By Syamsidar dan Dyah Ekarini

Pekanbaru (15/03)-We still remember the day we met Villa, a 3 years old male calf, last month. Villa, the cute and obedient calf had been in Tesso Nilo National Park with his mother, an elephant trained to be flying squad member. The shocking news came that night on March 11th, 2012, that Villa took his last breath in front of Abdul Azhari, his loyal mahout (elephant keeper) near the border of Tesso Nilo National Park.

Azhari said that Villa wouldn’t take anything on his last couple of days. This made Azhari really worried about Villa’s condition. He gave additional foods like fruits and sugar as suggested by veterinarian, but his condition never improved. Even his mother—Novi—couldn’t do anything beside to help her dying calf.

Villa and Novi came from a recreational park in Tanjung Balai Asahan. Villa was born in this park in 2010 with his parents Novi and Dono (25 years old elephants). Since the licence from Riau Natural Conservation Agency was due for the recreational park and considering the need for trained elephants for Flying Squad, then this elephant family was brought to Tesso Nilo National Park last August 2011.

When they were brought to Tesso Nilo, these elephants looked skinny and unwell. Although the elephant bull and cow continually gained their weight, Villa improvement were slower. Nevertheless he was such an adorable calf. He would calmly breast fed to his mother while walking calmly beside her. So adorable that, Ria a matriarch elephant in WWF Flying Squad took a special care on Villa. She would keep her eye on Villa while patrolling and make sure that Villa wouldn’t left behind by the group.

Villa’s parents, Novi and Dono, were prepared by Riau Natural Conservation Agency to be Flying Squad team and will be posted in Pangkalan Gondai Village, Pelalawan District, Riau Province. This village is located on the border of Tesso Nilo National Park which is also elephant home range in Tesso Nilo. Frequent wild elephants’ visits to this village and nearby plantations brought the idea to establish one Flying Squad team for this area – in which operation will be managed by Tesso Nilo National Park Foundation and supported by palm oil company PT. Musim Mas.

These three elephants joined Flying Squad training with WWF-Riau Natural Conservation Agency Flying Squad team. Novi and Dono were introduced with routine activities of other four Flying Squad elephants in Lubuk Kembang Bunga Village such as patrolling and wild elephants herding. Villa had frequently taken to patrol with his mother to socialize and eat variants of food found along the way to improve his health.

Unfortunately, his health never improved. After his death, Riau Natural Conservation Agency medical team, Tesso Nilo National Park and WWF-Indonesia Riau Program undertook a necropsy on Monday, March 12, 2012. The veterinarian, Rini Deswita, said that Villa’s intestinal wall is reddening which shows that he died of acute alimentary canal infection. Results from anatomical pathology test showed his intestine had been dysfunctional and not able to absorb foods. The problem was chronic as we can see there’s bleeding on outer intestine wall. Even the intestine of a poisoned elephant doesn’t look like that.”

After the necropsy conducted, some organ samples were sent to laboratory for further examination.

Director of Tesso Nilo National Park Foundation, Yuliantoni said, “We deeply sad and regretful for Villa’s death. We have tried to give him the best care while he was in Tesso Nilo National Park, unfortunately his time has come.” According to Yuliantoni, Tesso Nilo National Park Foundation has committed to train these elephants to gain more skills by becoming Flying Squad team and to take care of them based on veterinarian suggestions.