DEPT: ARRESTED FOREIGNERS WERE HARDCORE POACHERS

Perhilitan says group had been making big money on the black market

THE group of foreign poachers who were detained in Kuala Lipis on July 4 were described as “hardcore” poachers harvesting all types of wildlife, gaining lucrative returns on the black market.

Wildlife parts including bear teeth and claws, python skins, a serow’s tail and wild boar tooth, as well as from tigers and clouded leopards were seized from the premises where the Vietnamese poachers, who included two women, were nabbed.

A Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) source said the group, which had been actively involved in illegal hunting activities for several years, utilised an area located near a sawmill to kill and harvest the animals before selling them to the middlemen.

He said the premises was equipped with a refrigerator that allowed the syndicate members to store animal meat and parts.

“The group had no specific targets (animals).

“They took anything found trapped in their wire snares. They are well-versed about their inhumane job and kept returning to the jungle to hunt.

“They have been in the business for quite some time as they could speak in Malay and they would supply all the wildlife animal parts to the middlemen who seems to be well-connected to the illegal wildlife trade overseas.”

He said checks on the two fullpiece of suspected dried Malayan Tiger skins revealed that one of them belonged to an adult while the other was a young tiger.

The source said the group might have been targeting mainly tigers in the area, but caught the other animals that ended up in the snares.

He said only the tiger skin was recovered and, it was not known what had happened to the other parts of the animal.

“The wild boar meat is likely to have been sold as an exotic dish as only its tooth was found.

“The number of animals killed by the syndicate is unknown, but it could be high, especially looking at how it operated,” he said.

On July 4, Perhilitan, in a operation, seized an estimated RM500,000 worth of protected wildlife animal parts in Kuala Lipis.

The foreigners are being investigated under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 (Act 716) for hunting endangered animals and possession of traps.