Illegal hunting endangering deer in Lampung, Indonesia

Antara 24 Aug 10;

Liwa, W Lampung (ANTARA News) - Illegal hunting has partly pushed deer to the brink of extinction in West Lampung district, authorities and local residents said.

Therefore, Head of West Lampung district Mukhlis Basri urged local deer hunters to stop their activity because they had evidently contributed to the damage of the deer population and their food sources.

"Local residents activity to hunt deer must stop because it has contributed to the damage of the animals` food resources and pushed the animal to the brink of extinction," he said.

The illegal hunting activity did not only threaten the deer and other endangered animals population but also people living in forest areas due to the increasing conflicts between humans and animals, Basri said.

The same concerns were also echoed by Edi Susanto, 41, a resident of Badardalam village, Bengkunat Belimbing sub-district, West Lampung district, Lampung province.

He said he was deeply concerned about the shrinking population of deer and other animals in West Lampung district due to the continuing hunting activity.

"Local hunters do that every day. In the coming years, the deer will become endangered," he said adding that the extinction of deer had instigated the conflict between human beings and wild animals such as tigers.

"Local hunters are the main factor behind the extinction of deer in our area. This situation needs to be responded to by the related authorities so that the deer population can be preserved," he said.

The illegal hunting activity had also become a serious threat to such endangered animals as Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris Sumatrae).

Spokesman of Bengkulu Province`s Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), Supatono, for instance, acknowledged that.

Supatono recently said that the hunting had even threatened the government`s efforts to increase the population of Sumatran tigers from 400 to 800 by 2012.

Poor surveillance of illegal hunting activities were one of the challenging factors besides poor habitat and insufficient food, he said.

In handling those illegal hunters, a comprehensive task force involving forest rangers, police and military apparatuses, environmentalists, and conservationists, was needed, he said.

The illegal hunters remained serious threats to the government`s efforts to save the Sumatran tigers.

At the same time, the growth of this big cat`s population was much slower than that of other wild animals, such as forest pigs, he said.

All stake holders need to work together to deal with all hampering factors so that the number of Sumatran tigers could be increased up to 800 by 2012 as expected, he said.(*)