THIS NEWS JUST IN!
A PRESS CONFERENCE IS EXPECTED TO BE HELD AT 10AM TOMORROW WHERE A SHOCKING REVELATION WILL BE MADE HOW THE WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT HAS ALLEGEDLY BEEN CONDUCTING SECRET SLAUGHTER OF MACAQUES THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY.
The PC will be held at Parti Keadilan Rakyat's office. It will be attended by PKR's N Surendran, Selangor State Exco Elizabeth Wong and Selangor Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.N Surendran is also legal adviser to PETPOSITIVE.
The following are some background reports taken from The Star:
Monday March 18, 2013
Uproar over macaque culling
By R.S.N. MURALI
murali@thestar.com.my
Kota Melaka MCA complaint bureau deputy chief Dr Yee Kok Wah said he found out that Johor topped the list with 20,600 of the primates culled, followed by Selangor (18,800), Perak (16,000), Kedah (13,000), Pahang (8,100) and Negri Sembilan (8,000).
The total number culled last year was 97,200, up from 87,900 in 2011.
“The primates should not have been exterminated as they were not diseased.
“We need to create a colony for them so that the monkeys can be relocated.
“We have a moral responsibility to look after the primates.
“They will not pose a danger to humans if they are relocated to the jungle,'' he told The Star.
Dr Yee said Kyoto University's Juichi Yamagiwa, who is president of the International Primatological Society, had found that the transmission of virus between humans and macaques was very rare.
“As such, the mass culling of macaques here should be stopped.
“The primates are being driven to extinction,'' he added.
Dr Yee said there was a report saying that captured wild macaques from Malaysia had ended up on dinner plates in China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, or in research laboratories.
Long-tailed macaques are native to Malaysia and considered opportunistic feeders, and can adapt well to the urban environment.
A Perhilitan official, when contacted, explained that the primates were exterminated through an internationally accepted culling method to control “a population that far exceeded the proportionate capacity of its habitat”.
He said the culling, conducted by trained game rangers, was carried out where human-macaque conflicts were most serious.
He denied that the macaques were killed by deliberate drowning as alleged by some quarters, adding that standard operating procedures were adhered to.
Tuesday March 19, 2013
There’s no need to cull macaques, says expert
PETALING JAYA: Culling is not the answer to resolving human-macaque conflicts in Malaysia, said an expert.
Wildlife veterinarian Dr Sharmini Paramasivam said humans had invaded the monkeys’ habitat.
“Studies have shown that effective waste management and sterilisation reduces the size of the population.”
The wildlife veterinarian said it was unfair to blame monkeys for going into housing areas and rummaging through rubbish bins.
“We should first look at how residential areas are being planned.”
The Star reported yesterday that almost 100,000 long-tailed macaques had been culled last year by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan).
A Perhilitan official had explained that the primates were exterminated through an internationally-accepted culling method to control their population, which “far exceeded the proportionate capacity of its habitat”. He said culling had been carried out where human-macaque conflicts were most serious.
Dr Sharmini was involved in running a macaque conflict management project in Indonesia and has worked with the monkeys for a few years.
She said conflict management included studying the macaque population and their behavioural patterns, as well as conducting education programmes for those living in conflict areas.
“Malaysia should set an example on the best way to deal with wildlife conflict. Understanding the cause of the conflict is key in successful conflict management,” she stressed.
Wednesday March 20, 2013
Decision to cull macaques not done in haste
WE refer to the reports “Uproar over macaques culling” and “There’s no need to cull macaques, says expert” (The Star, March 18 and March 19) respectively.
We at the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) feel very sad that such articles were published as the journalist was informed and explanations given on the culling of macaques by this department.
We would like to stress that the government decision to cull the excess population of macaques in peninsular Malaysia was not done in haste.
The estimated population of the long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) in peninsular Malaysia is estimated at 740,000 heads and well distributed in the urban areas in peninsular Malaysia.
The long-tailed macaque is a pest species and can easily adapt to any urban habitat.
It is prolific and able to reproduce very fast. There is no question of the species being threatened into extinction with culling.
The long-tailed macaque has the third largest range of any primate species, after humans and the rhesus macaque.
The culling practice was discussed in detail with NGOs, experts and scientists.
This department had been actively involved in the dialogues and engagement with all stakeholders on the culling practice before it was implemented.
The disturbance caused by the long-tailed macaque has undermined the tolerance level of the communities to co-exist with them.
The culling exercise has nothing to do with diseases carried by this species.
