Elephantine attraction opens up in Yangon

It’s not often that a story about elephant tusks goes viral, but that’s what happened last week.

An article in the media about the tusks of a sadan (royal) elephant being on display at the Elephant Museum spread like wildfire on social media, due to a mistaken belief that the tusks concerned were from the royal elephant mentioned in the Jataka tales, body of literature concerning the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form.

In fact, the tusks at the centre of attention were from a royal white elephant named Nivana pitsaya Naga Raja from the Konbaung dynasty.

Myanmar kings adored and valued white elephants as revered symbols of power and good fortune. Nivana pitsaya Naga Raja was captured in the forest of Bago Yoma during the reign of King Bodawphayar in 1806.

The white elephant was the royal elephant over the rule of five kings, from King Bodawphyar to King Mindon, a span of 51 years. When the elephant died in 1857, its tusks were removed and displayed in front of the palace.

However, the tusks were taken to England after the exile of the last monarch of Myanmar in 1885 and were only returned to Myanmar in 1965.

Before the tusks were moved to the newly opened Elephant Museum located in the grounds of the Yangon Zoo, they were on display at the Natural History Museum also located in the zoo.

The tusks are now on display Myanmar's first elephant museum, which opened on Sunday in conjunction with World Wildlife day.

The new museum offers plenty of information on the evolution of elephants, how they were relied on and revered in Myanmar, and the roles the animals played in religious events.

Beyond history, the museum also educates visitors about the threats the animals face today due to habitat and food sources shrinking, conflict with humans, and poaching for tusks and parts in illegal trade.

The museum has a wonderful displays of ancient elephant fossils, elephant-handling equipment, radio collars and camera traps used in elephant conservation, and now illegal and restricted objects made from elephants ivory and bones, rare black ivory, elephant's body parts.

“Currently, wild elephants are being illegally poached and killed by selfish and senseless humans,” said U Own Win, Union Minister Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation.

“Even though we and relevant authorities have been working together to protect elephants and take legal action against poaching, they are still being killed. The opening of this museum will help educate people about the needs for conserving our treasured elephant species".

Myanmar has the second-highest number of elephants in Asia, after India.

The stated objectives of the museum are to protect and conserve wild elephants in natural forest areas, to reduce elephant and human conflict, to create awareness among the public and to let public join in efforts to tackle the killing of wild elephants.

“This museum doesn't mean that we have given up hope for elephants in the wild. It is meant educate students and children about how elephants are threatened in the wild and help to reverse the tide,” said U Saw Htoo Tha Po, an expert with the Wildlife Conservation Society of Myanmar.

The elephant museum will be a part of the Natural Historyl Museum in the Yangon Zoological Gardens.

The museum is open every day of the week and entry will be free until May.

The museum run by the Forest Department was set up with financial and technical support from WWF- Myanmar.

“People have been flocking here since the doors opened" said U Myo Kyaw Thu, manager of the Yangon Zoological Gardens.

There are currently some 1500 wild elephants and between 3000 and 5000 domesticated elephants in Myanmar.

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Myanmar to burn seized wildlife parts at Yangon Zoo

The government will burn elephant tusks and other wildlife parts worth US$1.1 million (K1.66 billion) that were seized over the past year, a senior Forest Department official said.

U Win Naing Thaw, director of Nature and Wildlife Conservation at the department, said the parts will be burned at Yangon Zoo on Sunday.

“Besides elephant parts, there are other animal parts such as horns,” he said, adding that together they weigh more than 700 kilogrammes.

There is especially high demand in Myanmar’s illegal wildlife trade for elephants, turtles, snakes, pangolins and bears.

The burning of the parts is aimed at raising public awareness of the damage wrought by the illegal wildlife trade on the environment and animals.

“I regret the burning of the wildlife parts, but I feel sorrier for the live animals that are traded illegally,” U Win Naing Thaw said. “It is illegal to sell these parts on the black market, so they are being burned.”

Several countries have resorted to burning illegal wildlife parts in the campaign to eliminate the trade.

“The action aims to prevent the making of wildlife cuisine and other things,” said Yangon Region’s Forest Department Director U Thein Toe.

Elephant poaching remains rampant in Bago, Ayeyarwady, and Yangon regions.

Myanmar began burning wildlife parts in Nay Pyi Taw in October 2018, when 277 ivory pieces, 227 elephant bones and other animals, 45 animal hides, 1544 animal horns, 45.5kg of pangolin scales, and 128 other parts were destroyed.

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Poachers hunted after elephant killed in Cambodian wildlife reserve

MONDULKIRI provincial authorities are hunting poachers who shot an elephant for its tusks
near Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary.

