Malayan tiger now critically endangered, numbering as few as 250

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia's national animal, the Malayan tiger, is being being pushed to the point of extinction.

Current estimates have pegged Malaysia's tiger population at as little as 250 to 340 tigers in Peninsular forests, nearly half of the previous estimate of 500 tigers.

"Despite all efforts, including the strengthening of legislation and increased patrolling, tiger conservation across the vast tropical forest landscape continue to face challenges."

"Poaching for illegal commercial trade is the greatest and most urgent threat to tigers in Malaysia, followed by loss and fragmentation of forests," said a joint statement by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) and the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (Mycat).

It was added that the new estimates were made from studies conducted between 2010 to 2013 using camera traps under a standardised protocol at seven sites across three major tiger landscapes in Peninsular Malaysia.

Though it said that more sites needed to be surveyed to determine a more robust tiger population estimate here, it added that the Malayan tiger now met the IUCN Red List criteria of "Critically Endangered".

It previously classified as "Endangered" in 2008.

Previous moves to increase Malaysia's tiger population to 1,000 by 2020, such as specified in the National Tiger Conservation Action Plan, were now considered "unachievable".

Immediate tiger conservation efforts are being explored, including the setting up of tiger patrol units in the Belum-Temengor, Taman Negara and Endau-Rompin tiger priority areas.

Also included were a comprehensive national Tiger Survey in the Peninsular's remaining major forest landscape, and the strengthening of existing forest and tiger conservation mechanisms.

It was added that though federal funding and donations from Mycat's NGO donors had helped thus far, more resources were needed.

There are no Malayan tigers in Borneo.

According to the Mycat website, tiger populations a century ago measured about 100,000 worldwide, declining to about less than 3,200 today. 

Sorce: thestar.com.my

Pangolins being eaten to extinction, conservationists warn

Scaly anteaters are now the most illegally-traded mammal in the world, with all eight species listed as threatened

An African white-bellied pangolin – poachers are turning to African pangolins because Asian populations have been denuded. Photograph: IUCN/ZSL

Pangolins are being "eaten to extinction" due to a demand for their meat at banquets in China and Vietnam and their scales for use in Chinese medicine, conservationists have warned.

In an update last week to the authoritative Red List of endangered animals, all eight species of the scaly anteaters were upgraded to threatened status.

Resembling a pine cone on legs, they are the world's only scaly mammal, using their scales for armour to protect against predators and their long, sticky tongues to catch prey.

According to experts at the Zoological Society of London, the demand for the animals in Asia has been so great that poachers are now turning to Africa, where four of the species are found. Conservationists say there is already evidence of an underground, intercontinental trade in pangolins between Africa and Asia.

More than a million are believed to have been illegally caught in the wild over the last decade globally, giving them the unenviable record of being the most illegally-traded mammal in the world. Read more ...

Source: theguardian.com

457 dead pangolins found in 4 fridges in China

PHOTO: NEWS.QQ.COM

Guangdong police received a report this week of 457 dead pangolins, or scaly anteaters, that were found in Shijing Town.
A total of four large fridges full of pangolin bodies were seized and four suspects were arrested, according to Shanghaiist via Tencent News.
All the carcasses were placed in a morbid spread on the ground of a room, with the largest weighing more than 20 pounds.
A pangolin is a rare, scale-covered mammal whose armour is believed to cure cancer and asthma, as well as other ailments in traditional Chinese medicine. Read more

Source: STOMP

Rhino horn smuggling ringleader jailed for 70 months

Hidden camera photo of Li purchasing rhino horns from an undercover USFWS agent © New Jersey U.S. Attorney's Office

Wildlife trafficker Zhifei Li has been sentenced to 70 months in prison for his role in trafficking 30 rhinoceros horns and numerous other rhino horn and elephant ivory artifacts from the US to China. The sentence is one of the longest ever handed out in the US for wildlife crime.

Zhifei Li, who owns an antique business called Overseas Treasure Finding in Shandong, China, admitted he was the “boss” of three antique dealers in the US whom he paid to obtain wildlife items and smuggle them to him via Hong Kong.

His arrest in January 2013 happened when he was caught purchasing two endangered black rhinoceros horns from an undercover US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) agent during “Operation Crash”. This was a US nationwide effort led by the USFWS and the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute those involved in the illegal wildlife trade.

“Li was the ringleader of a criminal enterprise that spanned the globe and profited from an illegal trade that is pushing endangered animals toward extinction,” said Sam Hirsch, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. “As this case clearly demonstrates, rhino trafficking is increasingly organised, well financed, and a threat to the rule of law. The United States is resolved to bring wildlife traffickers to justice.”

All species of rhinoceros are protected under United States legislation and commercial trade in rhinoceros horn is also not permitted under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). 

USFWS Director Dan Ashe said: “The sentence handed down today serves notice to other organised trafficking and poaching rings that their crimes will not go unpunished. We will relentlessly work across the US government and with the international law enforcement community to destroy these networks, while strengthening protections for rhinos in the wild and reducing demand for horn in consumer countries.”

Source:  wildlifeextra.com

Car wash worker fined RM35,000 for having sun bear

In safe hands: The sun bear resting in a cage after it was rescued by officials from the Wildlife and National Parks Department in Larkin.

JOHOR BARU: A car wash worker was fined RM35,000 in default eight months’ jail by the Sessions Court here after he pleaded guilty to possessing a sun bear.

Mohd Roshdam Bilal, 29, admitted having the protected animal at around noon on May 13 at a shoplot in Susur 4, Jalan Tun Razak, here.

He was charged under Section 68 (1)(a) of the Act, which carries a maximum fine of RM100,000 or a jail term of not more than three years or both upon conviction.

Mohd Roshdam did not settle the fine. Sessions judge Azura Alwi ordered the jail term to begin from the date of arrest. Wildlife and National Parks Department prosecuting officer Shamsul Hakim Ahmad prosecuted the case while Mohd Roshdam was not represented.

It was previously reported that the two-year-old sun bear was found locked in a cage in the shoplot and was probably in the midst of being sold to local restaurants in the area.

The sun bear is a protected species under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 but is often hunted for its paws, which are used to make medicinal soup. There has been no study to prove that the soup has medicinal value but each bowl can be sold at between RM400 and RM900.

Source: thestar.com.my