NUMBER 49 2018 GAJAHJournal of the Asian Elephant Specialist Group GAJAH Journal of the Asian Elephant Specialist Group Number 49 (2018) The journal is intended as a medium of communication on issues that concern the management and conservation of Asian elephants both in the wild and in captivity. It is a means by which everyone concerned with the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), whether members of the Asian Elephant Specialist Group or not, can communicate their research results, experiences, ideas and perceptions freely, so that the conservation of Asian elephants can benefit. All articles published in Gajah reflect the individual views of the authors and not necessarily that of the editorial board or the Asian Elephant Specialist Group. Editor Dr. Jennifer Pastorini Centre for Conservation and Research 26/7 C2 Road, Kodigahawewa Julpallama, Tissamaharama Sri Lanka e-mail: [email protected] Editorial Board Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando Dr. Benoit Goossens Centre for Conservation and Research Danau Girang Field Centre 26/7 C2 Road, Kodigahawewa c/o Sabah Wildlife Department Julpallama Wisma MUIS, Block B 5th Floor Tissamaharama 88100 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah Sri Lanka Malaysia e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected] Dr. Varun R. Goswami Heidi Riddle Wildlife Conservation Society Riddles Elephant & Wildlife Sanctuary 551, 7th Main Road P.O. Box 715 Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, 2nd Phase, Kodigehall Greenbrier, Arkansas 72058 Bengaluru - 560 097, India USA e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected] Dr. T. N. C. Vidya Evolutionary and Organismal Biology Unit Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research Bengaluru - 560 064 India e-mail: [email protected] GAJAH Journal of the Asian Elephant Specialist Group Number 49 (2018) This publication was proudly funded by Wildlife Reserves Singapore Editorial Note Gajah will be published as both a hard copy and an on-line version accessible from the AsESG web site (www.asesg.org/ gajah.htm). If you would like to be informed when a new issue comes out, please provide your e-mail address. If you need to have a hardcopy, please send a request with your name and postal address by e-mail to <[email protected]>. Copyright Notice Gajah is an open access journal distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unre- stricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, pro- vided the original author and source are credited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Cover Elephant Putra Mas at Perth Zoo (Australia) Photo by Jody Polson (See article on page 20) Layout and formatting by Dr. Jennifer Pastorini Printed at P & G Printers, Colombo 10, Sri Lanka Gajah 49 (2018) 1 Editorial Jennifer Pastorini (Editor) E-mail: [email protected] In this issue of Gajah 49 you can find three In News and Briefs E. Latimer et al. brief us research articles and two short communications. on a workshop held in Thailand organized by The studies involved wild elephants in Nepal the EEHV Asia Working Group. The goal was and India and captive elephants in Australia, Sri to build capacity on EEHV testing in Asian Lanka and USA. countries. H.M. Irfanullah gives us an update on the current situation at Cox’s Bazar, where The first Research Article by D.M.N.J. within a short period of time more than 700,000 Dissanayake et al. studied the reproductive status refugees have set up camp in the middle of the of females in two captive populations utilizing forest, coming into conflict with the resident progesterone antibodies. More females were elephant population. found to be reproductively active if kept in a herd vs. alone. The country (Sri Lanka or USA) Abstracts from 49 publications can be read in made no difference. Y. Liefting et al. present “Recent Publications on Asian Elephants” and a new design for electric fencing. They first in “News Briefs” glimpses of 36 newspaper tested it with a captive elephant and have now articles on Asian elephants across the range are a fence in the field in Nepal, which is working provided. well so far. Clair Holland has trained a male at Perth Zoo to react to various commands given The chair of the Asian Elephant Specialist Group, through the radio, providing the elephant with Vivek Menon, gives a summary of what is new challenges, and it is rewarded with food if happening in the group. He has attended various solved successfully. meetings on the group’s behalf and also updates us on the progress of all the working groups. In Short Communications we learn of two medical reports. V.P. Govindan et al. describe how they I thank the editorial board for their efforts in found Cobboldia parasites in a carcass of a wild putting this Gajah together. Ahimsa Campos- elephant. The larvae lived