PETALING JAYA: A large herd of over 100 elephants “visited” the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) in Kinabatangan, Sabah and caused some damage, but this was shrugged off as a normal consequence of the pachyderms at play.
In a Facebook post on Saturday (July 9), DGFC shared photos of the “carnage” left by the herd after the animals left its grounds.
Damage was caused to a concrete stairway and several water tanks appeared to have been tossed around.
Netizens were in awe of the large number of elephants in the herd, with some joking that the animals were a relatively well-behaved bunch despite being a hundred strong.
Another commenter poked fun at the fact that the DGFC was recently renovated, saying: “Wow!! Don’t they know you just renovated?”
The DGFC said that the herd was simply passing by and described their behaviour as playful.
“We are not fighting them and they did not fight, they just played because this is what they are, playful,” they wrote in response to another user.
“We will just repair and move on, until the (elephants’) next visit,” they added.
“It is (their territory) and we have absolutely no problem with it,” DGFC director Benoit Goossens said.
The DGFC is a collaborative research and training facility owned by the Sabah Wildlife Department and co-managed with Cardiff University.
The centre opened on July 19, 2008, welcoming its first field course from Cardiff University in Wales.