Pygmy elephant calf desperately tries to wake up dead mother who was one of ten animals found poisoned

• A total of ten of the creatures have been discovered in the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, Borneo, over the past three weeks
• Conservation officials believe the endangered animals had been poisoned
• Estimated to be fewer than 1,500 Borneo pygmy elephants in existence 
• Again and again, the baby elephant nudged its mother’s head hoping desperately for a sign of movement.

It was to no avail. She had become another victim of a mysterious spate of deaths in the tropical rainforest.
If wildlife officials had not led the three-month-old infant to safety, it would probably have remained beside its mother until it, too, died.

'Great loss': A three-month-old elephant calf attempts to wake its mother; one of ten pygmy elephants found dead in Malaysia's Sabah state

Its distress moved the rescuers to tears, and left them desperate to discover who or what caused the tragedy.
In total, ten Borneo pygmy elephants have been found dead in three weeks at the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve.
The bodies were all near to each other and while poisoning appears to be the likely cause, it has yet to be determined whether it was intentional.
The animals still had their tusks, indicating that they had not been killed by poachers, and none had gunshot wounds.