Monday, April 29, 2013

Need an urgent setup to analyse and action on the wildlife-human conflict in general and case by case.

Massive Malaysia monkey cull spurs concerns

Questions raised about species sustainability after nearly 100,000 animals were killed because of conflicts with humans.

  Last Modified: 24 Apr 2013 07:25
 
 
Many Malaysians were shocked to discover that the country's wildlife department viewed the long-tailed macaque as a pest - and killed 97,119 last year across the country.
 
No recent scientific survey of the macaque population has been completed, critics say, and such an aggressive approach to controlling their numbers could push the species to the brink of extinction.
 
The past 30 years has seen rapid economic development across much of Southeast Asia, including Malaysia. Much of the monkeys' traditional forest habitat has been cleared to make way for factories, homes and plantations.
Problems with macaques are generally a good measure of the overall severity of environmental problems and poor waste management. The first step needed is to get a trustworthy team to census the population without real scientific-based surveys.
Perhilitan says an "inventory" of the macaque population took place in 2007, which showed there were 740,000 macaques across the peninsula. Depending on the availability of food and habitat, the animal population can expand by as much as seven percent each year
The wildlife department - known as Perhilitan - insists there is no such risk and the killing is necessary to deal with the rising incidence of human-monkey conflict.
"The culling was not done in haste, but in the best interests of the public," a government statement said. "Macaques are prolific and able to reproduce very fast, so there is no question of the species being threatened into extinction through culling

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