Illustration by Ranv ling
Real Animal Profile No. 3
Animals Behind The Girl in the Kitchen
By Malaysian Author Ranv Ling
In memory of Yongki, a Sumatran elephant found dead on 18 September 2015.
Yongki was a tame Sumatran elephant who lived at a patrol camp in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, in the forests of southern Sumatra, Indonesia. He was more than a working animal; he played an important role in the park’s conservation work.
Yongki helped rangers patrol the forest on anti-poaching missions. He also served as a kind of ambassador between elephants and local communities. When wild elephants approached nearby villages, Yongki would help guide them back into the forest, reducing the risk of conflict with farmers.
On 18 September 2015, however, Yongki was found dead near the camp where he lived. His tusks had been hacked off, apparently with a chainsaw, and his legs still bore the chains his keepers had put on him to keep him in camp.
An elephant who had helped protect the forest and prevent conflict between humans and wildlife had become a victim of the very human activities he once helped guard against.
1. The Incident: Yongki Killed by Poachers
After several years of patrol work in Way Kambas National Park, also in Lampung, Yongki was transferred in 2009 to Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, where he lived at a patrol camp with other patrol elephants. He was about 35 years old.
According to The Jakarta Post, his body was discovered about 300 metres behind the patrol camp, in Pemerihan, West Pesisir regency, roughly 120 kilometres northwest of the provincial capital, Bandar Lampung. His one-metre tusks had been hacked off, leaving only bloody stumps.
Park officials launched an investigation, and police believed that his tusks had been shipped out of the province to the illegal market overseas. Initial test results reportedly suggested that he had been poisoned, although AFP reported that it was not yet known how he had been killed.
His death was not simply the loss of another elephant. It was a reminder of the danger that illegal ivory hunting poses to elephant populations.
2. An Elephant Who Helped Protect the Forest
What makes Yongki’s story particularly remarkable is the role he played during his lifetime.
He was not a wild elephant roaming freely. He was a tame elephant, trained to work alongside park staff and mahouts as part of the park’s conservation efforts. A fellow mahout told The Jakarta Post that Yongki was among the few patrol elephants able to find traces of wild elephants, and that he helped officers find their way back after patrols deep in the forest.
He also served as a buffer between wild elephants and nearby human settlements. This role was especially important where human-elephant conflict was a growing concern. Elephants may enter farmland in search of food or while moving between habitats, and damage to crops can lead farmers to take revenge on them.
Yongki helped guide elephants back into the forest, reducing the likelihood of such encounters.
He had helped protect other elephants, yet he could not escape the human desire for ivory.
3. The Sumatran Elephant: An Important Part of the Forest Ecosystem
The Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus) is a subspecies of the Asian elephant native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies it as Critically Endangered. It was upgraded from Endangered in 2011, after the subspecies lost nearly 70 per cent of its habitat and half of its population within one generation. When Yongki died, AFP reported that fewer than 3,000 remained in the wild.
Elephants play an important role in forest ecosystems. As they move and feed, they help disperse seeds, influence vegetation patterns and shape the surrounding environment. Protecting elephants therefore means protecting more than a single species; it also means safeguarding the wider forest ecosystem.
However, habitat loss, forest fragmentation, human-elephant conflict and illegal hunting continue to threaten the survival of Sumatran elephants.
4. Conservation and Animal Welfare: The Cost of the Ivory Trade
Yongki’s death reminds us that the illegal ivory trade is not merely a matter of commercial demand. Behind an ivory product may be the life of an elephant that has been killed.
As forests are cleared and habitats become fragmented, elephants are increasingly likely to come into contact with human settlements and agricultural land. Even elephants trained to assist conservation efforts remain vulnerable to poaching and other forms of human-inflicted harm. Yongki was working for conservation, yet he was found with the chains that kept him in camp still on his legs.
Protecting elephants requires more than preventing illegal hunting. It also requires safeguarding their natural habitats, strengthening law enforcement and developing more effective measures to prevent human-elephant conflict.
5. The Real Elephant Behind The Girl in the Kitchen
Yongki is one of the nine real elephants whose lives inspired The Girl in the Kitchen. Each of these elephants once lived in the world, with a life of its own, before eventually dying for different reasons.
The animal characters in the novel do not necessarily share the same experiences or circumstances as their real-life counterparts. The afterlife, relationships and events portrayed in the book belong to the world of fiction. Their origins, however, lie in animals that truly existed.
Yongki once helped protect the forest and guide other elephants to safety. His life deserves to be remembered as more than a poaching incident involving ivory.
He lived. He helped protect the forest. And he made a difference to the lives of other animals.
They may no longer walk through the forests or among the people who once knew them, but their stories need not disappear with them.
References and Further Reading
- AFP, via The Express Tribune – 21 September 2015
Killing of endangered Sumatran elephant sparks anger.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/960843/killing-of-endangered-sumatran-elephant-sparks-anger - AFP, via The New Daily – 22 September 2015
Outrage: tame elephant butchered for cash.
https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/2015/09/22/outrage-tame-elephant-killed-cash/ - The Jakarta Post – 23 September 2015
Elephant poaching: TNBBS probed.
https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/23/elephant-poaching-tnbbs-probed.html - Born Free USA – 24 September 2015
Endangered Elephant Poisoned for Ivory.
https://www.bornfreeusa.org/2015/09/24/endangered-elephant-poisoned-for-ivory/ - The Jakarta Post – 17 October 2015
Authorities on alert after 2 elephants found dead in Aceh.
https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/10/17/authorities-alert-after-2-elephants-found-dead-aceh - WWF
Habitat loss drives Sumatran elephants step closer to extinction.
https://www.wwf.sg/habitat-loss-drives-sumatran-elephants-step-closer-to-extinction/ - IUCN Red List of Threatened Species – 2011
Elephas maximus ssp. sumatranus: Critically Endangered.
https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2011-2.RLTS.T199856A9129626.en
中文版 Chinese version: 小說背後的真實大象：Yongki，一頭遭偷獵者殺害的蘇門答臘象
Read Real Animal Profile No. 1 · Real Animal Profile No. 2 · More elephant stories