Tiger rescued from poacher’s trap

Sylvia Looi, The Star 5 Oct 09;

IPOH: A 120kg male tiger, which had its forelimb ensnared by traps set by poachers, has been rescued by the Perak National Parks and Wildlife Department.

Department director Shabrina Shariff said it received information on Saturday afternoon that an animal had been found trapped in the Royal Belum Forest Reserve.

”Rescue operations got under way at 7am today (Sunday) but the cloudy weather hampered efforts by the officers to immobilise the animal,” she said, adding that her officers only managed to put the tiger to sleep 45 minutes later.

On the injuries suffered by the tiger, Shabrina said it was quite serious as its bone had been penetrated.

”Before being moved to the Malacca Zoo for further treatment, the tiger was given first aid treatment,’’ she added.

Reminding poachers that tigers are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, she said those found keeping it would be fined RM15,000 or sentenced to jail for not more than five years.

”It is also an offence to have traps,” she added.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia called on a stronger enforcement presence in the Belum-Temengor area following the rescue.

“If this isn’t enough of a clarion call for the Government to have more resources to form an anti-poaching task force, I don’t know what is,” its chief executive officer Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma said in a statement yesterday.

Tiger rescue points to urgent need for more patrols
WWF 5 Oct 09;

Kuala Lumpur - The rescue of a tiger from a snare set by poachers near the Gerik-Jeli highway yesterday should set alarm bells ringing for the remaining wild tigers in the Belum-Temengor forests, one of the last strongholds for this species and other mammals in Malaysia.

The five-year-old male tiger was freed from its snare by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN) officers after it was discovered late yesterday by WWF’s Wildlife Protection Unit (WPU), which conducts regular patrols together with PERHILITAN in the area. The tiger has been taken to the Malacca Zoo for treatment.


The WPU rangers on a routine patrol had earlier detected two men on motorcycles near the site who fled when they saw the WPU rangers approach. When rangers returned to check the area, they found the tiger with its front right paw caught in a snare.

The snare had been set on a ridge in a forested area near the Perak-Kelantan border, not too far from the highway.

The Belum-Temengor forest complex is one of three priority areas identified in the National Tiger Action Plan. It is also part of an area of global priority for Tiger conservation. Yet it is highly vulnerable to encroachment and poaching due to its proximity to the porous Malaysia-Thai border and among the most easily accessible because of the 80-km long Gerik-Jeli highway that cuts across the landscape, providing hundreds of easy entry points for poachers.

Apart from the PERHILITAN-WPU joint patrols, this vast and wildlife-rich forest complex and its highway are not systematically or thoroughly patrolled, making it an open target for poachers.

In the past year alone, PERHILITAN and the WPU have also recorded numerous encroachers in Perak’s jungles, particularly near the Belum-Temengor area, with the most recent incident in August, when a Thai national was caught by the police with pangolin scales and agarwood in the forest near the highway.

PERHILITAN, Police and the WPU have worked together to remove 101 snares and arrest 10 poachers in the last nine months. But there is a need for other government agencies to join in this difficult fight against wildlife crime.

Research carried out in the area by WWF and TRAFFIC has indicated that the rescued tiger is very likely just one of many that have been poached in the area. Illegal hunting in the Belum-Temengor area is rampant and the demand for tigers continues to drive criminals into the forest to kill the remaining ones.

“If the WPU rangers had not spotted the suspected poachers the story might have been very different for that tiger. We were lucky this time. Who knows how many tigers we have already lost?” said Dato’ Dr. Dionysius Sharma, CEO of WWF-Malaysia.

“This incident clearly demonstrates the need for a stronger enforcement presence in the Belum-Temengor area. If this isn’t enough of a clarion call for the government to afford more resources to form an anti-poaching Task Force, I don’t know what is,” he added.

The official estimate of the wild tigers in Peninsular Malaysia is only 500, a sharp decline from 3000 estimated in the 1950s, explained wildlife biologist Dr Kae Kawanishi.

“Snares kill indiscriminately. This illegal act of cruelty should be condemned by the whole society. Despite the harsh penalty imposed by the law, it has been a major problem to wildlife throughout the country,” said Kae a member of the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers Secretariat.

