Ruben Sario The Star 9 Jan 12;
KOTA KINABALU: A captured female Sumatran rhinoceros has some bones on her front left foot missing.
Sabah Wildlife Department director Laurentius Ambu said this meant that Puntung was likely caught in an illegal wildlife trap when she was young.
“This makes her survival a true miracle,’’ he said, adding that Puntung was captured in late 2011 because years of monitoring revealed that no other rhino had come into her range.
“This is symptomatic of many other species of wildlife in Sabah as their habitats are fragmented and there is a lack of linkage between them.
“This increases the level of threats to wildlife as access to fragmented areas for poachers is not difficult,” he said.
In this regard, he said the department had been continually calling for corridors and linkages to be made between fragmented forest with significant wildlife.
“The state government is playing its part but what we need is action from the private sector now.
“We want them to put aside land for corridors or patches of forest,” he said.
Laurentius has been advocating a multi-stakeholder approach to conservation in the state, with governmental agencies working together with NGOs, universities and the private sector.
