SNAKES: Respected not Feared

Sly and sleek,

The reptile slithers through the cracks,

Ready to take away the weak,

Attacks the prey with venomous fangs,

Swallow it as a whole and stay full for a week.

Can you guess which animal is this?
It is the ssssSNAKE!

King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah). 

Photo credit: Bo Jonsson / Skansen-Akvariet from iucnredlist.org.

Snakes have been here long before the dinosaurs went extinct and there are currently more than 3,000 species of snakes worldwide. Despite its fearsome reputation, these creatures should be respected more than feared by us.

Dr S. Vellayan (Consultant on Avian and Exotic Wildlife and a former zoo vetenarian) says that:

• "They don't really chase their food, they are slow movers."
• "In movies, they are often portrayed as vicious animals that attack upon sight. This is not true, as they usually move away or hide when they come into contact with humans." 
• "They are shy and usually avoid human contact. However, they can turn aggressive if they feel threatened- as with other wild animals"
• The public need to be reminded not to disturb snakes in any way, even worse try to catch it or kill it on your own. The venom can be deadly and even if it is not a venomous snake, it can hurt the person as their teeth are long and sharp. 

Malaysia is home to around 140 snake species. Less than the 30% of the snakes in Malaysia are venomous (16 land and 21 aquatic venomous snake species). It is important to note that even if the venomous snakes bite you, it is only life-threatening if sufficient venom is injected. It is also recorded that most bites are dry bites (bites by a venomous animal but no venom is released). Snakes deliver dry bites due to their limited venom store and they might not want to waste it on non-food items like humans. 

HUMAN-SNAKE CONFLICT MITIGATION 

Human-snake conflict represents a big issue in Malaysia. For example, in Negeri Sembilan itself, the state Civil Defence Force (Angkatan Pertahanan Awam-APM) reported that about 40% of the emergency cases they received involved capturing of snakes. 

APM personnels captured a Pit Viper that was found roaming in the kitchen area in one of the houses in Bintulu, Malaysia. Photo credit photo: Erika George (Berita Harian news). 

The loss and fragmentation of their natural habitat drive the snakes to enter residential areas in search of food and shelter. Besides that, snakes are cold-blooded (ectothermic) animals- meaning that they obtain body heat from the environment and are incapable to control their body temperature internally. So, if the weather is too hot, the snakes will need to find a cooler and shady places such as your humid bathroom. Hence, climate warming will inevitably lead to more human-snake conflicts.

Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN) Malaysia listed the 17 species of snake that are frequently reported by the public:

1. Reticulated phyton / Ular Sawa (Phyton reticulatus)
2. Banded Malayan Coral Snake / Ular Pantai Belang (Maticora intestinalis)
3. Spotted Coral Snake / Ular Pantai Bintik (Calliophis gracilis)
4. Small-spotted Coral Snake / Ular Pantai Bintik Kecil (Calliophis maculiceps)
5. Blue Malaysian Coral Snake / Ular Pantai Biru-biru (Maticora bivirgata)
6. Malayan Krait / Ular Katam Tebu (Bungarus candidus)
7. Banded Krait / Ular Katam Belang (Bungarus fasciatus)
8. Red-headed Krait / Ular Katam Kepala Merah (Bungarus flaviceps)
9. Sumatran Pit Viper / Ular Kapak Sumatera (Trimeresurus sumatranus)
10. Pope's Pit Viper / Ular Kapak Ekor Merah (Trimeresurus popeiorum)
11. Wagler's Pit Viper / Ular Kapak Tokong (Tropidolaemuss wagleri)
12. Mountain Pit Viper / Ular Kapak Gunung (Ovophis monticola convictus)
13. Malayan Pit Viper / Ular Kapak Bodoh (Calloselasma rhodostoma)
14. Mangrove Pit Viper / Ular Kapak Bakau (Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus )
15. Bornean Pit Viper / Ular Kapak Hidung Pipih (Trimeresurus puniceus)
16. Common Black Cobra / Ular Senduk Asia (Naja naja)
17. King Cobra / Ular Tedung Selar (Ophiophagus hannah)

There are several ways to prevent snakes from coming to your house. Here's how:

• A clean, tidy and well-kept house is a snake-free house. Snakes are carnivorous- they eat rodents, insects and other snakes. By keeping your yard free of dead leaves and preventing your rubbish from accumulating, it can reduce the chance of pest infestation in your house such as by rats and cockroaches, and thus, snakes.  
• Seal up all the holes! A hot weather and dry seasons might lure the reptiles to come into your cool house for shelter through the cracks and holes. Make sure to inspect your house regularly and repair any cracks, broken windows and holes. 

