Malaysian conservation groups on Wednesday called for a halt to crocodile hunts in the wild jungles of Borneo mounted by Malaysians searching for the remains of a boy feared to have been eaten by one of the reptiles.
KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian conservation groups on Wednesday called for a halt to crocodile hunts in the wild jungles of Borneo mounted by Malaysians searching for the remains of a boy feared to have been eaten by one of the reptiles.
Four crocodiles have been caught since the attack on September 3 in a campaign that saw the boy's desperate parents even draft in traditional healers reputed to be able to communicate with the creatures, newspapers have said.
DNA samples taken from hair and scraps of underwear found in one captured animal, 5.5 m long (16 feet) and 200 kg (440 pounds) in weight, will be tested to identify the boy's remains, the Star newspaper said, quoting wildlife officials in the eastern state of Sarawak.
But conservationists fear the hunts could get out of hand, threatening animals they say prefer not to venture out of their riverine homes unless deprived of their usual food, such as small fish and animals.
"Normally they have sufficient food in the river, but now pollution and soil erosion leave them no choice," Loo Koi Sang, vice-chairman of the Malaysian Zoological Society told Reuters.
"So the crocodiles leave the river to hunt." Another group, the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), has described the hunts as a barbaric relic of the colonial era.
"The crocodile hunt seems a bit excessive," biologist June Rubis, who has worked in Sarawak for six years, told Reuters. "It's really sad that a boy was killed, but the fact remains that more people die from car accidents than from crocodile killings."
Rubis, the chairman of the regional arm of the MNS, called for awareness campaigns to help spread knowledge of the crocodile's role in the environment among the villagers.
"When you take a large predator out of the food chain, you see an increase in the numbers of prey species that then impacts the ecosystem in unpredictable ways," she added.
Malaysian wildlife officials, who estimate the crocodile population near the site of the attack to number 46, did not reply to requests for comment.
Source: Reuters
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