Trapped tiger saved, but more patrols needed

2009/10/05

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.