Category: conservation, poaching, sun bear in the wild, threats | Date: Sep 16 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

Smugglers’ boatload of wildlife

2009/09/14

ROMPIN: Marine police foiled an attempt to smuggle out about 12 tonnes of exotic animals using a fishing boat in Tanjung Gemuk near here on Saturday.

Two suspects, in their 40s and 50s, were arrested while they were busy transferring 18 boxes containing live and dead animals from a lorry onto a boat at an old jetty about 3am. Among the animals and their parts seized were sunbear, monitor lizards and owls.

Marine police Region 3 Operation division head Deputy Superintendent Mohd Hassan Hasyim said investigations showed the suspects had brought the exotic animals from Tanjung Malim.

“They planned to load the animals into the fishing boat before transferring the consignment into another vessel at sea.
“We believe that the animals were destined for a neighbouring country to be sold at restaurants there,” he told a press conference here yesterday.

Hassan said it was the first of such case this year and the Marine police would hand over the seized animals and parts to the Wildlife and National Parks Department.

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/6bear/Article/index_html

================================================ 

Wong’s notes: There is no doubt that wildlife smuggling in Malaysia is on the rise. Each of the wildlife smuggling that police seized represent a tip of an iceberg. If immediate and effective actions to stop wildlife poaching and smuggling are not taken soon, the rainforest in Malaysia will soon join the list of “empty forests syndrome.”    

Empty Forest Syndrome?

Read more about it at http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0118-hance_hunting.html

Here is what was written by WCS about the bushmeat crisis in Congo Basin, Africa.:

————————————-

 Empty Forest Syndrome

Hunting can still be sustain able where human population density is low, and where law enforcement authorities, or other management systems, control the quantity of meat exported to urban areas.However, as industrial activities such as logging open up previously inaccessible areas of the forest through the construction of roads, and population density grows in logging villages and urban centers, the demand for bushmeat increases, making sustainable exploitation of wildlife nearly impossible. This not only threatens wildlife populations but also the livelihoods and food security of the traditional peoples that depend on them.

Although deforestation poses a significant threat to the survival of the forested landscapes in the Congo Basin, many scientists are now agreed that it is the bushmeat trade that is the greatest threat to the ecosystem. Not only does unsustainable hunting leave the forest empty of wildlife, but the plant-animal interactions that facilitate forest regeneration and maintenance are lost. 

==================================== 

Wong’s notes: Interestingly, the situation described above sound familiar to what I saw in Borneo and other part Malaysia and Indonesia. Ironically the authority in Malaysia always denies and shies away from the topic of wildlife poaching and smuggling. IF in the future when we hear less on the news reports on the wildlife poaching and smuggling, perhaps it is not because of the authority has done a good job to prevent such crime from happening, but the wildlife population in the country has been wiped out to the brinks of extinction. I hope I am wrong. 

——————————————————————-http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/20090811211703/Article/index_html

Malaysia Ministry denies allegation of wildlife smuggling

2009/08/11

MARAN, Tues: Deputy Natural Resources and Environment Minister Tan Sri Joseph Kurup has denied allegations that Malaysia is the world’s largest wildlife smuggling centre. He said the government would not compromise on the smuggling of wildlife and had taken stern action against culprits who committed such offences.

“We admit that such an activity exists, but we always take stern action against the culprits,” he told reporters after launching the Rakan Alam Sekitar campaign here today.

He was commenting on a recent report in an English daily that Malaysia had become the world’s largest wildlife smuggling centre.
Kurup said amendments to the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972 were being drafted to provide heavier penalties against those who committed offences related to wildlife and national parks. — BERNAMA

Tags: conservation BSBCC, hunting, Malaysia, owls, poaching, police, sun bear, threats

6 responses so far

Category: conservation, poaching, sun bear in the wild, threats | Date: Sep 16 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

Malaysian police seize smuggled bear parts, owls

(AP) — KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysian police say they have seized more than $100,000 worth of dead owls, bear paws and live monitor lizards and arrested two men on suspicion of trying to smuggle them abroad.

Mohamad Hassan Hashim, a marine police official in eastern Terengganu state, says two Malaysian men were caught Sunday loading the protected wildlife into a boat.

