Borneo elephants in danger of extinction: only a thousand specimens remain, conservation organization warns

He Bornean elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis), a subspecies of which there are an estimated one thousand specimens in the wild, is in danger of extinction due to human action in its habitat, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warned this Thursday. ).

The organization has published a new edition of its Red List of Threatened Species, which includes 45,321 animals and plants in danger of extinction (more than a quarter of the total), and has highlighted the inclusion of this pachyderm in the classification of “endangered” species (For a long time it was not considered its own subspecies but part of the Indian elephants).

According to IUCN, the population of the Borneo elephant has been declining in the last 75 years, initially due to excessive forest clearing on that island shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, but more recently also due to the expansion of the human population in the animal’s former habitat.

“As the population has increased in Sabah (a Malaysian state in northeastern Borneo), elephants are increasingly venturing into human settlements in search of food, sometimes causing damage to crops and being killed in retaliation,” the IUCN statement said.

The habitat of the Bornean elephant has been reduced further with the expansion of agricultural crops such as palm oiltimber tree plantations and road construction, the organization notes.

“Illegal ivory trade, accidental ingestion of agrochemicals and collisions with vehicles are also causes of concern,” adds IUCN.

The Borneo is the subspecies with the smallest specimens, and genetic studies indicate that it separated from the rest of the elephants about 300,000 years ago.

The Red List, which IUCN updates annually, celebrates six decades this year, and points out that more than a quarter of mammals are threatened.

Among those declared in greatest danger of extinction are the wild camel (camelus ferus), the European mink (mustela lutreola), the gorilla in both its eastern and western subspecies (gorilla beringei and gorilla gorilla), the Javan rhinoceros (rhinoceros sondaicus ), or the Sumatran orangutan (pongo abelil).

“Biodiversity faces increasing pressure from factors such as climate change, illegal trade or the spread of invasive species., but there are possible solutions. With sustained, collaborative and science-based action we can prevent species from becoming extinct,” said the director general of IUCN, Costa Rican Grethel Aguilar.