Wild Asia - Translocation: a tool to mitigate human-elephant conflict in Peninsular Malaysia

Translocation is one solution to the problem of human-elephant conflict in Peninsular Malaysia. REGEN JAMIESON takes a look at the programme run by the Department of Wildlife (PERHILITAN).

There are only around 40,000 Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) left in the wild, and our best guess it that there are about a thousand left in Peninsular Malaysia. Forest dwelling elephants are difficult to find, and therefore count and research. What we do know for certain is that large areas of the habitat most preferred by elephants, lowland secondary forests, have been converted to agriculture. But elephants are adaptive animals. With natural areas steadily decreasing, they often come into agricultural areas to raid crops, which offer an easy source of food.

Up until the early 1970s, crop-raiding elephants were shot as pests by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia (PERHILITAN). Due to a large decrease in numbers, the elephant became a totally protected species under the Protection of Wildlife Act (1972) and in 1974 PERHILITAN established the Elephant Management Unit (EMU). PERHILITAN decided to use an alternative management strategy to mitigate human-elephant conflict: translocation. Translocation as a management strategy is considered a last resort when alternate tools available fail (i.e., animal exclusion devices). Worldwide, many agencies in charge of managing wildlife use translocation, moving 'nuisance' animals from where they are causing problems away from human settlements. For endangered species like the Asian elephant that are protected by law, translocation is sometimes the only alternative for the potential survival of offending animals.

When PERHILITAN identifies a problem elephant, they send in rangers to track, immobilize, and secure it with chains. Next, they bring in two captive, trained elephants to assist them in maneuvering the drugged, but dangerous wild elephant. Mahouts maneuver the trained elephants to either side of the wild elephant, and place chains around its neck. The trained elephants help maneuver wild elephant onto a specially designed truck. The elephant is then transported to one of three places, Taman Negara National Park, Endau Rompin State Park, and Ulu Belum. At the release site, rangers re-sedate the animal and manually maneuver it off of the truck again using chains, give it an injection of antidote, and move a safe distance away to be sure it recovers. The time from capture to release can take from two to four days.

Considering how few elephants are left in the Peninsular, and that they can live to be up to 60 years old, it is significant that around 600 elephants have been translocated in this manner and that their fate after release is unknown. Past attempts to track them were hampered by the steep terrain, dense foliage and inaccessibility of the jungle, a lack of funding and adequate technology.

When translocation programs have been monitored in other parts of the world, managers have found numerous problems that impact success. Scientists have observed high death rates, competition for resources and space at the release site, and replacement by other nuisance individuals at the capture site. Another issue is animals' amazing ability to 'home', or travel back to their original home range. Homing after translocation has been documented in salt water crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) in Australia, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) and golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) in North American and elephants are no exception. In 1988 a rogue elephant was translocated in India. Within three weeks it traveled back to its capture site and resumed crop raiding, an estimated distance of 300 kilometers!

To begin to learn more about what happens to the elephants once they are released, a joint project between the University of Rhode Island (USA) and PERHILITAN was initiated with the generous support of Wild Asia (Seed Grants: Asian Elephant Conservation in Peninsular Malaysia). Our aim is to track released elephants using state-of-the-art Global Positioning Systems (GPS) collars.

Our Seed Grants are small grants of up to USD1000 to anyone that has a good idea, innovation or initiative that needs a helping hand. More details: Giving Back: Wild Asia's Seed Grants