The 55-year-old man, who asked to be anonymous, said bona fide hunters would categorically avoid killing animals in the apparently merciless way the male Borneo pygmy elephant was slain, with more than 70 bullets believed to have been fired at close range.
“We have a code among hunters,” he told FMT. “We try to make the death as painless as possible or to put an animal out of its misery as quickly as we can.
“We, especially rural folk, would not waste bullets. But the people who killed the elephant in Tawau pumped more than 70 bullets. They are not hunters but sadistic poachers. They ought to be arrested and punished severely.
“Real hunters hunt for food or as means to make a living, but they clearly hunted for fun.”
The man has had more than 25 years of experience in hunting. He said he would usually hunt for deer or wild boars in Sungai Sugud in the Sandakan district.
He said the poachers’ willingness to use so many bullets on one animal made him suspect they had deep pockets and probably used automatic or semi-automatic weapons.
The elephant’s carcass was found tied to a tree on a riverbank last Wednesday by a group of anglers at Sungai Udin, outside the town of Tawau. It is believed it had been dead for at least three days.
Bullets were found on the face and torso. The tusks had been removed.
Photos of the carcass were widely circulated on social media.
Peter Voo, a lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sabah’s faculty of psychology and education, called the poachers “a group of psychopaths”.
“It’s not normal for a hunter to commit such a brutal killing and this of an endangered species and a unique animal like the pygmy elephant. It seems like revenge or maybe they were unsatisfied with something.”
Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) director Augustine Tuuga said his department issued year-long hunting licences only for deer, wild boars and flying foxes.
“The maximum number of animals that can be hunted by licensed hunters per district is 300,” he said. “But this quota is normally not reached because of limited hunting areas.
“No hunting is allowed in protected areas or forest reserves. Some plantations also do not allow hunting in their areas.”
Tuuga said the bounty being offered on the poachers was raised yesterday to RM30,000 after a RM10,000 contribution each from an anonymous party and the Orangutan Appeal, a British-based non-governmental organisation.
SWD had initially offered a RM10,000 reward to those who could provide information that could lead to the arrest and successful prosecution of those responsible for the killing.
Orangutan Appeal founder Sue Sherward said she was moved when she heard of the killing from SWD assistant director Sen Nathan, who was in the team that conducted the postmortem examination.
“He was devasted,” Sherward said. “He said that in his 25 years of working with wildlife, he had never come across such an act of cruelty.”
She added that she pledged to Chief Minister Shafie Apdal last year that her organisation would help Sabah in conservation.
Sherward is in Sabah to assist SWD in translocating a pair of rehabilitated orangutans, Ceria and Rosa, from the Sepilok rehabilitation centre in Sandakan to the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in Lahad Datu.