Malaysian conservationists in dilemma over captured tiger cubs
Copyright 2001 Agence France Presse
December 6, 2001
By JULIA YEOW
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 6 - The capture of two tiger cubs from among Malaysia's rapidly dwindling population in the past week has re-opened debate over the long-term future of the beautiful big cats.
The two-year-old cubs were trapped after villagers in the northwestern state of Perak complained that several dogs and chickens had been killed, and they are now destined for the state's Taiping Zoo.
Their mother guarded the first cub in its cage for hours after it fell for goat bait and tripped the trap, and wildlife officers had to repeatedly fire shotguns in the air before she reluctantly left.
The authorities said they hoped to drive the animal deeper into the forest where she could start breeding again, failing which they would try to trap her and reunite her with the cubs at the zoo. The Malacca Zoo, located south of the capital Kuala Lumpur, has the only captive breeding programme for the Indo-Chinese species which is found here.
The tiger is Malaysia's national animal and a part of the country's national emblem, but the latest available estimates put the number of them in the wild at less than 500.
Tigers were considered pests in the 1950s, when the government paid bounties to have them killed, but they still numbered 3,000 in 1960 and the population has been dropping steadily since then.
Illegal shooting of a tiger today carries punishment of up to one-year in jail and a maximum fine of 3,000 ringgit (790 dollars), but poachers have rarely been prosecuted.
Researchers at the Wildlife Department here fear the animal's chances of surviving in the wild beyond the year 2020 are grim, as human development puts increasing pressure on their natural habitat.
In the last 20 years, there have been 12 cases of tigers attacking humans and the encounter has always ended with the tiger being shot dead.
Even for wildlife activists committed to the preservation of animals in the wild, there is no easy answer on how to deal with situations such as that which led to the capture of the cubs in Perak state.
"This is the question, that if the animals become a threat to humans, do you choose death, restore their health for a later release or do you keep them in a zoo?" said Gurmit Singh, an activist with the Environmental Protection Society of Malaysia.
Human development should not have been allowed to encroach into the tiger's habitat in the first place, thus forcing them to seek food outside their natural environment, he told AFP.
"Development, unfortunately will go on, so before we decide to put them in a zoo, we have to get information on why they were driven out.
"Tigers avoid humans, so the fact that these two were coming out shows they were running out of food," he said.
He said there was a constant dilemma on what to do with captured tigers, who could not be relocated as easily as elephants, due to their strong territorial instincts.
"There seems to be no real solution, because if we relocate, they will be endangered by their own kind, but putting them in cages just does not seem the best solution," Gurmit said.
The first cub to be trapped had diseased gums and decayed teeth, a condition zoo authorities said would have led to its eventual death if left in the wild.
"Of course people show concern about keeping wild tigers in captivity, but they must know the facts first," Kevin Lazarus, Taiping Zoo director, told AFP.
"If these cubs are now released into another area, they'll definitely be attacked because they are weak and young.
"They were very, very hungry when we found them and ate immediately, which is very rare for wild tigers who have just been caught," he said, adding that both cubs were found to be malnourished.
A spokesman for the international World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) told AFP that when tigers posed a problem for humans, the most practical thing to do was to keep them in captivity.
"If they are in bad condition, the authorites are in the best position to keep them in zoos where there's a better chance of survival," he said.
"It is very difficult to relocate a tiger and if you put a tiger in the territory of another, there will be conflict and most possibly death," he said.