Jakarta, June 5, 2016- Good news came from Tesso Nilo National Park (TNTN), Pelalawan Regency Riau ahead of World Environment Day. A female elephant calf was born safely on June 1, 2016. This is the third calf, all born in TNTN, born to mother elephant Lisa, who has been a member of the Elephant Flying Squad since April 2004.

The Elephant Flying Squad consists of eight elephant nurses (mahouts) and four trained elephants, a collaboration between the Riau Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BBKSDA), the TNTN Center and WWF-Indonesia. The team is tasked with handling human-elephant conflicts by using trained elephants to patrol, and herding wild elephants back into forest areas. Patrols using Flying Squad Team elephants are routinely carried out twice a week.

Head of TNTN, Darmanto stated, "We are very happy for the birth of a baby elephant in Tesso Nilo National Park, this implies new hope for elephant conservation so that all parties play a more active role in protecting this endangered species and its habitat." He added, "Tesso Nilo National Park is an elephant habitat with the largest population in Riau, which is around 150 wild elephants. This should be the pride of the people of Riau and us together in order to maintain the sustainability of the elephant population in nature."

Darmanto hopes that the birth of this elephant calf can grow healthy and bring the attention of various levels of society and government to more tangibly do and support the protection of Tesso Nilo. "We hope that the Government of Pelalawan Regency and Riau Province will also support conservation efforts and the economic development of ecology-based communities around TNTN," he added.

After the birth process, health checks and care for Lisa and her baby continue to be carried out regularly by health workers from BBKSDA Riau, WWF and mahouts. drh. Rini Deswita from BBKSDA Riau said, "We have checked and both elephants are in good health and we will continue to monitor their development." For the time being Lisa is not participating in her duties in handling elephant disorders.

Wishnu Sukmantoro, WWF Central Sumatra Program Manager stated, "With this birth, the Flying Squad team now has three elephant calves consisting of two males and one female. We, together with the relevant authorities, will continue to increase efforts to provide maximum care to these elephant calves so that they can grow well." He added, "In addition to mitigation efforts, the presence of Flying Squad elephants can be a means of education to the public to get to know the ecology of Sumatran elephants."

While the adult elephants in the Flying Squad team have the main task of handling conflicts, three elephant calves can support public awareness efforts about Sumatran elephants. By ensuring elephants are always in the forest areas that are their natural habitat, the risk of poaching against them can be minimized. To date, poaching and illegal trade of elephant body parts is still quite rampant, not only in Indonesia. Therefore, this year's World Environment Day has the theme "Zero Tolerance for Illegal Wildlife Trade". WWF invites all parties to actively stop and report incidents of wildlife trade, especially those included in the protected list.

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For more information, please contact:
Wishnu Sukmantoro, WWF Central Sumatra Program Manager
Email: wsukmantoro@wwf.id, Hp: +62 81270075996