Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Two female Sumatran elephants were found dead in Langkat regency, North Sumatra, with authorities still investigating the cause of death after they received reports from villagers about the animals' carcasses last Sunday.
The two elephants were found in separate locations near the Mount Leuser National Park (TNGL) in North Sumatra, Acting head of North Sumatra's Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA) Irzal Azhar said. He added that one of the elephants was estimated to have been dead for several months before it was found.
Irzal said he had sent a team to investigate the cause of death of the two elephants and to bury their remains.
From the team's initial observations, several puncture wounds were found on the dead elephants' abdomen. Irzal suspected the wounds were caused by a male elephant's tusk.
"It is possible that as the elephant [tried to mate] the male elephant's tusk hit the female's body. However, this is only an assumption. We have yet to determine the exact cause of the deaths of the two female elephants as it is still under investigation," Irzal told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
He said the BKSDA was made aware of the elephants' carcasses after it received a report from TNGL rangers, who forwarded reports from local villagers to them on April 10.
Irzal added that a day after the discoveries, a local villager tried to extract the elephant's short tusk as authorities discovered incision marks around the tusk.
Jony Walker, a witness who farms in a plantation site where one of the carcasses was found, said that a day before the discovery, he had heard an elephant's roar near the area.
Irzal explained that Sumatran elephants around the TNGL in Langkat Regency were critically endangered as poachers hunted them for their tusks, which fetch a high price on the black market.
The authorities estimated that between 30 and 60 elephants live within the TNGL area that overlaps with Langkat regency.
"It is not impossible that the Sumatran elephants' population in Langkat will decline if illegal poaching isn't stopped," said Irzal.