‘Online trade of protected wildlife must be shut down’

KOTA KINABALU: Businesses brazenly selling protected wildlife species on social media must be stopped, said wildlife biologist Dr Wong Siew Te.

Dr Wong, who found many such businesses operating on social media such as Facebook and Instagram, was shocked to discover sun bear cubs being sold online on one particular Instagram page, which has more than 500 posts advertising protected baby animals for sale.

“The protected species being offered include highly endangered Malayan tapir calfs, sun bear cubs, gibbon leaf monkey and slow loris babies, leopard cat kittens, juvenile raptors, hornbills, civets and more.

“Protected wildlife mothers were likely killed by poachers in order to obtain these infants,” he said.

Dr Wong, who is known for his studies on the sun bear and for founding the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) in Sandakan, said despite these sales being illegal under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010, hundreds of protected wildlife infants continue to be killed, captured and sold as pets and for individual profits.

On the BSBCC Facebook page yesterday, Dr Wong shared a video he found on an Instagram page which was advertising a sun bear cub for sale.

It showed a man bottle-feeding milk to the cub.

“The sun bear is a totally protected species in West Malaysia and Sabah, and protected in Sarawak.

“No one is allowed to sell, kill, keep and possess any body parts of sun bears,” Dr Wong wrote in his post accompanying the video.

Since the online business is being conducted in the peninsula, Dr Wong had reported the matter to the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) which told him that the matter will be investigated.

He said the discovery of sun bear cubs being sold online comes just two weeks after BSBCC celebrated the May 16 Sun Bear Day which was aimed at raising public awareness on the protection and conservation of sun bears.

“If we keep quiet and choose to do nothing, soon our forests will be empty,” he said.