Population Status of the Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) in the Rakhine Yoma, Myanmar

摘要

Myanmar perhaps supports the second largest remaining populations of Asian elephant in the world. The current survey was carried out in seven forest reserves of the Rakhine Yoma, using indirect method of estimating elephant density. In addition to this, village surveys were carried out to obtain information on the extent of human-elephant conflict. A total of 148 transects covering 296 km was surveyed and the encountered rate of dung piles varied from 0.4 to 2.9 km~(-1) with a total dung encounter rate of 1.19 km~(-1). The defaecation rate was 19.04 and overall decay rate for 100 fresh dung piles was 0.0057 d~(-1). The density estimates for different regions in Rakhine varied from 0.008 to 0.2 km~(-2) with an average density of elephants for all the regions surveyed being 0.05 elephants km~(-2). Of the 44 villages visited during the survey, 47 % villages had problems with elephant depredation. Although the habitat is disturbed by logging and other means, relatively low human population density, inaccessibility, and large and contiguous forest cover have some hope for the conservation and management of elephants in Rakhine.