PEKAN: Rice and cooking oil is an odd combination but it has helped solve a "bearish" problem faced by 150 villagers in Kampung Sekor near here.

For months, the villagers have been living in fear after frequent sightings of bears in their village.

However, the villagers were relieved when an 80kg male sun bear was caught on Saturday night after it was lured into a cage trap which had the odd mixture as bait.

"We put the mixture in the trap as we knew that it is the bear's favourite," said villager Zainal Mohd Idris.

The 23-year-old odd-job worker said the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) had put the cage trap in the village two weeks ago.
He claimed that there were three bears living in the nearby jungle but only the male one had wandered into the village frequently.

"The male bear would search for food after dusk and sometimes sleep under a villager's house.

"Before this, we were scared to go out and did not allow our children to go for their Quran classes at night fearing the bear might harm them."

Zainal hoped that Perhilitan would also catch the other two bears as they, too, posed a threat to the villagers.

State Perhilitan director Saharuddin Anan said the department would leave the trap in the village to catch the other bears.

The cage trap is normally used to catch tigers.

He said the adult male sun bear, aged between 7 and 8, would be sent to the mini zoo in Temerloh.