note, he said local authorities have promised him a larger plot of land. He dreams of a giant kennel, "with a dog food factory and a veterinary clinic for all stray animals".

Study sounds alarm for Africa's slow-breeding forest elephants

Yahoo – AFP, August 31, 2016

The population of Central Africa's forest elephants has been decimated by illegal
hunting, with an estimated 65 percent decline between 2002 and 2013, researchers
say (AFP Photo/Laudes Martial Mbon)

Paris (AFP) - Even without poachers, Central Africa's forest elephants would need almost a century to get their numbers back up to 2002 levels, said a study Wednesday that pried into the elusive creatures' slow-breeding ways.

The population had been decimated by illegal hunting, with an estimated 65 percent decline between 2002 and 2013, said researchers.

Roaming the tropical forests of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon and Democratic Republic of Congo, the tusker sub-species is thought to have numbered about one to two million at its peak, study co-author George Wittemyer of Colorado State University told AFP.

In 1993, the rough estimate was 500,000, and in 2013 some 100,000.

"The forest populations are reproducing now, though at a very slow rate," Wittemyer said by email.

"The problem is that poaching is removing individuals at a rate that either drives the population to decline or negates any increases due to births."

Forest elephants are smaller than savannah elephants -- the other, much better studied, African sub-species.

Their ears are more oval-shaped, while their tusks are straighter and point downward, according to environmental group WWF.

Targeted by poachers for their meat and ivory-bearing tusks, the forest elephant is categorised as "vulnerable", which means "facing a high risk of extinction in the wild," the WWF website says.

African forest elephant (AFP Photo/Laurence Chu)

Wittemyer and a team analysed data obtained from decades-long, on-sight monitoring of the births and deaths of elephants at Dzanga Bai, a park in Central African Republic.

90 years to recover

In what is claimed to be the first-ever study of forest elephant demography, they concluded the creature was a much slower breeder than its open-air cousin.

Female forest elephants only start reproducing after the age of 20, and give birth once every five to six years, the team observed.

Their cousins from the savannah, by comparison, typically start breeding at 12 and produce a calf every three to four years.

"Their reported low birth rates mean that it will take forest elephants at least 90 years to recover" from poaching losses, the researchers said in a statement.

The data suggested that what are considered sustainable levels of trade in forest elephant ivory, were calculated on the basis of overestimated population growth rates, they added.

This should be kept in mind when ivory trade limits are next debated, said the team -- crucially at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species which opens in Johannesburg on September 24.

Forest elephants are crucial for their environment, and many tree species rely on the giants to disperse their seeds. The trees, in turn, absorb climate-altering greenhouse gases.

Lizard skins, swordfish horns and two tonnes of coral recovered in police raid

DutchNews, August 29, 2016

Picture: Dutch police. 

Police and customs officers have seized a record haul of illegal animal products, including swordfish horns, mounted crocodiles and coral. 

Altogether two tonnes of coral, as well as snake and lizard skins and ivory from protected species, were recovered from five storage units in North Brabant, together with €500,000 in cash and gold. 

A spokesman for Rotterdam police said researchers spent three days categorising the collection, which was characterised by a ‘bizarre range and diversity’. 

The trail to the illegal depot began after a routine check at Rotterdam harbour uncovered 345 kilos of coral contained in 15 packing cases on a container ship from China. 

The owner of the company where the items were stored, a 53-year-old man, is under investigation but police said no arrests have been made.

Rare elephant with 'sabre-tooth' tusks found in Malaysia

Yahoo – AFP, August 12, 2016

An elephant with downturned tusks pictured at a palm oil plantation in the Malaysian
state of Sabah on Borneo island, in a picture released on August 11, 2016 by the
 Sabah Wildlife Department (AFP Photo)

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - A rare pygmy elephant with tusks growing downwards instead of up to give it a look like a sabre-toothed tiger has been found in Malaysia, a wildlife official told AFP on Friday.

The unusual looking animal was found by a team of wildlife experts at a palm oil planation in the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island on Thursday.

"It is very rare," said Sabah Wildlife Department's assistant director Sen Nathan.

"We're not exactly sure why the tusks are like that but it could be a congenital defect or maybe because of inbreeding."

A similar elephant was caught on camera a few years ago and in 2015 in Sabah, Nathan said.

The wildlife department plans to send the animal to an elephant sanctuary in Sabah on Saturday until a suitable area in the wild is found where it could be released with a tracking device attached.

"The tusks resemble the prehistoric sabre-tooth tiger, but of course, they are not related," said Andrew Sebastian, co-founder of the Ecotourism and Conservation Society Malaysia.

"It could make wildlife watching in Sabah more interesting."

But Sebastian warned that the rare elephant's reversed tusks might create some problems when it comes to jostling with other elephants.

A study done a decade ago showed there were about 2,000 elephants in Sabah. Wildlife officials said a new study will be conducted soon.

The biggest threat to elephants in Sabah was not poaching, but loss of habitat due to modernisation and an increase in the human population, said Nathan.

Orangutan Infant Found Abandoned in C. Kalimantan

Jakarta Globe, Norjani & Ratri M. Siniwi, August 05, 2016

A baby orangutan held by a resident of West Kalimantan's Kubu Raya district, in
this October 2015 file photo. (Antara Photo/Jessica Helena Wuysang)

Jakarta. An infant Bornean orangutan was found abandoned in a rubber plantation in Sampit, Central Kalimantan, on Thursday morning (04/08).

"At sunset [last night], I heard what sounded like someone wailing, which turned out to be the orangutan. It was sitting in a rubber tree in my plantation. Then this morning I saw that there was no mother, and I took it to Sampit and reported it [to the authorities]," local resident Martono said, as reported by state-run news agency Antara.

The Central Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) went to Martono's house to examine the infant, and established that it is an 18-month-old female. Infant orangutans are completely dependent on their mothers for the first two years of their lives.

"An orangutan mother would never leave her child. We cannot conclude whether the mother was killed, but what is clear is that the infant has been rescued,"Sampit BKSDA post commander Muriansyah said.

According to Martono, it was his first time seeing an orangutan in the area, as most of the trees in his rubber plantation have burned down, making it hard for the animals to survive and find food. He said he pitied the infant as she looked malnourished, and suspected that she was starving.

"I was scared that the baby [orangutan] would die [from hunger]; I reported it so the officials could save her. I gave her a banana, but she only ate a little of it," Martono said.

The infant has been taken to the BKSDA regional office at Pangkalan Bun in West Kotawaringin district. According to the officials, orangutans can take up to two years of rehabilitation before they are ready to be released into their natural habitat.

The Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) in Central Kalimantan claims that this is the 10th orangutan reported by Sampit residents so far this year.

The Bornean orangutan is a cousin of the Sumatran orangutan, both of which have been listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of critically endangered animals, due to population loss driven by hunting and habitat degradation.