The elephants, which are smaller and chubbier than other Asian elephants, depend for their survival on forests situated on flat lowlands and in river valleys, the report quoted the WWF satellite-tracking study as finding.
But over the past four decades, 40% of the forest cover of the Malaysian state of Sabah has been lost to logging, plantations and human settlement.
The study said there are less than 1,000 pygmy elephants left in Sabah.