Nevertheless, the department has intensively collaborated with scientists from both local and foreign universities to screen for known and unknown diseases which long-tailed macaques might spread as potential carriers/hosts.
To date, there are several pathogena found in the primate such as plasmodium sp., herpes virus, Filovirus, Flavivirus and Paramyxcovirus.
Relocation of problem long-tailed macaques to forested areas in the long term is just a temporary transfer of the problem when a new conflict will be created as long-tailed macaques are territorial.
The department disputes the allegation that the culling practise will push the long-tailed macaque into extinction as this is not true.
We are only culling the problematic population in urban and sub-urban areas and not the macaques’ population that live in protected forests.
In fact, IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2012 categorised the long-tailed macaques as “Least Concern”.
If one looks closely at the statistics published in the department’s annual report, one can see that the complaints on human-macaque conflict received by this department from 2007 to 2012 was 40,407 cases with 10,232 cases in 2008 and 3,235 in 2012.
Just imagine, with the culling of 87,819 heads in 2011, we still had 4,913 complaints. With the culling of 97,119 heads last year, the complaints still stood at 3,235 cases.
We would like to disassociate ourselves with the allegation that the “captured wild macaques from Malaysia had ended up on dinner plates in China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, or in research laboratories” as claimed by Dr Yee Kok Wah of the Kota Melaka MCA Complaints Bureau. This is a very serious allegation.
We would like to state that we stopped the exporting of long-tailed macaques for commercial purpose from 1986.
The wildlife management toll employed is an anthropocentric approach as the management and practices undertaken are to solve the problems of communities and human well-being.
Wildlife is well protected in the protected areas system throughout peninsular Malaysia.
Last but not least, we always welcome constructive feedback and real cooperation from interested parties in dealing with the human-macaque conflict.
DIRECTOR GENERAL
Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan)
We at the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) feel very sad that such articles were published as the journalist was informed and explanations given on the culling of macaques by this department.
We would like to stress that the government decision to cull the excess population of macaques in peninsular Malaysia was not done in haste.
The estimated population of the long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) in peninsular Malaysia is estimated at 740,000 heads and well distributed in the urban areas in peninsular Malaysia.
The long-tailed macaque is a pest species and can easily adapt to any urban habitat.
It is prolific and able to reproduce very fast. There is no question of the species being threatened into extinction with culling.
The long-tailed macaque has the third largest range of any primate species, after humans and the rhesus macaque.
The culling practice was discussed in detail with NGOs, experts and scientists.
This department had been actively involved in the dialogues and engagement with all stakeholders on the culling practice before it was implemented.
The disturbance caused by the long-tailed macaque has undermined the tolerance level of the communities to co-exist with them.
The culling exercise has nothing to do with diseases carried by this species.
Nevertheless, the department has intensively collaborated with scientists from both local and foreign universities to screen for known and unknown diseases which long-tailed macaques might spread as potential carriers/hosts.
To date, there are several pathogena found in the primate such as plasmodium sp., herpes virus, Filovirus, Flavivirus and Paramyxcovirus.
Relocation of problem long-tailed macaques to forested areas in the long term is just a temporary transfer of the problem when a new conflict will be created as long-tailed macaques are territorial.
The department disputes the allegation that the culling practise will push the long-tailed macaque into extinction as this is not true.
We are only culling the problematic population in urban and sub-urban areas and not the macaques’ population that live in protected forests.
In fact, IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2012 categorised the long-tailed macaques as “Least Concern”.
If one looks closely at the statistics published in the department’s annual report, one can see that the complaints on human-macaque conflict received by this department from 2007 to 2012 was 40,407 cases with 10,232 cases in 2008 and 3,235 in 2012.
Just imagine, with the culling of 87,819 heads in 2011, we still had 4,913 complaints. With the culling of 97,119 heads last year, the complaints still stood at 3,235 cases.
We would like to disassociate ourselves with the allegation that the “captured wild macaques from Malaysia had ended up on dinner plates in China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, or in research laboratories” as claimed by Dr Yee Kok Wah of the Kota Melaka MCA Complaints Bureau. This is a very serious allegation.
We would like to state that we stopped the exporting of long-tailed macaques for commercial purpose from 1986.
The wildlife management toll employed is an anthropocentric approach as the management and practices undertaken are to solve the problems of communities and human well-being.
Wildlife is well protected in the protected areas system throughout peninsular Malaysia.
Last but not least, we always welcome constructive feedback and real cooperation from interested parties in dealing with the human-macaque conflict.
DIRECTOR GENERAL
Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan)
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