 This hypothesis is based on missing archaeological evidence of long-term elephant habitation in Borneo, a corroboration in folklore and that elephants have not colonized the entire island of Borneo.In 2003, Mitochondrial DNA analysis and microsatellite data indicated that the extant population is derived from Sundaic stock, but has undergone independent local evolution for some 300,000 years since a postulated Pleistocene colonization, and possibly became isolated from other Asian elephant populations when land bridges that linked Borneo with the other Sunda Islands and the Asian mainland disappeared after the Last Glacial Maximum 18,000 years ago.Elephants were appropriate gifts from one ruler to another, or to a person of high standing, and it was customary to transport them by sea.