Cambodia Environment Ministry spokesman Neth Pheaktra said on Tuesday that park
rangers from the provincial environment department found the elephant in a cashew plantation. It had been shot about ten days ago.

He said the elephant was 2.70 metres tall, 4.50 metres long and weighed about two tonnes.
“Examination of the elephant’s body showed it was shot for its ivory,” he said. “The tusks
were missing and its tail was cut o. There was a gunshot wound on the elephant’s body.

“We are investigating the case, but it was shot using a home-made poisoned bullet,” Pheaktra added. “There was a hole near its right eye that we assumed was a gunshot wound.”

Din Bunthoeun, deputy director of the provincial Environment Department, said department
officials were trying to nd the killers but have no suspects.

The elephant has been buried, but its skeleton will be put on display later for scientic research on the diverse lives of elephants in Cambodia.

In the past three years, three elephants have been shot dead or died of old age. A baby elephant was found dead after being trapped by hunters in the sanctuary last year.

“We condemn this illegal shooting for ivory, and the authorities are investigating to arrest
those responsible,” Pheaktra said.

The Environment Ministry is cooperating with partners on long-term planning for conservation of the forest and protected areas for elephants using law enforcement, and by raising public awareness.

“The ministry calls on all people to join in protecting and conserving elephants in Cambodia,” Pheaktra said.

In the protected area in Mondulkiri province, there are an estimated 120 to 170 elephants.

Cambodia has about 500 elephants living in rainforests, especially in the northeast and Cardamom Mountains. –

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Less than 2,000 elephants survive in Burma

According to official 2018 data from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, there are only 2,000 domestic and wild elephants in Burma. A collapse of the population despite official rhetoric stressing the importance of preservation, and a recent WWF campaign explaining the importance of protecting this species both iconic and playing a unique and therefore key role in its biotope. Illegal ivory trafficking as well as the exploitation of different parts of the animal for alleged therapeutic benefits, and thus the poaching that results, fuel this rapid disappearance. Between 2010 and 2016, at least 116 of these pachyderms were slaughtered outlawed. And in 2017, authorities identify at least 30 animals that are victims of poaching. Daw Thiri Yadanar, a parliamentarian in the upper house, questioned his colleagues about the massacre during a session on November 16, worried about "This illegal ivory trade from Burma to China and Thailand." "If the government can not prevent the illegal trafficking of elephant tusks and other ivory objects, the dignity of our country is lost." she added. In 1940, there were about 10 000 elephants in the present territory of Burma and around 5000 in the 1990s.

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Less than 2,000 elephants survive in Burma

According to official 2018 data from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, there are only 2,000 domestic and wild elephants in Burma. A collapse of the population despite official rhetoric stressing the importance of preservation, and a recent WWF campaign explaining the importance of protecting this species both iconic and playing a unique and therefore key role in its biotope. Illegal ivory trafficking as well as the exploitation of different parts of the animal for alleged therapeutic benefits, and thus the poaching that results, fuel this rapid disappearance. Between 2010 and 2016, at least 116 of these pachyderms were slaughtered outlawed. And in 2017, authorities identify at least 30 animals that are victims of poaching. Daw Thiri Yadanar, a parliamentarian in the upper house, questioned his colleagues about the massacre during a session on November 16, worried about "This illegal ivory trade from Burma to China and Thailand." "If the government can not prevent the illegal trafficking of elephant tusks and other ivory objects, the dignity of our country is lost." she added. In 1940, there were about 10 000 elephants in the present territory of Burma and around 5000 in the 1990s.

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Burmese government burns illegal wildlife products worth $1.3 million in bid to deter traffickers

Law enforcement authorities in Burma have incinerated seized wildlife crime products with an estimated value of $1.3 million as part of wider crackdown on animal part trafficking.

Officials from the country’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation ceremonially set fire to a huge pyre of confiscated trafficked products made from animal parts, including elephant tusks, antelope horn and pangolin scales.

The items included 277 products made from ivory, 227 elephant and other wildlife’s bones, 45 pieces of different wildlife skins, 1,544 animal horns, 45.5kgs of pangolin scales, and 128 varieties of other animal parts.

Speaking during the ceremony, Burma’s Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation U Ohn Win said: “”It is crucial to sustainably conserve our country’s natural resources, including land, water, forest, mountains and wildlife, for the sake of our future generations. We designate and establish protected areas for biodiversity conservation.”

The ministry said the ceremony was organised to help raise awareness of the threat posed by wildlife smuggling in Burma, and to dissuade people who might be tempted to become involved in the trafficking trade.

