PENAMPANG: The Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) received a surprise asset boost when an anonymous individual donated a 10-tonne truck, to help in its efforts to save the Bornean elephants.
The Nissan truck, fully-equipped with an 8-ton crane, was handed over to the department director Augustine Tuuga by representatives of Tan Chong Motors at the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park, near here.
The truck is to be used for elephant rescue translocation. It was donated by an individual, who visited the Sepilok Orangutan Rahabilitation Centre two years ago.
Tuuga, in a statement, said human-elephant conflict in Sabah threatened the survival of the Bornean elephants, thus translocating `problem-elephants' has become an important human-elephant conflict mitigation step.
"If the need really arises in translocating problem-elephants, it is essentially a move to capture it by drug immobilisation, transportation by truck and release to a protected area.
"Therefore, it is crucial that the department has enough experienced staff and a good truck equipped with a heavy-duty crane to lift a 6 to 9 foot elephant, weighing about more than 2-tonne without the help of an excavator.
"At present, the department has one very old and heavily used 22 year old truck which made it difficult to provide immediate assistance when needed," he said.
Tuuga noted there have been several occasions when elephant translocating process had to be delayed due to poor condition of the existing truck.
He then extended the Sabah Wildlife Department appreciation to the anonymous donor for the gift which would only go towards improving Sabah's conservation effort.