He says police found 33 sun bear parts, 264 dead owls and 4,800 live monitor lizards, worth some 350,000 ringgit ($100,300) in all. The lizards will be released into the wild.

<!– if (parseFloat(navigator.appVersion) == 0) { document.write(”); } –>Mohamad Hassan said Monday the men could face up to three years in prison if charged with and found guilty of possessing protected wild animals.

© 2009 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

Tags: conservation BSBCC, hunting, Malaysia, owls, poaching, police, sun bear, threats

One response so far

Category: captivity, sanctuary, sun bear in the wild | Date: Sep 04 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

Contented Bear?

Check out the video.. one of the sun bears was making a weird sound. It’s the one in the basket, her name is Suzie. Perhaps Papa Bear, Wong Siew Te can explain why?

The above video was posted on LEAP blog by Sue. 

Hi Sue,

Thanks for posting this behavior on sun bears that not many people know about. This sound is a “suckling” sound when the bear such a particular body part of themselves or other bears. It is fairly common among the captive sun bears, especially young ones. The reason behind this is actually quite sad.  

In the wild, mother sun bears nurse their cubs up to 2 years or even longer. During this time, besides suckling for mother’s milk, the process of suckling also let the cubs seek comfort and feel secure and safe being side by side with their mother. This behavior is best explained by human babies sucking pacifier to seek comfort. Same theory: no milk draw out from the pacifier, but the suckling action make the babies feel comfort and safe.

Most captive sun bears share the very similar stories: they all were being captured by poachers and separated with the mother when they were at very young age. These were serious traumas, especially those mother bears being slaughtered in front of the babies. There was a story that I will never forgot in my life: a tiny baby sun bear was tied up for sale at Gaya Street Sunday market in Kota Kinabalu, and its mother was being cut up in pieces for sale as meat. This kind of trauma is way beyond anyone’s imagination. Anyway, these baby bears grow up without mother and without a chance to suckle. However, suckling is an innate behavior. When the cub is hungry or feel uncomfortable, they suckle their mother’s breast. For these poor captive bears, they do not have their mother around, but the urge to suckle is very strong. So they learn to suckle on something handy. This “something handy” can be any part of their body like limbs, toes, or paws. More commonly was something that they can “latch on” like their own penis for male bears or vulva for female bears. If there are other young bears around, they may suck on each other’s ears. They always suckle on the same object or the same body part over and over again that later become their favorite suckling object.  

The suckling behavior may progress to their adulthood if they are constantly under stress. It is consider as a kind of “stereotypic” behavior. I worked with a female sun bear named Batik. Batik was about 2 year old when I released her into the forest. During her life in captivity, she suckled her left hind feet constantly, especially when she feel stress or threat, to a point where there was a hairless, bare patch on her left feet leg. She was kept in a small cage when she sucked most. When she was reintroduce into the forest, her suckling behavior ceased thereafter. New hairs grew back from her bare patch on her left hind feet.

Tags: Bornean Bear Conservation Centre, BSBCC, Siew Te Wong, suckling, sun bear

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Category: conservation, poaching, sun bear in the wild | Date: Aug 26 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

http://www.traffic.org/home/2009/8/26/bear-paws-turn-up-in-nationwide-raids.html

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 26 August 2009—Malaysia’s wildlife authority has seized several protected animals and parts of wildlife including bear paws, in a string of raids across the country in the last two weeks.

On August 11, the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) found four bear paws in the cold room of a licensed trader’s store in the town of Kemaman in Terengganu, a state on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

Two days later, officers found an elephant tooth in a home in Triang, Pahang. On 18 August, several species of wildlife illegally kept in a shop in Sri Kembangan, in Selangor were discovered. They included two Reticulated Pythons and a pair of Water Monitors.

They also found six Black-crowned Night-herons, three Painted Storks and two Thick-billed Green-pigeons.

No arrests were made in connection with the raids.

The bear paws confiscated from a trader’s cold room. Click photo to enlarge © TRAFFIC Southeast Asia   

Meanwhile on 16 August, police nabbed a Thai poacher and recovered scales of a pangolin and six sacks of agarwood (gaharu).