“In order for the Malaysia to realize the goal of the National Tiger Action Plan, which is to double the number of wild tigers in the country by the year 2020, poaching cannot be tolerated,” she added.

“At the rate tigers are being killed throughout their entire range, they do not stand a chance, but here in Malaysia, there is still hope of saving tigers. It will mean increasing enforcement efforts to protect crucial strongholds such as the Belum-Temengor complex and coming down hard on poachers,” said Chris R. Shepherd, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia’s Regional Acting Director.

“These poachers are criminals, and are robbing the world of one of the most amazing species to have ever walked the earth”, he said.

Trapped tiger saved, but more patrols needed
The New Straits Times 5 Oct 09;

KUALA LUMPUR: A 5-year-old male tiger found with its paw in a snare in the Belum-Temengor forest was rushed to the Malacca Zoo for treatment yesterday.

Perak Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) director Sabrina Shariff said the tiger was given first aid when it was found late on Saturday.

The tiger was spotted by the World Wide Fund for Nature - Malaysia's Wildlife Protection Unit (WPU), which conducts regular patrols together with Perhilitan in the area.

The WPU rangers on a routine patrol had earlier seen two men on motorcycles near the site and they fled when they saw the rangers approaching.

When the rangers returned to check the area, they found the tiger with its front right paw caught in a snare.

The snare had been set on a ridge in a forested area near the Perak-Kelantan border, close to the highway.

"It was already dark when we found the tiger. The area where the snare was set was quite slippery.

"We managed to take the tiger out to be transfered to the zoo about 7.45am today," she said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Sabrina was worried about the tiger's paw because the snare had hit the bone.

At the same time, she said the department officers would continue sweeping the area to get rid of other snares.

"We also found other animal prints near the snare. Apparently, there were two other snares near where the tiger was.

"The footprints belong to a deer and a "kijang (bucking deer)," she added.

Perhilitan, the police and the WPU have removed 101 snares and arrested 10 poachers in the last nine months.


The WWF-Malaysia chief executive officer, Datuk Dr. Dionysius Sharma, called for a stronger enforcement presence in the Belum-Temengor area.

"This incident clearly demonstrates the need. If this isn't enough of a clarion call for the government to afford more resources to form an anti-poaching task force, I don't know what is," he added.

Wildlife biologist Dr Kae Kawanishi was reported as saying that the official estimated population of tigers in Peninsular Malaysia was only 500, a sharp decline from 3,000 in the 1950s.

Malaysian officials save endangered Malayan tiger
Yahoo News 5 Oct 09;

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Malaysian wildlife authorities rescued a five-year old Malayan tiger, badly injured in a snare set up by poachers near the country's jungle border with Thailand, officials said Monday.

"We received a tip-off on Saturday and a joint patrol with the World Wildlife Fund for Nature-Malaysia's wildlife protection unit found the injured animal," northern Perak state wildlife and National Parks director Sabrina Shariff told AFP.

"The tiger's paw was very badly damaged as the snare had cut it to the bone, so we administered first aid and transferred the animal on Sunday to the Malacca Zoo for further treatment," she added.

"We face a major problem from Thai and Malaysian poachers who set up numerous snares in the Belum-Temengor forest reserve area between the two countries, with such traps normally located close to roads as the animals are attracted by sound and food smells."

Sabrina said authorities were also concerned that poachers were targeting other wildlife in the area including Bucking deers, whose footprints were found around other snares near the tiger.

"We normally find the snares and remove them but they are usually empty so this is the first time we have found one with an animal still intact," she said.

"This incident clearly demonstrates the need for a stronger enforcement presence in the Belum-Temengor area," WWF-Malaysia chief Dionysius Sharma said in a statement.

"If this isn't enough of a clarion call for the government to afford more resources to form an anti-poaching Task Force, I don't know what is," he added.

Wildlife biologist Dr Kae Kawanishi says there are only 500 wild tigers in peninsular Malaysia, a sharp decline from an estimated 3,000 in the 1950s.

The government said in July it had sought the help of the military to battle poaching, adding that Malaysia was committed to an ambitious plan to double the tiger population to 1,000 by 2020.