Burma is a major hub for wildlife smugglers, who use the country as a base from which to traffic illegal items made from animal parts to China and other Asian nations.

In a report published earlier this week, conservation charity Save the Elephants revealed that China’s recent crackdown on the ivory trade had fuelled a “prolific growth” in the illicit animal parts trade in the Burma-China border town of Mong La.

The study found that the number of new ivory items found for sale in the town had grown by 63% over the course of the past three years, and now accounts for over a third of the ivory seen in the country.

According to the report, Chinese visitors are able to smuggle ivory purchased in Mong La back to their home country with little fear of being caught.

It also noted that a computer-driven machine in one shop in the town enables Chinese customers to mass produce decorative products made out of ivory.

Lucy Vigne, lead author of the report, commented: “Poaching is a problem for elephants in Myanmar but the country also provides a largely unchecked conduit for illegal African ivory carved in the region to be smuggled into China, in violation of International Law.

“The authorities are not deterring ivory smugglers and trade in ivory and other endangered wildlife products that is running riot to meet the continued Chinese demand.”

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Elephant Poaching Dips in 2018 After Years on Rise

PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Region — More than 100 wild elephants were poached in forest reserves across the country over the past four years, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation’s Forest Department.

U Pyae Phyo Aung, head of the Forest Department in Irrawaddy Region’s Ngapudaw Township, said poachers killed a total 115 of the pachyderms over the period: seven in 2014, 20 in 2015, 18 in 2016, 59 in 2017, and 11 from January through May.

“Elephant poaching was highest last year, but it has declined this year,” he told The Irrawaddy.

He added that 53 elephant died of natural causes from 2014 to May.

Combined, Myanmar lost 168 wild elephants over the period, an average of about 40 per year.

In the past, elephants were mainly poached for their tusks. But over the past few years, they are also increasingly targeted for their hide, which, like the tusks, is mostly smuggled to China.

Most of the poaching takes place in Irrawaddy Region. Local police said 59 elephants were poached in the region between 2011 and May 2018.

But elephant poaching in Irrawaddy Region has significantly declined this year thanks to cooperation from locals, said Ko Sai Zaw Oo of Friends of Wildlife (FOW), which is partnering with the World Wildlife Fund on elephant conservation efforts.

In January, the Forest Department launched an initiative offering rewards of 3 million kyats ($2,046) to anyone who provides authorities with information leading to the arrest of elephant poachers.

“Last year we were able to arrest a poaching ring due to a tip from a local resident in Ngapudaw. We awarded him 3 million kyats. And we conduct regular patrols with forestry police and departmental officials, and elephant poaching has declined in the region,” Ko Sai Zaw Oo told The Irrawaddy.

Combined teams comprising local police, forestry police, forest department staff, village administrators, elephant veterinarians and non-governmental organization officials conduct regular patrols across forest reserves in Irrawaddy and also educate locals about the dangers and damage of poaching.

In February, the government launched the Myanmar Elephant Conservation Action Plan, a strategy for the next 10 years (2018–2027) aimed at securing viable and ecologically functional elephant populations in Myanmar for the next century and beyond with support from international and local organizations.

Myanmar’s elephant population is now estimated at between 1,400 and 2,000, a drastic decline from about 10,000 in the 1940s, according to the Forest Department.

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Poachers are killing endangered Asian elephants for their skin and meat, not their tusks

A poached elephant in Myanmar. The elephant had been wearing a satellite-GPS collar as part of a Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute study tracking elephant movements to mitigate human-elephant conflict. (Photo: Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute)

Poaching wasn’t the largest conservation concern for Asian elephants, an endangered species, until satellite tracking stunned researchers.

Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) have found that poaching, not for elephant tusks but for the animal’s meat and skins, is an emerging crisis for Asian elephants in Myanmar. The findings were published March 13 in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

The team first became aware of the crisis while conducting an unrelated study fitting Asian elephants— which are smaller than their African cousins—with satellite GPS collars to understand their movements better and reduce human-elephant conflict.

“It was a shock,” says Christie Sampson, who is lead author of the paper, a doctoral student at Clemson University and an SCBI doctoral fellow. “We started off with really great ideas of how we were going to be able to track the elephants across the landscape. The GPS collars were supposed to last three to five years, but we started losing the elephants relatively quickly.”

The shortest time between an elephant being collared and being poached was six days.

Of the 19 elephants fitted with satellite GPS collars, seven were poached within a year. The toll rose the longer they investigated, with on-the-ground partners finding the mutilated carcasses of 40 additional elephants in systematic surveys across the southern-central region of the country.

