Malaysian police arrested four men and seized guns Wednesday in connection with the brutal killing of a Borneo pygmy elephant, whose body was found with over 70 bullet wounds and its tusks removed.

The male animal's mutilated corpse was discovered last week half-submerged in a river, tied by a rope to a tree on the bank, in Sabah state on Malaysian Borneo.

It was the latest death of an endangered pygmy elephant, whose numbers have been dwindling because they are targeted by poachers for their tusks and as agricultural plantations expand into their jungle habitat.

Three Malaysians and a foreigner -- aged 48 to 68 -- were arrested in raids around Tawau district following a tip-off from a member of the public, senior police official Peter Umbuas said.

He did not reveal the nationality of the foreigner.

A shotgun, two home-made rifles and bullets were seized, he said.

"We have applied for remand of the four suspects to assist our investigations," Umbuas told AFP. "We are also trying to recover the tusks."

The suspects were involved in cultivating palm oil and lived in a village on the edge of the jungle.

The men are being investigated under wildlife laws that ban the hunting of pygmy elephants, and face up to five years in jail and a hefty fine if found guilty.

They are also being probed under laws that ban possession of imitation guns.

There are only around 1,500 surviving Borneo pygmy elephants, a subspecies that -- despite the name -- can reach a height of up to three metres (10 feet), according to the international conservation group WWF.

Rainforest-clad Borneo is the world's third-largest island and is shared between Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

Tougher penalties to protect Sri Lanka elephants after mass deaths
Colombo (AFP) Oct 1, 2019 - Sri Lanka announced harsher penalties in a bid to protect wild elephants on Tuesday, as investigators probed whether seven jumbos found poisoned over the weekend were killed by villagers.

Wildlife and Tourism Minister John Amaratunga said he will impose tougher sanctions on offenders to boost laws enacted three years ago but not yet implemented due to administrative delays.

Elephants are a protected animal in the South Asian island nation and the new rules will increase the length of jail time and amount of fines for those found to have been cruel to the beasts.

Authorities will also be given wider powers to investigate offenders, Amaratunga said, though no further details were released.

Investigations into the deaths of seven elephants at a forest reserve in central Sri Lanka showed the animals had ingested poison, but it was not yet clear if they were murdered.

"The deaths were caused by poison, but we are still trying to establish if it was a deliberate act (of villagers)," Amaratunga said.

"We have found that many elephant corridors in wildlife reserves have been encroached by farmers. This has led to an increase in the human-elephant conflict."

Autopsies have been conducted on the elephants, which included six cows, but a final report had not yet been released, he said.

Amaratunga added that 293 elephants were murdered in the first nine months of this year, while 93 people were killed by wild elephants straying into villages near wildlife sanctuaries.

Last year, 319 elephants were murdered while 96 people were killed by elephants, official data showed.

Amaratunga said the government will also set up a 500-acre (202 hectares) sanctuary to home 47 tamed elephants seized from owners who did not have licences to own them.

The owners are being prosecuted for stealing the elephants from national wildlife parks over the last decade and keeping them as pets. Capturing wild elephants is illegal.

Many rich Sri Lankans keep elephants as pets to show off their wealth, but there have been numerous complaints of ill treatment and cruelty.

Official records show there are about 200 domesticated elephants in a country where the population in the wild is estimated at between 6,000 to 7,500.

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