KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has started trapping and relocating tigers after three people were killed by the critically endangered creatures in the past two months, officials said on Thursday (Dec 7).
Eleven cage traps and 20 cameras have been installed in recent weeks in the forested area of Gua Musang district, in the northeastern state of Kelantan, where the deadly attacks happened.
There have been five attacks resulting in four deaths in Gua Musang since 2021, Mohamad Hafid Rohani, director of the Wildlife and National Parks department in Kelantan, told AFP.
Three of the killings were in October and November this year.
“We are very concerned. This is the worst tiger-related deaths in decades in Malaysia,” Hafid said.
The traps – rectangular cages wrapped in palm leaves so they blend into the forest – have been set up in “hot spots” where attacks took place.
One has been placed in a palm oil plantation.
Live goats are kept in enclosures nearby to lure the tigers into the traps with their bleating.
The Malayan tiger is classified as critically endangered by the protection group the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
WWF Malaysia estimates there are fewer than 150 of the animals still left in the wild.
Hafid said 35 tigers were estimated to live in Kelantan.
Attacks on humans by the tiger are rare, but such incidents have been known to occur in areas where developments encroach on the animals’ habitat.
Last month, one female tiger was trapped and taken to the National Wildlife Rescue Centre in neighbouring Perak state, Hafid said.
But Hafid admitted that officials were “not certain if it was responsible for any of the attacks on humans”.
Source: CNA