FIRST AID FOR SNAKEBITES: DO'S & DON'TS

DO's

1. Move to a safe place to prevent the risk of second bite or second victim.
2. Identify or be able to describe the snake: Remember the snake features (pictures, shape and texture of the scales), in order to identify if the snake is venomous or not. Colours are not very helpful and can be misleading as different growth stage might display different colouration even though they are from the same species and some non-venomous snakes were known to mimic venomous ones.
3. Try to not panic and don't move- By staying calm and still, it can slow down the rate the venom is spreading in your body.  Remember that the snakes are probably not poisonous and the most bites are dry bites.
4. Go to the nearest hospital with emergency care.

DON'Ts

1. Do not cut and suck. Yes the scene you watched in the movies are wrong, and could endanger both victim and the sucker.
2. Do not use alcohol. The alcohol may reduce the pain but may enlarge the local blood vessels and this increase venom absorption.
3. Do not apply ice or electric shock.

Do's and Don'ts for Snakebites

Patterns of Snakebites Based on the Snake Species

From: https://www.mybis.gov.my/pb/1624

Acknowledgement:
Special thanks to Low Tek Joo from The Habitat Penang Hill and The Habitat Foundation for introducing us to snakes of Malaysia from his talk in Taman Tugu Nursery. 


References:
Manual Guidance for Handling Snakes that Cause Conflicts (PERHILITIAN):
http://www.wildlife.gov.my/images/document/penerbitan/GARIS%20PANDUAN%20PENGENDALIAN%20ULAR%20YANG%20MENIMBULKAN%20KONFLIK.pdf

Land Snakes of Medical Significance in Malaysia:

https://www.mybis.gov.my/pb/1624

Do's and Don'ts:

https://www.emedicinehealth.com/snakebite/article_em.htm#first_aid_for_a_snakebite
https://www.health.qld.gov.au/news-alerts/news/what-to-do-if-you-get-bitten-by-a-snake

Snakes in the City:

https://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/10/snakes-city

Photo Credits:
PERHILITAN: http://www.wildlife.gov.my/images/document/penerbitan/GARIS%20PANDUAN%20PENGENDALIAN%20ULAR%20YANG%20MENIMBULKAN%20KONFLIK.pdf
Shani Cohen from Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/shanicy/31154049882
David Frohlich:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimeresurus_popeorum#/media/File:Trimeresurus_popeorum_adult_male.jpg
Bo Jonsson / Skansen-Akvariet: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/177540/1491874

Pit Viper photo: https://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/snakes/waglers_pit_viper.htm

King Cobra photo: http://venomland.forumotion.com/t27-introduction-to-ovophis-monticola

https://hiveminer.com/Tags/mangrove%2Cpurpureomaculatus

What's Up with Exotic Pets

"Dogs and cats need homes. Wild animals need to be left alone" 

by Tim Harrison, Director of 'Outreach for Animals' organisation in Ohio to aid owners transfer their exotic animals to sanctuaries.

Sun bear cub found in KL apartment. Pic taken from The Star

This year of 2019, we have witnessed a number of cases where individuals own exotic pets without permits: a six-month-old sun bear cub was found in an apartment in Kuala Lumpur and the most recent one, on 6th of August, a man was detained by Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN) for keeping a sun bear cub together with several species of protected birds in his business premises in Johor Bahru. 

Exotic pets refers to pets that are more unusual than the typical dog or cat. Behind the glamorous side of owning a non-typical pets, exotic pets require a great care and attention. Besides having specialised nutritional and environmental requirements, owners are required to work closely with professional veterinarian to learn about proper handling methods and to ensure that their exotic pets receive up-to-date medical care to prevent the risk of coming into contact with zoonotic diseases. 

Failure to fulfil the animal's necessity only brings more harm than good for both people and the animals. Confined space due to small cages or pen size is one of the biggest potential sources of stress for captive animals, especially in carnivores. Conversely, having a larger cage size can be stressful for prey animals such as small rodents due to their natural history of being hunted in open space. 

As a result of persistent exposure to the stressors, there will be negative consequences towards the animals such as increased abnormal and self-injurious behaviour which not only harmful, but proven to be fatal for the animals and to the people in close contact with them. In June this year, a senior Malaysian citizen found dead due to massive blood lose as a result of being bitten by his five-year-old pet monkey. 

Lacking in knowledge and skills on how to take care of these exotic pets will put both owners and animals at high risk. Pic from ABC News.

Malaysian law sets out that only exotic animals bred in captivity can be sold in shops. However, many pet shops in the country remain evasive when being asked about the source of the shop's animal supply. 

