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Local authorities on Wednesday found the bodies of two wild elephants that had been killed and skinned in Ayeyarwady region.
The carcass of a 20-year-old female elephant was found in Myittaya forest reserve in Pathein district’s Ngapudaw township, where poachers often target.
Another skinned elephant was found near the beach town of Ngwe Saung, reported authorities, adding that two guns and other poaching equipment were retrieved in Ngapudaw’s Hsinma forest reserve.
No poachers have been arrested yet, said police.
Only some Asiatic males have tusks, making this sex the original target for poachers in Myanmar.
However, now females and young elephants are also being hunted for their hides, which are used for cosmetics, traditional medicine, and souvenirs.
Much of this ends up for sale in the notorious illegal wildlife market of Mong-la on the Myanmar-China border.
Though Myanmar has a large share of Asia’s Asiatic elephants, the number of wild elephants in the country has dropped about 80 percent to roughly 2,000 in the last 80 years.
According to government statistics, 16 elephants were killed between 2016 and 2018. The most recent report of a wild elephant poached and killed was last month, in the same area.
