Young elephant crossing Malaysia highway with mum dies in accident

A young elephant in the Malaysian state of Perak was killed in an accident with a lorry on May 11 while it was crossing a highway with its mother, drawing widespread sympathy after a video showed the mother elephant staying by her dead juvenile's side.

- Rhea Yasmine

The video circulating online, recorded from the view of a passing vehicle, shows the mother elephant with her head pressed against the side of the lorry, as if to free her juvenile which lay unmoving beneath the vehicle.

According to local media outlet Sinar Harian, the accident occurred at around 2am on the East-West Highway and involved a lorry used for transporting chickens.

Mr Yusoff Shariff, the director of the Perak Wildlife Protection and National Parks Department (Perhilitan), said the agency was informed about the accident at around 3.30am.

He was quoted by Sinar Harian as saying that ""a male elephant estimated to be five years old died after it was believed to have been hit by a lorry while trying to cross the road"".

"Our staff were deployed to the location to carry out an operation to monitor and capture the mother elephant in order to move her to a safer area," he said.