Adam Roberts, CEO of 'Born Free USA', an organisation that fights against exploitation of wild animals explained that there are several categories of exotic-pet owners: (i) treat animals as surrogate children where the owners try to humanise the animals by dressing them up and put diapers on them (usually happen to primates), (ii) as symbols of status and power and (iii) impulse buyers that buy baby animals out of "cute factor". 

On the other hand, some owners voiced out that they want to preserve and protect threatened species that may serve as a backup population if the animals went extinct in the wild due to climate change and expanding human population. 

Nevertheless, whatever the reasons could be behind owning an exotic pet, none of it can actually justify the animals' rights to live with their kinds and to roam freely in the wilderness. Additionally, by humanising the animals, it will make the animals to be dependent on human, losing their natural instincts and will require a lot of rehabilitation before it can survive by itself in the wild.

By privately owning an exotic pet, it can cause more harms than good. It will drive the demands of illegal trade of exotic animals where the mother is most likely to be slaughtered in order to get the baby and contributes to further decline of the wild population. 

End of story: Let's just keep our wildlife wild.

A one-month-old leopard was smuggled in passenger's hand luggage reflects the dark side of exotic pet trade. Pic from The Independent.

Want to know more?
More on exotic pets: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2014/04/exotic-pets/

Sun bear spotted in KL condo: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/06/07/sun-bear-spotted-in-kl-condo

Man held for keeping sun bear cub and protected birds: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/08/06/man-held-for-keeping-sun-bear-cub-and-protected-birds

Restricted movement as a source of stress for captive animals: Morgan, K. and Tromboth, C. (2007) Sources of stress in captivity.
https://www.reed.edu/biology/professors/srenn/pages/teaching/2008_syllabus/2008_readings/1_MorganTromborg2008.pdf

Owner dies after bitten by pet monkeys: https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2019/06/497609/owner-dies-after-bitten-pet-monkey-nsttv

Global Tiger Day

Last Monday on 29th July 2019 was Global Tiger Day.
But there wasn't much to celebrate when there were only around 250 tigers left in the wild in Malaysia.

Malayan Tiger is Part of Malaysia
Malayan tiger is part of our national emblem (jata negara), royal Malaysian police logo and national football team logo, representing strength and courage. Corporations such as Proton and Maybank also take pride in this charismatic animal by using it as part of their brand symbol. 

                   

The Importance of an Apex Predator

By having tigers striving in our forest, it is an indicator of how healthy our forest and the ecosystem is. The absence of an apex predator will have significant impacts on other wildlife community and the forest structure. One of the examples that shows the cascading effects where apex predators were absent:

Scotland, United Kingdom: With no natural predators around, the deer population in Scotland thrived, estimated to be up to 700,000 deers in the wild. The population size varied based on the species, ranges from 400,000 red deer and 350,000 roe deer to 25,000 sika deer and 2,000 fallow deer.

The overwhelming number of herbivores poses the biggest threat to the country's native woodland. Excessive browsing and grazing activities by deer can reduce tree growth and inhibit forest regeneration. In the 2009/10, the forest protection in Scotland cost £10.5 million, which mainly involved managing the deer population. By affecting the forest structures, deers indirectly cause population decline in some bird species such as wood warbler.


Hopes for Malayan Tiger in the Future
Despite the cheerless state of tigers in Malaysia, India has shown to be successful in increasing their wild tiger population by 33% in just four years. Now, there are around 3000 tigers inhabiting the country. A number of factors helped contribute to the increase in India's tiger population, including awareness campaigns, hunting ban, a strict wildlife protection law and more investment to hire more forest guards.


References:
1. Tiger Population Status: http://www.wwf.org.my/tiger_facts/status_of_malayan_tigers/
2. Scotland deer: https://www.parliament.scot/ResearchBriefingsAndFactsheets/S4/SB_13-74.pdf
3. India success story:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/29/india-wild-tiger-population-rises-conservation
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49148174

Pictures:
Tiger: http://www.wwf.org.my/tiger_facts/the_malayan_tiger/

Weekly Post: BUKIT JALIL

It's been five weeks since Hendra and I started working as Research Assistants under Animal Neighbours Project. We have visited a number of human-macaque conflict sites in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, where we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to learn and observe this issue directly.

One of the conflict sites is Bukit Jalil Recreational Park.

Bukit Jalil park is one of the popular recreational park in Kuala Lumpur which covers an expansive green area of 80 acres. Besides providing a green space for the city dwellers, this city park also serves as a home for troops of long-tailed macaques.

However, throughout the years, visitors' feeding activity cause behavioural change in the macaques. Feeding by human can cause habituation in these primates- macaques are becoming less fearful of humans and will learn to associate plastics with food as visitors always bring food in plastic bags to feed them. As a result, they will approach or even chase visitors that bring plastic bags (even if the plastic bag contains non-food item) and will find the opportunity to seize it from the visitors.