The arrest was made in a forested area just off the Gerik-Jeli Highway in the Belum-Temengor Forest Complex in the northern state of Perak, which shares a border with Thailand.

Police were acting on information provided by WWF’s Wildlife Protection Unit (WPU), which regularly patrols the area with other enforcement agencies.

The 55-year-old poacher from Chiang Rai was among a party of five poachers ambushed by police. Four others escaped, leaving behind a camp stocked with 30 kilogrammes of rice and other essentials – indicating they were planning long-term operations.

The man now faces charges under three separate laws. Gerik District Police Chief, Superintendent Mahad Nor bin Abdullah, confirmed that the poacher would be charged under Section Six of the Immigration Act, for illegally entering the country. The poacher will also face charges under Section 64 (2) (a) of the Protection of Wildlife Act for possession of the Pangolin scales and Section 15 of the Forestry Act, for collecting agarwood without a licence.

Cases involving foreign poachers like this one, in Perak’s forests, are becoming an issue of increasing concern, with several cases already documented so far this year.

These forests are home to many of the world’s most threatened mammals, including Sumatran Rhinos, Malayan Tigers and Asian Elephants.

The Belum-Temengor forest complex is also part of an area of global priority for Tiger conservation, yet it is one of the most accessible areas because of the 80-km long Gerik-Jeli highway that cuts across this landscape, providing hundreds of easy entry points for poachers.

Sacks of agarwood (gaharu) left at an abandoned poachers’ camp in Belum-Temengor Forest Complex where one man was arrested Click photo to enlarge © WWF Malaysia

“Together with Perhilitan and Police, the WPU have jointly-removed over 73 snares and arrested nine poachers in the last seven months in this very area,” said Ahmad Zafir, leader of the WPU. “Camera traps set up to capture wildlife pictures for research also often capture photographs of poachers.”

“Intelligence-led investigations are needed to remove the masterminds and backers behind the scourge of poaching and illegal trade,” says Chris R. Shepherd, Acting Regional Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.

“Ridding the forests of poachers is an on-going and important task, but it is essential to remove the main culprits behind the scenes – the big dealers running the show,” he added

Dato’ Dr Dionysius Sharma, CEO of WWF-Malaysia, urged the government to form a multi-agency task force to address the problem.

“While Perhilitan, police and the WPU have been doing a good job so far, stopping armed poachers is dangerous work that needs the support of many agencies,” he said.

Perhilitan’s Legislation and Enforcement Division Director Saharudin Anan said the department would add three more posts along the country’s border with Thailand and would soon host the first bilateral meeting between the two countries, on wildlife enforcement issues.

Tags: conservation BSBCC, hunting, poaching, sun bear, threats

One response so far

Category: Research, Siew Te Wong, conservation, rainforest, sun bear in the wild | Date: Apr 16 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

Monday, March 30, 2009

Protecting the world’s least-known bear

Posted by: WPZ Field Conservation staff

at http://woodlandparkzblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/protecting-worlds-least-known-bear.html

Southeast Asia is home to the world’s smallest bear species, the Malayan sun bear. These little bears face big threats throughout their range, especially from forest destruction, illegal hunting, and the capturing of small cubs for pets.
 

Luckily this unique bear has a champion and protector in Siew Te Wong, a Malaysian researcher and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Montana. Woodland Park Zoo has helped support Wong and his field work in Sabah, Borneo for several years. As one of the very few people studying the sun bear, Wong has uncovered many fascinating aspects of sun bear ecology. Sadly, though, his research also brought him first-hand experience of the inhumane treatment of sun bears kept as pets.

Wong’s deep concern for these animals has inspired a new and ambitious project: the creation of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center, a partnership between the Sabah Wildlife Department, the Sabah Forestry Department and nonprofit LEAP (Land Empowerment Animals People). The center will rehabilitate and release suitable ex-captive bears back into the wild, provide an improved long-term living environment for captive bears that cannot be released, and educate local people about the species. The project is endorsed by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums Sun Bear Species Survival Plan.

Read Wong’s field blog to learn more about sun bears in the wild. And you can also visit sun bears at Woodland Park Zoo.

