Lensemen [sic] claim sighting pygmy jumbo; experts skeptical (via Paul Cropper)

Lensemen claim sighting pygmy jumbo; experts skeptical
12 April 2010
The Press Trust of India Limited
English

Thiruvananthapuram, April 12, 2010 (PTI) - The long speculation over the existence of pygmy elephants in forests of the Western Ghats is back in debate with two local wildlife photographers claiming to have spotted a dwarf jumbo at Peppara Wildlife Sanctury near here. The state Wildlife Department officials, however, say they have not come across any empirical or scientific proof to establish the claim.

The lensmen claim that they saw the diminutive tusker at a distance of 100 meters during an expedition to the area last month and released its photographs to the local media. "We were trekking with Mallan Kani, a local tribal chief. He knows the topography of the forest very well. All of a sudden we came across the jumbo with wrinkled face and long tail. Its trunk touched the ground," one of the photographers said.

It looked more like the miniature of an adult tusker, he said.

However, animal experts say that no dwarf elephants have been scientifically identified in any forests in Kerala region. "No environmental factor is existing in Kerala for the evolution of pygmy elephants," said P S Easa, a member of Steering Committee of the Project Elephant Task Force and expert in elephant ecology and behaviour.

R Sukumar, Professor at Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, said the actual height of the animal could not be assessed from the picture which is claimed to be that of a pygmy elephant.
Just after getting information on the sighting of the jumbo, an official team led by Anil Antony, Wildlife Warden at Thiruvananthapuram, visited the area along with Mallan Kani.

He said they did not get any evidence to substantiate the claim.

Known as "Kallana" among the Kani tribals of the area, the existence of such type of an elephant has often been reported from different parts of the world including Borneo in Indonesia and Africa. Borneo elephants (Elephas maximus borneensis) were long thought to be identical to the Asian Elephant and descendants of a captive population.

The WWF Website describes Borneo elephants as being smaller in size than other Asian elephants. The males may grow to a height of less than 2.5 metres and have babyish faces, larger ears and longer tails that almost reach the ground, the website says. Dr T N C Vidya, a Ramanujan Fellow of the Evolutionary and Organismal Biology Unit of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, said "Just as there are dwarfs among humans, if one does come across an occasional true elephant dwarf, that is not reason enough to think that it is a different subspecies or species." However, Chief Wildlife Warden of Kerala K P Ouseph told PTI that he had ordered a detailed study on the possibility of the presence of "Kallana" in the forests of Kerala.