Culling of M'sian macaques challenged
The culling of almost 100,000 long-tailed macaques last year by the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) has turned into a controversy, with the decision being challenged here.
Kota Melaka complaint bureau deputy chief Dr Yee Kok Wah said he found out that Johor topped the list with 20,600 of the primates culled, followed by Selangor (18,800), Perak (16,000), Kedah (13,000), Pahang (8,100) and Negri Sembilan (8,000).
The total number culled last year was 97,200, up from 87,900 in 2011.
“The primates should not have been exterminated as they were not diseased.
“We need to create a colony for them so that the monkeys can be relocated.
“We have a moral responsibility to look after the primates.
“They will not pose a danger to humans if they are relocated to the jungle,'' he told The Star.
Yee said Kyoto University's Juichi Yamagiwa, who is president of the International Primatological Society, had found that the transmission of virus between humans and macaques was very rare.
“As such, the mass culling of macaques here should be stopped.
“The primates are being driven to extinction,'' he added.
Yee said there was a report saying that captured wild macaques from Malaysia had ended up on dinner plates in China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, or in research laboratories.
Long-tailed macaques are native to Malaysia and considered opportunistic feeders, and can adapt well to the urban environment.
A Perhilitan official, when contacted, explained that the primates were exterminated through an internationally accepted culling method to control “a population that far exceeded the proportionate capacity of its habitat”.
He said the culling, conducted by trained game rangers, was carried out where human-macaque conflicts were most serious.
He denied that the macaques were killed by deliberate drowning as alleged by some quarters, adding that standard operating procedures were adhered to.
