Newly discovered pygmy elephants in Borneo are being outfitted with transmitters to allow orbiting satellites to track them as they migrate through dense rain forest mountains.
Experts use dart guns to tranquilize them and to put on tag collars, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) spokesman Stefan Ziegler. Each tag, a grey, brick-like device strapped around the elephant's neck, will transmit its whereabouts to a satellite three times a day for 18 months until the battery runs out. It will be replaced as often as necessary over the course of the five-year project. A link on WWF's Web site gives the daily position of each elephant.
"It will be like having a window seat into the life of the Borneo elephant," Ziegler said.
Pygmy elephants were long considered the same as Asian elephants. A myth held that they were remnants of a domesticated herd given as a gift by the British to a Borneo sultan in the 17th century.
They were not considered a conservation priority until a chance DNA analysis by WWF and New York's Columbia University in 2003 revealed them to be a genetically distinct subspecies.
"We still know very little about pygmy elephants. Any new information we get will be landmark evidence," Ziegler said.
Borneo pygmy elephants have significantly different characteristics from their cousins found on mainland Asia and Sumatra. They are relatively tame and mild-tempered compared to other Asian elephants, they are also smaller in size. There are estimated to be fewer than 1,500 of the elephants. Compared to other elephants, Borneo's pygmy elephants are baby-faced and gentle-natured.
DNA evidence shows Borneo's elephants were isolated about 300,000 years ago from their cousins on mainland Asia and Sumatra. During that period, they grew smaller with larger ears, longer tails and straighter tusks. Their genetic distinctiveness makes them a high priority population for conservation.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not