A one-year-old Sumatran baby elephant died on Tuesday after losing half of her trunk in a poacher’s trap, Indonesian conservation officials said.
On Sunday, locals spotted the calf with part of the wire snare trap still attached to her trunk in Alue Meuraksa village in Aceh province.
A team of Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) rescued the animal and amputated part of her trunk on Monday. But the wound got infected.
“We couldn’t save her because the injury was severe and infected,” Agus Arianto, head of BKSDA, said. “We did our best to help her.”
Deforestation has reduced the elephants’ habitat and brought them into increasing conflict with humans. They’re also being killed for their tusks. In July, a Sumatran elephant was found decapitated with his tusks ripped off.
Sumatran elephants are listed as critically endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.
BKSDA estimates the region has only about 500 Sumatran elephants still living in the wild.
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