With skin torn from their bodies and limbs hacked off, the sight of the dead elephants was distressing for local partners whose main goal is to protect the elephants.

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And when I get that feeling, I want animal healing

Past traumas can have devastating effects. What goes for humans goes for animals too.

IN the Htamanthi wildlife sanctuary, on the eastern bank of the Chindwin River -- northern Myanmar -- a little monkey looks wary. Rain clouds form on the horizon, and as they swell, the Hoolock Gibbon becomes edgier. Suddenly, thunderclap bursts and the frightened animal darts into the arms of his caretaker, hiding his little head deep into his bosom.

That happens every time the rain comes, explains Naw Kaung, a project assistant from Wildlife Conservation Society-Myanmar Program.

The little creature was named Valentine by the caretakers as he arrived to the sanctuary on February 14th – Valentine’s Day. A few days earlier, Valentine too was with the person he loved most: his mother. As he was suckling in the wild, hunters attacked and killed her. Rain, too, poured that day.

“[Valentine] looked fearful when he first arrived at the sanctuary. After a month of care, he would look normal on an ordinary day. But when dark clouds gather, he becomes reckless and runs in fear, looking for shelter into someone’s bosom, no matter how far his caretaker is from him,” says Naw Kaung.

Naw Kaung and his colleagues traced the cause of his trauma by interrogating the people who brought Valentine to the sanctuary. Since then, they have tried to help the monkey overcome his fears. They surround him with kindness and warmth, pat him on the head when the clouds form and even allow him to sleep near humans. Valentine is showing signs of recovery and is becoming a clever little gibbon, but overcoming such a traumatic experience might take years. In fact, it might always resonate deep inside him.

Mary, a baby elephant, had a similar fate. She was in the bosom of her mother when the latter was poached for her skin last December in the Ayeyarwady Region. Mary was found wandering around with a herd of cows about five kilometers from her mother’s body.

The orphan calf arrived at the Forest Department on Christmas Eve. The department’s staff named her Mary (For some reason, caretakers seems to be Catholic in this part of Myanmar). The calf was transferred to the Winga Baw Elephant Conservation Camp where she joined the seven orphan elephants the camp has received since it’s opening in 2016.

Mary escaped because the poachers thought her skin wouldn’t be sold for much. It wasn’t worth the effort to take it off her. Instead, they let her wander off, alone and frightened.

In the past, poachers mostly targeted male elephants for their tusks and the issue of orphans were rare. Now, demand for elephant skin in China is shooting up, and the number of orphans knocking at sanctuary doors becomes deafening.

“The other young calves with their mothers in the camp are cheerful and playful. Mary was quiet,” says U Myint Soe, who is running the camp. Wild elephants have problems adapting to their new life and heal.

The loss of a mother is traumatic for domesticated calves too, but other female elephants can take care of them. Finding a surrogate mother for a wild calf is more complicated, as they have habits and instincts an elephant who has lived in captivity may not understand.

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Myanmar rebel group recovers ‘sacred’ elephant tusks stolen from Thai village

The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), an insurgent group operating in Myanmar along the Thai border, handed over a pair of carved elephant tusks to Thai authorities today, ending a hunt that started on Friday.

The elaborately engraved tusks vanished from a pavilion in a Kayin village in Thailand’s Umphang district on Friday. Leaders of the village suspected a former village head named Baisu Khiridujjinda, who had come to the village and asked to sleep in the pavilion the night before the tusks went missing. They accused him of stealing the tusks and fleeing across the border to Myanmar’s Kayin State.

Within the next couple days, the DKBA located Baisu and the tusks in a newly opened monastery on top of Mount Mulayit in Kayin State, about 80 kilometers from the Thai border. Baisu had reportedly become a hermit and planned to use the sacred tusks to attract disciples, The Nation reported.


A 10-member team led by the chief of Umphang district travelled to the Thai-Myanmar border on Monday to retrieve the tusks from the DKBA. However, the insurgent group did not hand over Baisu, who remains at large in Myanmar.

A source on the Thai recovery team told The Nation that Baisu denied stealing the tusks, saying he had only borrowed them long enough to “perform a ritual” at the mountain-top monastery.

The source also said Baisu’s alleged theft might have had backing from armed groups in Myanmar, since the tusks came from a male elephant named Kwang Phu that was born on Mount Mulayit more than 200 years ago and taken to what is now Thailand by a Kayin mahout.

The stolen tusks are one of two pairs of tusks kept in the village pavilion in Umphang district there that are considered sacred by locals.

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