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Sumber : New Straits Times, tiada tarikh

KUALA LUMPUR - Threatened by development and trapped in small pockets of forests, tapirs rescued in Selangor will soon form part of Malaysia's first captive breeding programme for the totally protected animal. Trapped tapirs, including those found in areas fringing the Shah Alam-Puncak Alam highway, will be placed at the Tapir Breeding Centre in the Sungai Dusun wildlife reserve. The centre is expected to begin its programme by late this year, the Selangor Wildlife Department director, Habsah Muda, said here today. The site was last used for the Sumatran Rhino Conservation project which came to an end late last year when all its rhinoceros died. The department has trapped eight tapirs in Selangor since 2002. Two of them were trapped in a forest that will soon be cleared for a Univesiti Teknologi Mara extension campus in the Bukit Cerakah area. The others were trapped in Sungai Besar, Dengkil, Bukit Kapar, Batang Berjuntai and Gombak.

Rapid development in the State has also seen several tapirs killed. One was knocked down along the Tanjung Malim-Rawang highway and four along the Shah Alam-Puncak Alam highway since 2002. At present, tapirs trapped will be sent to the Malacca Zoo for treatment before being transferred to the captive breeding centre. Habsah said that once the centre was ready, tapirs trapped or rescued could go straight to Sungai Dusun. Other animals that have been trapped at the UiTM project site are the Malayan porcupine, Large Indian Civet, Common palm civet, Water monitor, python, pig tailed macaque, long-tailed macaque and leaf-monkeys.

Due to the deaths and the significant number of tapirs thought to be trapped by development, the department will ask the State Government to make developers carry out an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) for development projects under 40 hectares. At present, the Environment Quality Act 1974 requires that an EIA be done for projects covering areas larger than 40ha. Habsah also submitted a paper to the Government last year recommending that a fund be set up to relocate wildlife displaced by development. She will also recommend to the State Government that developers opening up forested areas be made to contribute a sum to the translocation fund and that this be made a regulation for future development projects in the State. Habsah said at present, the State Government had allocated funds for a project in Sabak Bernam where wild pigs (babi hutan) had to be removed from an area earmarked for agriculture projects. She said the wild pigs would not be translocated. Instead they would be hunted by licensed hunters under the supervision of the department. Wild pig is a protected animal, but is listed under Schedule Two of the Protection of Wild Life Act 1972 as a game animal which can be hunted under specific conditions.