Adib Povera New Straits Times 17 Aug 11;
ALOR STAR: Tiong kerbau, or the common myna, is generally a pest, but it is a "pot of gold" for Zakaria Mat of Kampung Naga in Kepala Batas, near here.
In fact, over the past 20 years, the 40-year-old Zakaria has depended on the noisy and invasive bird as his main source of livelihood.
"Believe it or not, I have raised my six children mostly by trapping and selling the mynas.
"It is no great job but this is my source of income," he said when met during one of his outings to catch the ubiquitous bird that can be found as far as Canada in the northern hemisphere and Australia in the south.
The location was near the edge of a padi field in Lebuhraya Sultanah Bahiyah.
Zakaria and his seven workers had earlier "wrapped" a large pokok sena with a fishing net.
Slightly before midnight, he gets his workers to chase the flocks of myna from different parts of the city making sure they later congregate at the pokok sena.
And as expected, the myna-chasers managed to gather hundreds of the birds to the tree.
With nowhere to go, the mynas would then be forced down the long and narrow tunnel at the end of the net where a few workers are ready to pluck them out of the trap, safe and unhurt.
Upon counting, it was discovered Zakaria and his men had caught 500 adult mynas.
A regular customer from Kuala Lumpur would pay him about RM4,000 for the live birds.
Just last week, he collected about RM3,000 on a single night's job. A few days earlier the same week, he made about RM5,000 from trapping the mynas.
When asked what his customers would do with the live mynas, Zakaria said it was mostly for rituals practised among some members of the Chinese community.
He said they would make some offerings before setting the birds free.
"Catching tiong kerbau is an art and it has proved very rewarding for me.
"I am glad I have managed to enjoy a decent life and also provide for my family from catching mynas," he said.