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Category: Research, Siew Te Wong, sun bear in the wild | Date: Mar 09 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

To sun bear researchers,

I hope you all agree with me that research on sun bears is seriously lack behind many endangered species and time is running out for sun bears as the habitat and the animal itself are declining in an alarming rate.

Sun bear still remains the least known bear in the world. Over the past few months there have been several students and researchers in Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia contacted me about their plans to study sun bears. This is very good news for all of us who love this animal so much. Over the last 10 years I am one of the very few people who studying sun bear in the wild. Thus, I am so happy to see the change now, as many of you want to study sun bears! I have been in contact with most of you and answered questions and help you with all of the resources I have individually. I am very happy to help you all in whatever way I could.

However, because some of you are studying the same aspects and may have similar questions on your study, I think it is time and good for us to help each other by SHARING information and resources. I strongly believe that this is the way to help our understanding on this species without showing selfishness on individual studies but to open up our heart to seek the best information on sun bear that will eventually aid the conservation and research on sun bear in SE Asia. Therefore, I started a discussion group on “Save the Sun Bear” at http://borneozoology.ning.com/group/savethesunbears.

This site http://borneozoology.ning.com/ is started by Dr. Tajjudin Mohd from University Malaysia Sarawak, in the hope of providing a space for students, teachers, zoologists, etc., to discuss topics of their interest in zoology, biology, ecology and anything that we are interested with. So please join us and start the discussion, NOW.

As usual, I will try to answer your questions with all the resources that I have. I also invite Gabriella Fredriksson and Robert Steinmetz, who also spend a lot of time studying sun bears and other bear biologists to join the discussion to give you the best answers and helps for your study and projects.

 So this is what you should do:

1) Go to http://borneozoology.ning.com/, then click join us, sign up to be a member,

http://borneozoology.ning.com/main/authorization/signUp?

2) I would like you to tell us about yourself as much as possible: what university or institution, NGOs, level, program, and what is the main focus of your study.

3) You can share any photos of your study and interest to make people know you better.

4) Then you join the “Save the sun bear” group and start the discussion. Feel free to post questions on any of the existing discussion topic, or create your own if you think of one. Gabriella, Rob, or me, will try our best to answer your questions.

Hope this is clear. What I hope to achieve in this site is to have all of the sun bear researchers feel like a big family where we all helping each other, comparing notes and data, sharing information, etc., to help our studies on sun bear that will eventually help saving the sun bears!

Please join me now. See you all in http://borneozoology.ning.com/!

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Category: habitat loss, sun bear in the wild, threats | Date: Feb 19 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

Posted at: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/2/20/nation/3310743&sec=nation

Friday February 20, 2009

Perhilitan rangers catch pesky sun bear

JELI: Villagers in Kampung Pasir Dusun can sleep easier now that a sun bear, which had been destroying their crops, has been captured. 

Wildlife and National Park Department rangers caught the female bear using an iron cage trap recently.

Ramlan Derani, 38, said the bear had been a problem for the past three years and a lot of the crops had been damaged by the bear.

“There was nothing we could do,” he said.

Zaki Muhamad, 40, said the villagers had been complaining about the bear since last year.

“The problem will never stop as long as the forests are cleared for planting or logging activities. The animals will surely encroach into the villages,” he said.

State department director Fazli Abdulfatah said the bear had been sent to the Malacca Zoo.

2 responses so far

Category: BSBCC, Siew Te Wong, beartrek, conservation, sun bear in the wild | Date: Feb 08 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

Sorry for the long silent, now I am back to action and hope I can keep up posting stories and development about our works to help sun bears.

OK, start with ZACC. I really felt honored to be invited to this conference and gave a presentation about BSBCC: Hope for the Bornean Sun Bears. My presentation was scheduled on the second day. After listened to many great presentations and many great conservation efforts, I was humbled and shy to speak in front of the audience, because what I have doing for the past 10 years was studied sun bears and have not really help them on the ground yet. Anyway, I did deliver my presentation with full passion and enthusiasm with an optimistic heart. I know every good conservation project started with where I am now- a HOPE.

