An elephant calf born in Tesso Nilo National Park on June 1 has now been named Rimbani by Vice President H.M Jusuf Kalla. Accompanied by the Minister of Environment and Forestry, Siti Nurbaya at the opening of the National Environment and Forestry Week in Jakarta on June 10, 2016, the elephant calf born to Lisa officially bore the name.

Rimbani was born at 03:30 am on June 1, 2016, in Tesso Nilo National Park, Pelalawan Regency, Riau as recorded by CCTV. Approximately half an hour earlier, Lisa had shown uneasy behavior, then the body position was half squatting and straining until finally giving birth. Lisa quickly cleaned the baby and taught her to stand. This process is quite well monitored by CCTV that has been installed in a place that has been prepared to welcome the birth of this elephant calf at the Elephant Flying Squad Camp.< br />

Mahouts and veterinarians who were aware of the birth continued to monitor the elephant calf's development and finally at 07:46, the newborn successfully suckled on its mother for the first time.

Rimbani is the third child of Lisa, a member of the Elephant Flying Squad, a team tasked with handling human-elephant conflicts around Tesso Nilo National Park. Rimbani's birth is quite special because this is the first time that the birth of an elephant can be recorded quite well even through CCTV. The naming of Rimbani by Vice President Jusuf Kalla is even more special and a new hope for elephant conservation in Indonesia, especially in Tesso Nilo.

Head of Tesso Nilo National Park, Darmanto stated, "We are very proud of the naming of Rimbani to the Flying Squad elephant calf by Mr. Vice President. This encourages us to increase our efforts to protect elephants and their habitat in Tesso Nilo National Park."

Tesso Nilo National Park is the last remaining lowland forest in Sumatra. The area is also home to the largest elephant population in Riau with an estimated 150 elephants.

In 2004, WWF and the Riau Natural Resources Conservation Center first operated a conflict management technique around Tesso Nilo using trained elephants, known as the Elephant Flying Squad. Lisa is one of the four trained elephants.

Program Manager of WWF Central Sumatra Program, Wishnu Sukmantoro stated, "WWF would like to thank you for naming Rimbani. We hope that Rimbani will become a symbol of hope that the Tesso Nilo forest will be able to return to being a proper jungle habitat for Sumatran elephants."

Check out the video of the process here