Elephants in A'Famosa Park 'in good condition'

Despite a media report showing otherwise, the Department of Wildlife and Natural Parks for Peninsular Malaysia (Perhilitan) has found that the elephants at A'Famosa Safari Park are largely in "good condition".

Among others, Perhilitan its report made public this month says one of the elephants, which was shown as "gaunt and unhealthy" in an August Astro Awani report, is now in better shape.

Astro Awani was allegedly pressuredto remove the report from its website, but A'Famosa has denied it had any hand in this. 

Despite the "good condition" of the elephants, Perhilitan did find problems, including unsuitable floor surface in the enclosures and the possibility of no water in the drinking troughs as the floatation pump was not in use.

It said that based on the undated photo shown in the Astro Awanireport, Rock, A'Famosa's sole bull elephant, was believed to have a body condition index of 5, which means it was "emaciated". 

However, the department, during its visit on Sept 4, found that the condition of Rock had improved. It scored a BCI of 8, which means it is of average condition.

Perhilitan nevertheless found abscesses on its temporal glands and a wound on its right hind limb, due to being chained. 

'Bull was in musth'

Rock was also found to be "in musth", a periodic condition in bull elephants characterised by aggressive behaviour and large rise in testosterones. 

As such, it was chained on two legs,and had its food intake reduced to control the musth.

However, Perhilitan found that Rock's enclosure would not be able to withstand its strength. It also recommended against reducing food intake to control musth.

Besides Rock, two other elephants - Afa and Tanjung - were found to only be in average condition. This is compared to the remaining six female elephants.

Although the elephants were generally in a good condition, some had overgrown nails and abscesses due to the unsuitability of the holding area surface.

Astro Awani's report showed that the elephants were chained during the daytime, without access to food or water. The water troughs were empty. 

However, in the pictures in Perhilitan's report, the troughs were filled with water and the elephants had food.

Perhilitan said the elephants were only chained at night, and were kept in the holding area when not at their 20-minutes-a-day show. 

Chain length reasonable

"(The chain) length of about two metres is reasonable... Chaining at night is an acceptable practice for security and feeding to avoid conflicts," the Perhilitan report says. 

However, it recommended the building of individual pens for the female elephants so they can be penned at night without being chained, as per international standards. 

It also recommended that the animals be released in the holding or exhibit area when not performing.

Perhilitan has also discussed with the A'Famosa Safari Park management the possibility of extending the exhibit area, building a pool for bathing and a special exhibit area for the bull elephant.

"It is preferable that (the elephants) be released in the exhibit area so they are free to move and exhibit their natural behaviour. We found the A'Famosa management has started practising this," the report says.

A'Famosa has one bull elephant and eight female elephants. It has also come under fire for keeping the orang utan in poor conditions,drugging its tiger for shows as well as being in possession oftrafficked orang utan.