There is also a possibility the bounty could be raised to RM20,000 but Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said this had not been firmed up.

“There are people who sympathised with the incident expressing their wish to increase the reward to RM20,000 but it is not firm yet,” he said in a text message here today.

He hoped the bounty could persuade people with information pertaining to the killing at Sungai Udin, Dumpas in Kalabakan, near Tawau, to come forward.

“We want to bring those responsible to justice. We will continue with our investigations and call anyone with information to help in the probe.

He said the RM10,000 reward will be given upon successful apprehension and prosecution of those responsible based on the information provided.

The carcass of the pygmy elephant bull was found tied to a tree on a river bank by a group of anglers last Thursday. It is believed the elephant had been dead for between three and four days.

A post mortem on the bull elephant, believed to be in its 30s, found that it was riddled with some 70 bullets, believed to be fired from close range.

Bullets were found on the face, body and back of the animal. The tusks had also been removed. Photos of the carcass were widely circulated in social media.

Tawau police chief Peter Umbuas had said earlier today that a joint operation with the wildlife department would be held to track down the poachers.

He said that the elephant appeared to have been shot repeatedly, going by the number of bullets on the body, and that it did not immediately die after the first few shots.

There have been over 100 deaths of pygmy Borneo elephants due to poaching and diseases recorded since 2010, he said. There were about 2,000 members of the species left in the wild according to decade-old research “but we are unsure how many are really left now,” Tuuga said.