Elephants Once Thought Extinct Likely Survived

Borneo is a large island shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and the sultanate of Brunei. It is separated by at least 250 miles of sea from Java, the main island in Indonesia. Sulu is much farther to the east.

Payne said just one fertile female and one fertile male elephant, if left undisturbed in enough good habitat, could in theory end up as a population of 2,000 elephants within less than 300 years.

"And that may be what happened in practice here," said Payne, who works for the global conservation group World Wildlife Fund.

There are about 1,000 pygmy elephants in the wild in Borneo today, mostly in the Malaysian state of Sabah.

"If they came from Java, this fascinating story demonstrates the value of efforts to save even small populations of certain species, often thought to be doomed," said Christy Williams, coordinator of WWF's Asian elephant and rhino program.

Augustine Tuuga, assistant director of the Sabah Wildlife Department, said the study confirms what many conservationists have long believed -- that a small number of animals can flourish into large herds even though they may have multiplied by inbreeding.

"My own feeling is that as long as there is no continous hunting and there is no problem about diseases their numbers will multiply," he said.

Related Links:

Jennifer Viegas' blog: Born Animal

Animal Planet

Elephant Fact Sheet

World Wildlife Fund