Electric wire fences set up to keep marauding elephants out of farms and villages in Indonesia’s Aceh province worked well at least at first. When the elephants realized the electric current did not extend to the fence posts, they knocked them down, causing the whole barrier to collapse. Sumatran elephants are “not just clever […]
Mongabay seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics,and finance on conservation and development.
COT GIREK, Indonesia Nestled between a vast palm oil plantation and the Sumatran rainforest is Alue Buloh, a hamlet in Cot Girek village, North Aceh district. To reach it, one must hike several kilometers down a mud and gravel road lined by land clearings and abandoned huts. The residents of Alue Buloh seem to […]
COT GIREK, Indonesia Saleh Kadri, a young farmer from Leubok Pusaka village in North Aceh district, was on his way to his plantation when he spotted eight elephants on the riverbank. From his canoe, he recorded a video with his phone. The animals looked stunned. One seemed to be staring at Saleh’s moving canoe, […]
COT GIREK, Indonesia Junaidi, the leader of an elephant patrol team in this Sumatran village, has a daunting task. The large animals, with their forest habitat destroyed, often enter the village in search of food, putting homes and crops at risk. When Mongabay met the 41-year-old farmer in June, he was still bleary-eyed after […]