An incredible scene recorded by a Malaysian woman in Maliau Basin in the Sandakan division of Sabah has gone viral online recently, depicting a herd of Borneo pygmy elephants taking over the road and rushing towards a group of road users.
The video, recorded by TikTok user @lurveiscinta and posted to the platform has garnered over 102,900 views and more than 5,300 likes as of the time of writing.
Herd of Borneo pygmy elephants blocking the road in Maliau Basin
In the 33-second video, a herd of pygmy elephants, consisting of at least 6 elephants can be seen walking on the Maliau Basin road.
Furthermore, the elephant herd can be seen increasing their pace as they pass by a tow truck that stops on the road.
2 men can also be seen running from the elephant herd as the large mammals begin to seemingly rush towards the vehicles that were on the road.
The vehicles, most of which are pickup trucks then hastily went into reverse to avoid contact with the elephants.
The video then abruptly cuts to the pygmy elephants walking to the side of the road and entering the jungle.
In the caption of the video, @lurveiscinta wrote,
“Maliau Basin drama. Yes, I know y’all are cute… But… Don’t scare us dear elephants… Always like to block the road…”
“Pity the uncle… All of us were also in a survival mode…. Thankfully I stay cool as a driver and didn’t panic… But it was miserable reversing downhill with a lot of lorries behind us.”
You can watch the full video here:
@lurveiscintaMaliau Basin drama 😭😭 Ya bah mmg kiuttt ba kamurang.. tapi.. jangan kasi takut2 kami bahhh elephant 😭😭😭😭 Suka betul blocked jalan.. siap bubut siurang lagi.. kasian ba tu uncle.. all of us pun in a survival mode.. nasib ako selaku driver tegar stay cool nda panic.. namun.. sengsara kita reverse turun bukit, ada luriii di belakang 😭😭♬ Heavy Wave – Motorama
The elephants were chased away by Maliau Basin Conservation Area rangers
Speaking to WORLD OF BUZZ, @lurveiscinta, whose real name is Baizura, shared that the incident took place at around 4pm when she was on the way from Tawau to Keningau.
She added that the 2 men that was seen fleeing from the scene were drivers of the tow truck near the elephants in the video. They disembarked from the tow truck when the pygmy elephant herd was getting closer as a proactive measure for safety purposes even though the animals didn’t attack.
Baizura further shared,
“The clip in which the elephants were heading toward us were after they were chased away by Maliau Basin Conservation Area rangers.”
“All of the elephants were rushing down the hill. They didn’t attack.”
Thankfully, no one, including the Borneo pygmy elephants, were hurt as a result of the incident. Baizura also shared an additional video of the pygmy elephants she recorded on that day here:
Well, we’re sure that the encounter with the elephant herd is something that Baizura and others at the Maliau Basin road that day won’t ever forget!
