Indonesia's Elephant Flying Squad Gets its Newest Member

In Indonesia's Tesso Nilo National Park a female elephant part of an elite group known as the Flying Squad gave birth to a calf, the fourth time a member of the squad has given birth since it was established by Indonesia's Ministry of Forests in 2004, the World Wildlife Fund reported Friday.

The 90 kilogram calf was born to a 35-year-old mother who gave birth in early August.

The elephant Flying Squad is a group of endangered Sumatran elephants and their mahouts (riders) who have been trained to ward wild elephants away from villages and farms where they are at risk of falling in ditches or being attacked by farmers defending their crops. The national park is home to both Sumatran elephants as well as many people who farm the land.

While the need for such an endeavor may seem unlikely, its existence is justified, especially as the Sumatran elephant's natural habitat continues to shrink and the animals more frequently attempt to raid farmers' cropland for food, the WWF reported. Already this year three elephants have been found dead in Tesso Nilo National Park, and 12 were found dead last year. Almost all of them are believed to have been poisoned, the WWF said.

"The Flying Squad is a highly successful model for reducing conflict between people and elephants in a way that is safe for everyone," Christy Williams, WWF's Asian rhino and elephant program manager, said in the WWF report.

"Human-elephant conflict is a problem in many elephant habitats across Asia and in Africa. We are hoping that with greater resources we can establish even more squads in order to prevent elephant and human deaths that don't need to happen. People and elephants can live in harmony," Williams said.

Other Flying Squads are in place in India's Assam region. Read more about the Flying Squads here.