Wild elephants attack domesticated elephants for food

More and more wild elephants have been driven out of the wild to find food, in some instances attacking domesticated elephants in Dak Lak Province.

More and more wild elephants have been driven out of the wild to find food, in some instances attacking domesticated elephants in Dak Lak Province.

  

Wild elephants attack domesticated elephants in Dak Lak.

Director of Dak Lak Province Elephant Conservation Centre Huynh Trung Luan said on August 31 that wild elephants had been flocking to the Buon Don District to find food and had injured several domesticated elephants.

The latest case occurred on August 28 at Yok Don National Park. A herd of six to seven wild elephants attacked two domesticated elephants which searching for food.

Since March, the centre has recorded five attacks which killed one elephant in Krong Na, Commune and injured seven elephants of the centre.

"As the forested land disappears wild elephants often venture to the edge of the forest and the fields to find food and have attacked the domesticated elephants. During mating season, male elephants often wander alone to find the female elephants and they are very violent. They will attack the domesticated elephants for the female ones," he said.

The centre has asked elephant owners to take measures to protect their herds such as stop chaining up the elephants at locations where wild elephants may appear or in the forest at night.

If wild elephants are detected, the owners should inform the centre immediately so that they can chase the wild elephants away safely, avoiding injuries to both domesticated and wild elephants.

The domesticated elephant herd in Dak Lak is dwindling from 502 elephants in 1980 to 43 as of 2017. Only a few elephants can still breed now.