Figure 1: Visitors come and feed the macaques. 

Getting chased by these primates is an intimidating experience to both workers and joggers in the park. It is very important for people to understand that this type of unwanted behaviour is mostly non-random, i.e. macaques will highly unlikely to chase people out of the blue. A study assessed human-monkey conflict in University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) found that macaques usually chased students carrying food to steal it and also to scare away students that are walking near or crossing over their territory. Another study in Singapore concludes that most interactions between human and macaques happened when human carries food or food cues (plastic bags or food package), while some interactions occurred due to aggression or provocation by human.

Litter and damaged facilities done by macaques were also frequently observed in Bukit Jalil park. Macaques were seen to be able to access the rubbish bins around the park and which causes an unpleasant sight and smell on a daily basis. They even often enter the public prayer rooms available in the park by opening the windows themselves and rummage through the room. Besides creating debris and causing disarray, there were a list of property damage done by the macaques, including broken lamps, roof tiles and electrical switches.

Figure 2: A macaque come to the public toilet area and trying to remove the toilet mirror (Pic by En Shahrul).

Figure 3: Roof tiles were dislodged and broken (Pic by En Shahrul). 

Human-macaque conflict in Bukit Jalil highlights several issues- feeding activity, lack of awareness among the visitors and inadequate infrastructure to resist the macaques' unwanted behaviours. These issues are similar to other sites that we have visited. In order to start mitigating human-macaque conflict, the process is very much alike when tackling other problems such as rising crime. For example, for someone that lives in a city that has high crime rate, they will need to take extra precautions and mitigation measures to ensure their own safety and property- such as installing and upgrading home security, guarding the windows and setting up neighbourhood crime watch.

Similarly, to mitigate human-wildlife conflict in a conflict-prone area, extra efforts will be required.

Are you curious about the efforts that can be taken to reduce human-wildlife conflict? Well, that will be another blog post for another time 😉

Acknowledgement:

Special thanks to Encik Shahrul who works in Bukit Jalil and kindly provide us the information and pictures on the current human-macaque conflict in the park.

References:

About Jalil Park at: http://www.visitkl.gov.my/visitklv2/index.php?r=column/cthree&id=62&place_id=1026

Md-Zain, B. M., et al. (2014). Human-Macaque Conflict at the Main Campus of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science, 37 (1), 73-85.

Md-Zain, B. M., et al. (2011). Campus Monkeys of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia: Nuisance Problems and Students' Perceptions. In M.D. Gumert et al. (Eds.), Monkeys on the Edge: Ecology and Management of Long-Tailed Macaques and their Interface with Humans (pp. 101-117). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Sha, J. C. M., et al. (2009). Macaque-Human Interactions and the Societal Perceptions of Macaques in Singapore. American Journal of Primatology, 71, 825-839. 

Mitigation Strategies for Human-Wildlife Conflicts

The human impacts on the environment has escalated since the last 300 years, marking the beginning of a new era called the Anthropocene. 

In a heavily human-dominated era, wildlife are forced to live in much smaller and fragmented habitats than ever before, eventually leading to more frequent contacts and possible conflicts between human and wildlife, thus, raising more human-wildlife conflict (HWC).

The impacts of HWC are far-reaching. In India, for example, it was recorded that elephant attacks result in over 400 fatalities annually on average. A study analysed the impacts of HWC over 20-year period from wildlife in Chitwan National Park, Nepal, where over 4000 incidents were recorded, including attacks on humans, livestock depredation, property damage and crop raiding. 

Another study demonstrated that besides the visible impacts such as injury and fatality, HWC can also cause hidden impacts by affecting the psychological well-being of the people affected. Mitigating conflicts through guarding crops, for example,  was shown to be closely related to fatigue and increased alcohol consumption in adults, while causing poor school attendance and performance in children and teenagers. On the other hand, as a result of this HWC, farmers and livestock owners are usually involved in retaliation killing and can cause a significant population decline and hence increase the risk of extinction of these wildlife.

To date, there have been more than hundreds of mitigation strategies proposed in order to reduce the human-wildlife conflicts. It is crucial that a mitigation strategy aims to ensure both human well-being and wildlife conservation are not jeopardized during the process. 

Here, we have documented a few mitigation strategies that proven to be effective to reduce HWC conflict:

Guard Animals

Grazing land for livestock represents more than one-third of the global land area, accounting for about 360 millions of cattle and over 600 millions of sheep and goats. Predation on livestock by wildlife is a threat to both agricultural output, economics and livelihoods of local people. