Pygmy elephant

Pygmy Elephants are cryptids, reported to be living in both Africa and Asia. The African Pygmy Elephant, described as "Loxodonta pumilio", is currently considered to be a tiny morph of the African Forest Elephants ("L. cyclotis"); see Debruyne "et al." (2003).

The Borneo Elephant ("Elephas maximus borneensis") is also called "Pygmy Elephant." This elephant, inhabiting tropical rainforest in north Borneo (east Sabah and extreme north Kalimantan), was long thought to be identical to the Asian Elephant and descended from a captive population. In 2003, DNA comparison revealed them to be probably a new subspeciesFernando P, Vidya TNC, Payne J, Stuewe M, Davison G, et al. (2003) DNA Analysis Indicates That Asian Elephants Are Native to Borneo and Are Therefore a High Priority for Conservation. PLoS Biol 1(1): e6 [http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0000006 Full text] ] [CBS News. July 1, 2005. [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/01/world/main705924.shtml "Spying on the Pygmy Elephant"] ] . In August 2007 it was reported that there are probably not more than 1,000 pygmy elephants left in Sabah, after a two year study by the World Wildlife Fund. [Fewer pygmy jumbos now. Ruben Sario, The Star, Aug 10, 2007. [http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/8/10/nation/18548848&sec=nation] ]

The term Pygmy Elephant should not be confused with "dwarf elephant" which is used for a number of extinct species of elephants that evolved their size due to island dwarfing.

Pygmy elephants of India

Kani tribals dwelling in the rain forests of the Western Ghats, (Kerala, India) claim that there are two distinct varieties of elephants in the Peppara forest range (part of Western Ghat), one the common Indian elephants and the other a dwarf variety which they call "Kallana". The existence of a pygmy variety of elephant in India has not been scientifically ascertained. [ [http://www.indianexpress.com/india-news/full_story.php?content_id=66259 Indian Express March 11, 2005] ]

References

*Groves, P. & Grubb, P. 2000. Are there Pygmy Elephants? Elephant 2(4):8-10. [http://arts.anu.edu.au/grovco/Loxodonta%20cyclotis.pdf]
*Debruyne, R., Holt, A. van, Barriel, V. & Tassy, P. 2003. Status of the so-called African pygmy elephant (Loxodonta pumilio (NOACK 1906)): phylogeny of cytochrome b and mitochondrial control region sequences. Comptes Rendus de Biologie 326(7):687-697. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=14556388&dopt=Abstract]

External links

* [http://www.pibburns.com/cryptost/pygmyele.htm Pygmy Elephant]
* [http://www.newanimal.org/s-elephant.htm The Cryptid Zoo: Pygmy Elephants]
* [http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/08/08/borneo.elephants.ap/index.html Borneo's pygmy elephants in danger]
* [http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/world/2008/04/17/D903G20G0_malaysia_pygmy_elephants/index.html Borneo pygmy elephants may be descendants of Java elephants believed extinct]