Bornean elephants tracked as Malaysia habitat shrinks

A Malaysian conservation team is fitting tracking collars to Bornean elephants in Sabah to help reduce conflict between the endangered animals and nearby communities.

One collared elephant, nicknamed Pigtail, is among only around 1,000 Bornean elephants left in the wild. Conservationist Farina Othman and her team use the collars to alert villagers when elephants move too close.

Farina, a Malaysian academic who heads the local conservation group Seratu Aatai, is also working on plans for elephant corridors through plantations to connect remaining forest patches.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature says Bornean elephants have lost more than 60 percent of their habitat in Sabah over the past 40 years to logging and later oil palm expansion. It listed the animal as endangered in 2024.

Lower Kinabatangan, a floodplain in eastern Sabah of about 400 square kilometres, is home to around 160 elephants. Farina said only about half of that area is now left for the elephants.

She said conflict becomes inevitable when elephants move into private property or villages. In one recent incident, a herd of 20 elephants entered palm oil smallholdings and three villages. No one was injured, but residents called for stronger deterrents, including upgraded electric fencing.

Seratu Aatai runs school outreach programmes, distributes information and works with community wildlife guardians who help guide elephants away from human habitation without harming them.

Farina wants to persuade seven plantations in the area to view elephants as part of the local ecology rather than as an occasional disturbance. Palm oil industry specialist Muhammad Al Shafieq bin Mustafa said many producers are reluctant to give up land for corridors because of tight and volatile margins.

Daniel Pamin, conservation and sustainability executive at the Malaysian Palm Oil Green Conservation Foundation, said coexistence must be a “win-win situation” for planters and wildlife.