Public not cooperating with wildlife dept?

AMPANG: It's a losing battle for the Wildlife Department to control the growing population of wild boars and macaque monkeys at the edge of the Ampang Forest Reserve in Taman TAR.

Efforts to trap and relocate the wildlife deeper into jungle are thwarted by animal vigilantes.

According to Selangor Wildlife Department director Rozidan Md Yasin, the department had placed traps to catch the wildlife.

Instead of wild animals, the rangers find pieces of wood inside the 2.4m by 2.4m by 2.7m cages, possibly thrown at them to set off the traps and render them harmless.

"Any complaints of wildlife encroachment will be dealt with immediately," he said. "We will also attempt population-control by conservation methods such as catching and releasing the animals back into the jungle habitat, far from human settlement."

He said the department constantly advises the public to stop feeding the wildlife, but the warning have fallen on deaf ears.

Open feeding interferes with a wild animal's natural instinct to roam and find its own food.

As open-feeding is done beyond the perimeter of the natural habitat, wildlife which has that has already adapted to its new territory will fall back to its hunting instinct, even if it is kitchens and rubbish bins.

From December last year, the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 states that anyone caught for cruelty to wildlife can be fined not less than RM5,000 and not more than RM50,000, or can be jailed for up to a year, or both.

Source: By Halim Said