Baby elephant dies after losing half her trunk in poacher's trap

A horribly tragic outcome in the life of a young Sumatran elephant took place in Indonesia after it was unable to survive having its trunk cut in half due to a poacher's trap.

Amputated trunk

The baby elephant in question was found abandoned, left by her own herd and struggling for its life with its trunk caught in a trap set up by poachers. Despite intervention by wildlife officials, they were unable to its save life.

The elephant, which is one of 700 on the island of Sumatra, was forced to get her trunk amputated but ended up dying two days following the operation. The infection of the severed trunk had taken too much of a toll on the female baby elephant for doctors to be able to save its life.

Agus Arianto, head of the Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency, said in a statement:

We couldn't save it because the injury was severe and infected, We did our best to help it.

And added:

This obviously was intended to poach endangered animals to earn money. We will cooperate with law enforcement agencies in an investigation.

Endangered species in the region

Sumatran elephants are considered to be a highly endangered species with only about 2,500 currently in the wild. Unsurprisingly so, the main cause for this species' critical endangerment is due to rapid rates of deforestation in its natural habitat as well as ivory poaching.

Currently, tigers and rhinos in that same region also face complete extinction. This is largely due to deforestation and human-animal conflict as their habitat is being destroyed to make room for palm oil plantations.