An Australian woman trekking in a wildlife park in the Malaysian part of Borneo island was attacked and killed by a pygmy elephant on Wednesday, the website news.com.au reported Thursday.
Jenna O’Grady Donley, a 25-year-old veterinarian from Sydney, was accompanied by a local guide and a friend in Tabin Wildlife Reserve when the group was attacked, according to the report.
The elephant’s tusk impaled Donley and she died instantly, according to Malaysia’s wildlife department director Laurentius Ambu, who was quoted by the French news agency AFP. The guide and the other woman escaped.
Donley’s mother told the Australian Broadcasting Company that her daughter was a gifted veterinarian who had recently completed her thesis on renal failure in big cats, the website said.
Reports on the goring speculated that the bull elephant became aggressive when it was startled, but noted that fatal attacks are very rare.
Pygmy elephants are indigenous to Borneo, and grow to about two-thirds the height of Asian elephants.