Killer elephant taken to Cambodian zoo

Dec 27, 2010, 10:03 GMT

Phnom Penh - An elephant that terrorized residents of a village in southern Cambodia has been transported to his new home at a zoo, local media reported.

The bull elephant named Sambo killed his owner and escaped from captivity this month, trampling crops and harassing residents who retaliated with sticks, knives and fireworks. Officials from the Cambodian Forestry Administration eventually tranquilized him and transported him Saturday to Phnom Tamao Zoo outside Phnom Penh, the Phnom Penh Post newspaper reported.

Jack Highwood, the head of a wildlife conservation group who assisted in Sambo's capture, said the pachyderm's transportation was an ordeal as it became a local spectacle.

'We had to deal with people who wanted to get close [to] him, ride him, catch him and drive him - and especially deal with drunken people who wanted to take him home with them,' Highwood told the Post.

The elephant, which weighed in at roughly 5 tons when captured, has reportedly lost more than 500 kilograms since being put on a starvation diet to ease his aggression. Conservation groups said the beast has likely been in a little-understood hormonal state called musth, which causes intense aggression in bull elephants.

Despite the destruction wrought by Sambo, some residents in Mon village of Kampong Speu province were sad to see him go.

'What are we going to look at now that the elephant is gone?' one villager reportedly asked Highwood. 'Rice? Cows?'

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