Endangered Sumatran elephant shot dead in Indonesian national park

Jakarta: An elephant from the critically endangered Sumatran species has been found dead inside an Indonesian national park with what appear to be bullet wounds, the environment ministry said on Wednesday. The female elephant was discovered in Sumatra's Way Kambas National Park on Monday.Her trunk was broken off and she had five holes resembling gunshot wounds on the right side of her body, it said. But no bullets were found inside the body, which officials suspect had been lying in the forest for at least two days. "Its teeth were gone, maybe taken by hunters. So we assume she was shot because of that, but we still need to investigate more," environment ministry spokesman Djati Witjaksono Hadi said. The apparent killing of the elephant, believed to be about 20 years old, comes about two months after a pregnant elephant was found dead in a palm oil plantation in Sumatra.