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Pygmies of Borneo
On the island of Borneo experience pygmies of the elephant human race . While other manly Asiatic elephant can grow up to 9.8 foot ( 3 meter tall ) , male person Borneo elephants grow to less than 8.2 feet ( 2.5 meters ) , allot to the preservation organisation WWF . These elephants also have great pinna , long tails and more rotund organic structure that give them a babyish appearance . Controversy surround their origins .
Immigrants?
democratic belief once held that Borneo elephants , which survive only on the northeast summit of the island , are the wild descendants of a domestic herd possess C ago by the Sultan of Sulu , who controlled the area .
Or Long-Term Residents?
A genetic analysis published in 2003 quarrel this write up , say Borneo elephant had colonized the island much earlier . The elephants ’ ancestors in all likelihood arrived during the Pleistocene Epoch , when an ice age lowered sea level create a land bridgework between mainland Asia and the Sunda island , which include Borneo , allot to the researcher . ground on their transmitted analytic thinking , the researchers estimated this happened about 300,000 years ago .
Voyaging Ancestors?
Five twelvemonth after , another survey intimate the elephants are more recent arrivals . concord to this theory , Borneo elephant are the posterity of the now nonextant Javan elephant , from the Indonesian island of Java . By establishing this risky population in Borneo , the Sultan of Sulu accidentally save the Javan line of descent .
Rare Elephants
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources list Asian elephants as endangered . Borneo elephant are one of four subspecies of Asian elephants , and the most endangered one . Only about 2,000 Borneo elephants are gauge to live on the island .
New Tools
New enquiry is employing applied science for sequence an organism ’s genome , or full complement of DNA , to better understand how the change in habitat are affecting Borneo elephant ’ ability to breed with one another . This has significant implications for the health of the population .
Meet Chendra
This late study examined DNA from 10 elephants , nine of them from Sabah , and one from the Oregon Zoo . The Oregonian elephant , Chendra , is picture above . According to the zoo ’s bio for her , wildlife officials found Chendra orphan , alone and hunger near a palm - oil plantation on Borneo . She had wound on her front legs and left oculus , which ultimately leave behind her blind in that middle . Chendra was a inadequate candidate for release back into the state of nature , the bio state .
Solving the Mystery
This young study used genomic techniques to identify markers in the Borneo elephant ’s hereditary codification . In addition to helping protect these animals , researchers trust this work may facilitate pin down the controversial line of these elephant . Shown here , a pygmy elephant at Lok Kawi Zoo in Malaysian Borneo .
Elephants at Risk
There are two specie of elephants : African and Asiatic elephant . While the large African elephants , shown above , are listed as vulnerable , Asiatic elephants are endangered .
