www.BandarPuncakAlam.com

Sumber : New Straits Times, tiada tarikh

KUALA LUMPUR - The small blue signboards lining the Shah Alam-Bandar Baru Puncak Alam road may be all that stands between the endangered tapir and speeding motorists who have killed several since last year. The signboards were erected in April after the death of three tapirs on the road that cuts through what was once the Bukit Cerakah Forest Reserve. The Selangor Wildlife Department is attempting to trap as many of the remaining tapirs in the surrounding forests that have not yet been cleared to send them to a safer place. The department's director Habsah Muda said her officers recently trapped two adult tapirs believed to inhabit the area and sent them to the Malacca Zoo. The department has also relocated monkeys, pythons and civet cats to the Hulu Selangor and Sungai Dusun forest reserves. The area where the tapirs are thought to roam is being cleared for a Universiti Teknologi Mara campus. Habsah confirmed that at least three adult tapirs were knocked down by vehicles plying the unlit road last year. Checks with traders along the road, however, revealed that there had been at least two other deaths early this year. Misli Manan, who has been selling food and drinks along the road for the past year, said he saw one large tapir that had been knocked down by a vehicle which was later hauled away in a tractor in January. He said another smaller tapir died while its companion was badly injured in another accident.

Habsah said the relocation of the animals had been planned to start earlier and the department had forwarded a proposal and a budget to UiTM for the programme. However, she said it had taken a while for the budget to be approved and in the meantime clearing work for the construction of the campus had proceeded. Habsah said determining the population of tapir in the area required a study that would be time consuming considering the vastness of the Bukit Cerakah forest reserve. "The urgent task at hand is to relocate the animals to safer ground as quickly as possible," she said. Sources said that there have been at least seven cases of tapir being killed in accidents in the area since early 2003. The Bukit Cerakah forest reserve was an area well known as home to tapirs. The male species could reach 300kg but the tapir is usually an elusive animal which is difficult to trap. The animals are known to come out of the forests at night and end up along the road. The tapir is a totally protected animal in Malaysia. It is listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora which means it is threatened with extinction. It is also listed as "vulnerable" in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources' Red List.