I HOPE one day, maybe few years from now, I can be invited again to ZACC conference again to share some of my success stories to conserve sun bears just like every body else who presented their great conservation works during the conference. That’s why I told the audience at the beginning of my talk that I am an optimistic person, I have high HOPE that we can help sun bears, and the sun bears will have HOPE, as long as we committed to what we are planning to do for them and HOPE that the supports from everyone in the audience can ongoing and even more. All start with HOPE..

I think I did well during my presentation. Beside telling the audience what is a sun bear, how they live in the wild, and how special they are (FYI, that is the “happy” and “cool” site of sun bear), I also told the plight of sun bear (FYI, that is the “sad” and the “not so cool” site of the sun bear and how we human treated sun bears). At the end of the presentation, I squeezed in a 6 min clip of BEARTREK, which I am thankful for the extra time that the organizer gave me.

At the last three slide of my presentation, I acknowledged all the funding agencies and individuals who has funded my sun bear works every the last 10 years. Most of them were from the US’s Zoos. Their supports and contributions made me who I am today. My achievement and works could not be possible without your support. I urged them not to abandon the sun bears or me because it is now that I am starting to, seriously, engage in the conservation of this forgotten bear. My second last slide was a family photo, who I owe and love them with all of my life for being away from the family for many years and thankful for them.

Finally, this is my last slide: who dare to say sun bear is not cute and do not deserve conservation attention and our help to save them from extinction!

Many in the audience sobbed quietly.

Special thanks to Peter Riger from Houston Zoo who brought me to Houston to meet many great conservationists and many people who funded my work, whom I only know in my mailbox and a name. Thank you all! I still need your help! Sun bear still need your helps! WE still need your help!

Please feel free to contact me at: wongsiew@hotmail.com to find out how you can help us beside donate online at this site. Thank you again for all of you who supported me and help the sun bears and the shake my hand during the conference.

I see HOPE.    

5 responses so far

Category: Research, Siew Te Wong, publication, sun bear in the wild | Date: Dec 01 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

Today is already the first day of December 2008. Sun bear still remains the least know bear in the world. Almost everyone know about bears. They know polar bears, grizzly bears, American black bears and giant pandas because these are the bears that they seen in the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic Channel, movies, advertisements, bill board, news articles or any kind of mass media you can think of. A small portion of the people know Andean or spectacle bears from South American, sloth bears from India, and Asiatic black bears from Asia. However, only very few people know about sun bears. This is a sad fact.

One of the biggest reasons for sun bear remains so little known is the lack of biological studies on this species. Until now, there are only 3 ecological studies that involved trapping and radio-collaring of wild sun bear in the world. One of them is my study base in Danum Valley Field Center and Ulu Segama Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo. I did my Master of Science (MSc) project on studying the ecology of sun bear from 1998 – 2000, and then continued the study, by looking at the effects of logging on sun bear and bearded pigs for my doctorate degree.

Here are lists of publications with PDF from my M.Sc. studies:

Masters Thesis: 

Fredriksson G. (2005) Human–sun bear conflicts in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. Ursus, 16 (1): 130 - 137. 

Schwarzenberger, F., Fredriksson, G., Schallerc, K. and Kolter, L. (2004) Fecal steroid analysis for monitoring reproduction in the sun bear (Helarctos malayanus). Theriogenology, 62: 1677 - 1692. 

Fredriksson, G.M., Danielsen, L.S. and Swenson, J.E. (2007) Impacts of El Nino related drought and forest fires on sun bear fruit resources in lowland dipterocarp forest of East Borneo. Biodiversity and Conservation, 16 (6): 1823 - 1838. 

Fredriksson, G.M., Wich, S.A. and Trisno. (2006) Frugivory in sun bears (Helarctosmalayanus) is linked to El Niño-related fluctuations in fruiting phenology, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 89: 489 - 508.

Tumbelaka, L., Fredriksson, G.M. 2006. The status of sun bear in Indonesia. Pp 73-78 in Japan Bear Network (compiler). 2006. Understanding Asian bears to secure their future. Japan Bear Network, Ibakari, Japan 145 pp.

Fredriksson, G., Steinmetz, R. 2007. Bear sign survey training course- Phnom Tamao & Bokor National Park, Cambodia. 23rd – 27th April 2007. Unpublished report.

