Private homes in KK serve pangolin meat
Sabah Wildlife Department director Augus ne Tuuga said due to demand for exo c food from China tourists, they have already had several cases of people serving exo c food, mostly pangolin meat, at private dwellings in Kota Kinabalu.
KOTA KINABALU: Some tourists from China are willing to pay well for exotic food, which is another term for wildlife meat.
Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) director Augustine Tuuga said that sometimes these tourists would pre-order at places that provide such exotic cuisines.
Augustine added that they have already had several cases of people serving exotic food at private dwellings in Kota Kinabalu.
“What’s being served mostly are pangolins,” he said.
In a recent case, officers from SWD were able to make an arrest in time, which was prior to the meat being cooked.
Reporters were made to understand that it is a challenge to determine the DNA if the meat is cooked.
He added that this was becoming a serious issue for Sabah presently and that it not only plagues the department in Kota Kinabalu but also in Semporna which now receives a lot of tourists.
On another matter, Augustine said that the incidence of crocodile–human conflict is rising in Sabah.
He said crocodiles posed a danger to people irrespective of where they were translocated.
“We now have crocodile attacks in the east coast of Sabah and in the west coast, and the numbers are rising,” he said.
At the same time, he said, the department is also facing issues related to the translocation of macaques in Sabah citing that there had been spikes in malaria cases where the macaques were relocated.
“But we don’t know the cause of this…there were no malaria cases from their original location,” he said.