312 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Hubback (1923, pp. 24-25) reports on "the damage done to plan- 

 tations by elephants" in the Malay Peninsula: 



It is a very extraordinary thing, but all wild animals which browse seem 

 to acquire an unholy craving for the bark and leaves of Hevea brasiliensis. 

 Wild elephants especially, once they have tasted the bark, seem to go mad 

 for it. I have absolutely trustworthy evidence of an eye-witness who has 

 seen elephants strip the bark, from rubber-trees by first catching hold of a 

 small piece with the tip of the trunk and then pulling upwards, so that 

 a strip of bark is taken off the tree. In an incredibly short time the tree is 

 ruined. Then they love to lean against the trees, and I suppose are sur- 

 prised and annoyed when they fall over. Undoubtedly these wild elephants 

 are in certain places a serious nuisance. 



A further account is given by Hubback in the Report of the Wild 

 Life Commission of Malaya (vol. 2, 1932) . He says that elephants 

 are not uncommon south of Gunong Sinting, between that mountain 

 and the Pahang border, and continues: 



It is a fact beyond question that wild elephants do and have done consider- 

 able damage amounting to values of thousands of pounds. Had it not been 

 for elephants in Malaya still larger areas planted with rubber would now be 

 yielding latex. These facts are not in dispute. . . . 



The elephants known as the "Carey Island Herd," which lived on a large 

 island on the coast of Selangor, which island was given out for agriculture, 

 were all ultimately destroyed. Their death warrant was really signed when 

 the grant for the land was made out. Then there is the "Kuala Selangor 

 Herd" which has been almost totally exterminated; a cow and a calf being 

 reported as the sole survivors. The destruction of the survivors was advo- 

 cated. This herd must have consisted of 40 or 50 animals thirty years ago. 

 The "Labu Herd" in Negri Sembilan has been practically eliminated. In 

 Lower Perak the "Chikus Herd" of elephants has given a lot of trouble and 

 many of them have been shot. In many other places elephants have been 

 harried and driven from locality to locality in alleged defense of agriculture. 

 The records of elephants that have been killed in Malaya during the last 

 few years under the agriculturist's exemption are incomplete reports are 

 seldom sent in of elephants that have been wounded but there is reason to 

 believe that the Malayan elephant is on the way to extermination. It is 

 extremely doubtful if the yearly toll of destruction is being made up by the 

 yearly production of calves, and that means extinction unless a halt is called. 

 One must take into account the fact that wild animals when much disturbed 

 have a habit of curtailing their breeding, and it is almost certain that this 

 affects elephants as well as the other large forms of our fauna. 



In Kuala Selangor, Lower Perak, Labu, and elsewhere, despite the sup- 

 posed sanctuary provided by Forest Reserves, the elephants have not been 

 left undisturbed, and have been unable to find in the areas that they have 

 receded to that tranquility essential to an elephant's well-being. 



Where elephants have been forced to live in jungle areas which are insuffi- 

 cient for their normal existence, and where they have become a serious 

 menace to cultivation, it is advocated that they should be destroyed by per- 

 sons whose business it would be to undertake the work. . . . 



It is an established fact that wild elephants, always providing they are not 

 suffering from wounds, can be driven away by fire crackers and noise. In 

 cases of absenteeism, which is frequently the contributory cause when ele- 

 phants visit native cultivation, these methods cannot be applied. A woven 



