YET another devastating piece of news for Mala-yan tigers. One was caught in a snare meant for trapping wild boars and another became roadkill.
How many tigers can we afford to lose? These incidents should raise alarm bells, particularly government representatives and policy makers, to take conservation action.
Snares, though prohibited under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010, are used by Orang Asli for trapping wild animals.
In 2010 a tiger, believed to be trapped by mistake, was also caught in a snare set up by Orang Asli.
Poachers, too, add to the woes of the animals by placing snares in animal tracks in forests. A study conducted by non-governmental organisations in 2010 and 2013 in protected areas and forest reserves revealed more than 2,241 poacher traps and 1,728 illegal camps.
Given the low tiger numbers, each animal must be monitored and protected.
Homemade wire snares inflict terrible injuries and cause drawn-out deaths, as animals try to free themselves from their torment, waiting many hours in a distressed and fearful state.
By the time the snare is checked, the animal is either in extreme pain or has died from injuries.
A disadvantage of a snare is that it catches a high proportion of animals other than the targeted species.
For too long, snares have been destroying animals.
This shows that legislation prohibiting the use of snares has not been put into practice. So long as there is no complete ban on snares, Malaysian wildlife will not be completely protected.
The issuing of hunting licences and the increasing number of firearms issued to voluntary militias and farmers, ostensibly for protecting crops, will give rise to hunting abuses that are difficult to control as there is no monitoring.
The tiger’s usual prey, sambar deer and wild boars, could have been over-hunted.
A shrinking prey base may pose an even greater threat to tigers, since their numbers will plunge when they cannot feed themselves and their cubs. The loss of prey was what decimated the Bali, Caspian and Javan tigers.
Tigers are at great risk of encroachment, land conversion and habitat destruction. The demand for tiger parts and lack of protection also take their toll on tigers in the wild.
As long as land-clearing and logging continue, the borders between man and tigers will become closer.
Previous hunting grounds for tigers have become rubber estates and palm oil plantations.
Do we blame these tigers for roaming within their former home?
Development has made accessibility difficult not only for tigers but also other animals, as their highways for migration are cut off, forcing them to forage closer to the jungle’s edge for food.
Since tigers are wide-ranging animals, they need a lot of forest in which to roam, mate and search for food.
In 2006, Sahabat Alam Malaysia had repeatedly called for the authorities’ attention to roadkill but to no avail.
The dead pregnant tigress in the East Coast Expressway 2 is a great loss at a time when the tiger population is dwindling due to shrinking home range.
Highway planners, land managers, biologists and engineers are oblivious to all these, as they continue to lay asphalt corridors across forested habitats, cutting across animal migrating paths.
Placing animal-crossing signages in roadways may not work, as few people pay attention to them.
Even though crossing structures are slowly being incorporated, virtually nothing is known about their effectiveness between overpasses and underpasses.
Even if we do nothing, the rate of roadkill will decline from lack of wildlife, not from fewer cars or roads.
S.M. MOHD IDRIS,
President, Sahabat Alam Malaysia