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Category: conservation, poaching, sun bear in the wild | Date: Oct 25 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

Dear friends,

If you reading this blog, you are no doubt a bear lover, an animal lover, a naturalist, a biologist, a conservationist, or just a regular people who care about our nature, wildlife, and mother Earth. You cared, concerned, and I thank you for that.

Now I would like to ask you for a favor. I am not asking you to donate money this time, but I would like to ask you to sign a petition that will help improve our wildlife law in Malaysia. Please read more about this petition at the press release below and sign the petition at www.petitiononline.com/MYLaw/petition. html.

 Now I have my own story to tell why this petition is important. I want to show you some photos and tell you the stories of many wildlife were killed and poached because our wildlife law need to be strengthen. By strengthening the law, we hope the awareness and enforcement of these law will be improved and benefit both wildlife and human. I  apologize for showing photos but I think we all need to know that this kind brutal killing is happening in this country and it has to be stop by any mean. Although habitat destruction is by far the most important threat to the wildlife in Malaysia, poaching and illegal killing of wildlife can easily wipe out the small local population of the wildlife that are living in the fragmented landscape.

This sun bear carcass was found beside a hiking trail after being freshly slaughtered and only the gall bladder being removed by the poacher. According to the local guide, the poacher sold the gallbladder for about US$100. (Photo: Sue Chong)

This nursing female bear with a small cub was killed in an oil palm plantation. Sun bears that live adjacent to oil palm plantation frequently enter oil palm plantation to feed on oil palm seeds. Sun bears that entering these plantation were extremely vulnerable to poaching as many legal and illegal hunters hunt in the plantation for wild boars. These bears often become easy target for poachers as fewer cover available when they are at night in a plantation. Poachers are not hesitate to kill sun bears as flawed wildlife law and seriously lack of enforcement.  (Photo: New Straits Times)

This freshly killed male bear was another victim of poachers that hunt for their meat, gall bladder, canine, claw, pelt, etc. (Photo: Robert Steubing) 

Remmy, one of my former research assistant, found a dead Sunda clouded leopard at our study when he tracked one of our radio-collared sun bear. Poacher shot his large male clouded leopard that are so rare in close distant and discarded the body. Sometime poachers killed animals for no reason. Again, this incident shown that the wildlife law and enforcement needs to be strengthened, as well as education and conservation awareness needs to be promoted.

You have to see this to believe this. This female Bornean pygmy elephant were probably killed by “slow death”- infection that led to gangrene from the at least 13 bullet wounds I counted at her back site. Poachers simply shot this magnificent animal for no reason, or, for fun? I will never get it why in the world would people wanted to do this kind of killing! She was drop death by the road site in my study area. I wonder how many animals that were killed for no reason and poached for a reason were left unnoticed. I strongly believe that what we are seeing and hearing may represent a tip of an iceberg. There are many more animals being killed out there!

 Snares are by far any wildlife and conservationists’ nightmare. Snares are easy to make and set, cheap, light to carry, and most importantly, they are effective! You will be amazed with how similar the mechanism of snares across different continents in the world and low long human have been using the same kind of design for snaring wildlife simply because they works. In order to increase the efficiency of these snares, most hunters or poachers would construct a simple fence on the forest floor for kilometers and left little “gap” or “opening” where the loop of the snares is set. When an animal traveling on the forest floor and come across the fence, they tend to follow the fence and funneled to the little gap and they try to across the fence through that little opening where poachers already set the deathly loop on the floor awaited for their kills. As you can imagine, these snares are set by hundreds as they are cheap and easy to carry into the forest interior. What make snares a true nightmare for everyone who care about wildlife is that they do not discriminate what species of wildlife can be their next victim. Willdife as small as a pheasants, mousedeer, pangolins, civets, muntjacts, wild boar, deer, bears, and all the way range to large mammals like rhinos and elephants are some of the common victims of snares.  