in the stomach and Arceiz has resigned from the editorial board. I could be identified under the microscope. T.P.J. am most grateful for the efforts he put into Gajah Athapattu and co-authors successfully treated in the last 4 years. I would like to welcome our a captive elephant infected by Anoplocephala new editorial board member Benoit Goossens, tapeworms. who has kindly agreed to help us with Gajah. A big thanks is going out to all the authors for sharing their work with the readership of Gajah. I would like to encourage others working on Asian elephant conservation or doing research on Asian elephants to share their knowledge through an article for Gajah. The Wildlife Reserves Singapore Group has generously provided the funds to print hard copies of Gajah and mail them out for free to readers across the globe. 1 Gajah 49 (2018) 2-3 Notes from the Chair IUCN SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group Vivek Menon Chair’s e-mail: [email protected] Dear members The three new Working Groups formed in mid 2018 have also started their work. The Working I would like to wish all of you a very happy 2019. Group for “Preparing the Elephant Conservation Let me begin with good news. The IUCN SSC Action Plan for Bhutan” had online discussions Asian Elephant Specialist Group (AsESG) had in and will be meeting in February 2019 at Paro, the past members from all the Asian range states Bhutan to discuss the initial draft plan recently except Vietnam. I am pleased to inform you that prepared by the Department of Forests and Park three experts from Vietnam have recently joined Services, Bhutan based on national consultation the group and now we have members from ALL held in early 2019. The second Working Group 13 range states. working towards “Developing the Plan to Manage the Elephant Habitats Affected by Settlement of Also, after the initial discussion with our members Rohingya Refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh and officials from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China and Minimize the Human-Elephant Conflict” and Malaysia (Sabah) for hosting the next AsESG had its field visit in end October 2018 (Fig. 1). meeting, I am very happy to inform you that we Currently about 921,000 Rohingya refugees have settled on Sabah in Borneo, Malaysia. The reside in 27 camps in Cox’s Bazar occupying meeting will be held sometime in the first two about 6000 acres of forest area cleared for weeks of December 2019 and the dates are being settlement. About 35–40 elephants are trapped worked on which we will soon communicate on the western side of the camp in degraded to you. I would request all of you to keep your secondary forests and 13 cases of human death calendars free for this important meeting and we due to elephants have been reported between will narrow it down as soon as possible. September 2017 and October 2018 by elephants in and around the camp area. The team is working We have received the final documents from two on the draft report. The third Working Group on Working Groups. The first is on the “Management “Emerging Diseases Affecting Elephant in Wild and Welfare of Captive Asian Elephants Used in and in Captivity in Asia” has also started its Tourism” and the second on the “Management discussion recently. and Care of Captive Elephant Bulls in Musth”. I have also received updates from the Working Groups working for preparing the “Sabah Elephant Conservation Action Plan” and the other working on “Developing Guidelines for Rehabilitation of Captive Elephants in the Wild as a Possible Restocking Option”. Based on the comment received during the last AsESG meeting in Bangkok, the Working Griyo for “Mapping the Distribution of Asian Elephants in Range States” had its meeting in Yangon, Myanmar early 2019 facilitated by the convenor Dr. A. Christy Williams. I hope the others will Figure 1. Stakeholders consultation on mitigating soon follow. impact of Rohingya refugees on elephants. 2 Taking forward the responsibility of helping the range states develop their national action plans for the conservation of elephants, the AsESG Program Manager on my behalf visited Lao PDR and had meeting with the Director General, Deputy Director General and other senior officials of the Department of Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Wildlife and Aquatic Management Division, Lao PDR along with officials of WWF Lao offering the assistance of AsESG experts for the preparation of the Lao elephant conservation action plan (Fig. 2). Appreciating the initiatives of the AsESG, he Figure 2. Meeting with officials for the Lao PDR has agreed to get the plan prepared for Lao PDR national action plan for elephant conservation. within this year. Our members from Lao – Mr Khamkhoun Khounboline and Dr. K. Yoganand Lanka, from 23rd May to 3rd June 2019 as well facilitated the meeting.