Another casualty in the war of elephants and humans

(Image: Heri Juanda/AP/Press Association Images)

It is a story all too common - animals being squeezed out by people destroying their habitats for farmland. Then the hungry animals return to that land in search of food and the humans are surprised, responding with further destruction.

This dead Sumatran elephant was found this morning on the edge of a palm oil plantation in Krueng Ayon, Aceh province, Indonesia. Despite elephants enjoying protected status from the Indonesian government, this one is the victim of a suspected poisoning.

Sumatran elephants are a subspecies of the Asian elephant that inhabit the lowland forests of Sumatra, Indonesia. The subspecies is classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and it is estimated that fewer than 3000 remain in the wild on Sumatra. According to the IUCN, in the past 75 years natural forest cover in Sumatra has declined by 66 per cent and the remaining area is in fragmented patches too small to support elephants. Conservation organisations are working with the government to expand the areas of forest protected against clearing.

Starving elephants are known to raid villages and trample crops, which is probably why this one met the fate he did.