These three photos are photos of a snared sun bear in my study area in Sabah. The bear managed to struggled and cut himself lose from the snare but suffered severe injuries: the heavy duty nylon fishing line cut through his arm, and he also suffered from a dislocated shoulder as a result of struggling to break free. The survival of this bear was probably very low. You can read more about this bear at: http://wongsiewte.blogspot.com/2008/03/plight-of-wild-sun-bears.html

A camera trap set along old logging road in my study area photographed this Bornean pygmy elephant. A closer look at the elephant trunk revealed this elephant was a victim of snares. His trunk has a snare that cut a big opening about half way of her trunk. Chances of survive for this unfortunate elephant is low with a trunk that has a hole on it. She probably cannot drink properly and take food by her trunk. (Photo: Andy Hearns and Joanna Ross)

It is always emotional when injuries involve a baby regardless of species. Here is a baby Bornean pygmy elephant fall victim to a snare at the river bank of Kinabatangan River, the longest river in Sabah, Malaysia Borneo. The injured baby elephant with its mother. Dr. Senthilvel, Chief Vet from Sabah Wildlife Department said the baby elephant was unlikely to survive. “As the severity of the wound on this elephant is so serious, this poor baby elephant would very soon succumb to gangrene and die. The sad thing is that even an attempt to rescue it and bring it in for treatment would probably mean amputation of the limb and a life in captivity. It would be all too cruel to have it live on and suffer in captivity, with a handicap like that.”These photos were taken by Inada Nobuhiro, a Japanese wildlife guide and lecturer. To learn more, please visit  http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1012-elephants.htmlSad…

So, please click www.petitiononline. com/MYLaw/ petition. html to send your petition in order to help us strengthen our wildlife law and help protect out wildlife. This is the first step. This is the must do step!

============================================ 

JOINT PRESS RELEASE  

28th September 2008  

Malaysian Nature Society

TRAFFIC Southeast Asia

Wildlife Conservation Society

WWF-Malaysia  

Better Law for Wildlife in Malaysia:

Petition to amend the Protection of Wild Life Act 1972  

Petaling Jaya, Selangor (28th September 2008)-Today, the world celebrates International Tiger Day, a celebration of the tiger in its wilderness. While we celebrate its strength, beauty and perseverance, today also presents the ideal opportunity to mark our commitment to save the Malayan tiger  

Currently, tigers and other wild animals in Peninsular Malaysia are protected by the Protection of Wild Life Act 1972. This 35-year-old law is severely outdated and riddled with loopholes.  There is a serious need for the Malaysian government to remedy the loopholes and beef up the law, as many species continue to be poached and illegally traded at alarming rates. Wildlife offenders often escape arrest, prosecution and punishment.  We understand that the government is in the process of revising this law. However, we urge the government to seek public input in this process.  Examples of amendments needed;

i)That all products containing or claiming it contains parts of totally protected species to be made illegal;

ii) That mandatory jail sentences and stiffer fines are imposed for serious wildlife offences.  Help us reach the target of 100,000 signatures for our Malayan tigers. Your voice to this petition will make a difference, for tigers and other wildlife in Peninsular Malaysia.   

Sign this petition at www.petitiononline.com/MYLaw/petition.html

———————————————————————-

 Dear Supporters, Colleagues, and Friends: 

The lack of urgency has become a norm.  I am asking you personally to take two small actions today towards creating a better world for the wildlife in Malaysia by signing the petition below. That’s the first step. www.petitiononline. com/MYLaw/ petition. html 

Once again, four prominent wildlife and nature NGOs* in Malaysia came together to call for better law for wildlife in Peninsular Malaysia. Please support these NGOs and forward the Press Release sent to you earlier today to your friends and colleagues who may or should support this cause- at least ten of them and ask them to do the same. That’s the second step.  There were less than 100 signatures last week. The goal of 100,000 signatures seem impossible. Using our networks effectively is the only way. There are about 200 members on this list. If each one of them forward the PR to at least 10 people and these people forward to further 10 people, we can reach out to at least 20,000 people worldwide. Possibilities are endless. Some may put it up on a personal blog site or webpage for a greater impact. Others can raise the awareness over this issue and call for action by hosting a company lunch, school project, media campaign, public awareness event,etc. etc….even over a family dinner tonight!  All depends on how much you care.  The chain of actions starts with us today and our wildlife deserves our caring effort. Their situations are becoming desperate. PLEASE HELP.     

Kae

* The NGOs behind this petition are: Malaysian Nature Society, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia , WCS Malaysia Programme, and WWF-Malaysia.

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