Greg Wood AFP Yahoo News 29 Jun 11;
Wildlife researchers in Malaysia are to track a saltwater crocodile by satellite, they said Wednesday, in a bid to find out why nearly 40 people have been attacked on Borneo island over a decade.
The wild saltwater crocodile was captured earlier this month on the Kinabatangan river in Sabah state and had a tag strapped around its neck before being released, said Benoit Goossens, head of the Danau Girang Field Centre.
The tag is already returning information to the scientists.
Officials said there have been 38 attacks by saltwater crocodiles -- the world's largest living reptile -- on humans in the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak over the last 10 years, 23 of them fatal.
"The information gathered from the crocodile will help us better understand the movement of the male crocodiles," said Goossens.
"We are not saying that the information will help stop crocodile attacks.
"But it will help villagers and plantation workers better understand the behaviour of the crocodiles so that they are better able to avoid any confrontation with it."
The three-year project with the state wildlife department is believed to be a first for Southeast Asia, he added.
Land clearance and the creation of new plantations near the river may have caused the crocodile's food sources to decrease, leading to a rise in attacks, he said.
An increase in the crocodile population may also be responsible, and the various theories will be tested against the data gathered from the crocodile.
Last year, state wildlife officials said they were pushing to have saltwater crocodiles removed from a list of endangered species, saying the reptile's numbers have strongly recovered in recent years.
Saltwater crocodiles -- which can grow up to seven metres (23 feet) long -- have the most commercially valuable skin of all crocodiles and are found from Sri Lanka all the way to the Caroline Islands in the western Pacific.
Saltwater crocodile tagged in race to save species
The Star 30 Jun 11;
KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Wildlife Department and Danau Girang Field Centre have recently fitted a satellite tag on a saltwater crocodile in the Kinabatangan, in an effort to monitor its movements to ensure its further survival following the changing landscape emerging from plantations.
Department director Dr Laurentius Ambu said the tagging of the four-metre long male crocodile - named 'Girang' - was the first in Borneo, and possibly in South-East Asia.
It was carried out in the vicinity of the Field Centre with the assistance of the department's Rescue Unit, he said in a joint statement here on Wednesday.
"Following the Human-Crocodile Conflict Conference that was held in Kota Kinabalu in June last year, the department expressed a desire to carry out scientific work on the primary cause for the rising levels of conflict being experienced in Sabah large rivers.
"The tagging of a saltwater crocodile with a satellite device, is the start of a long-term research and conservation programme initiated by our Department and the Danau Girang," added Ambu.
Danau Girang director Dr Benoit Goossens, who is also leader of the Kinabatangan Crocodile Programme, explained that plantations caused a considerable decrease in the overall amounts of prey available especially to large individuals.
"This situation makes for a far more dangerous environment. The realisation of this is that attack rates found near plantations are extremely high compared to those of forested areas.
"By tagging large crocodiles in plantation areas and in forested areas, and especially males which are potential man-heaters, we will try to understand and monitor the movements of these large predators," added Goossens.
It is hoped that the results would help in providing guidelines for plantation workers and local villagers in order to reduce fatal attacks and contribute to the protection of the species for ecosystem health and tourism, he concluded. - Bernama
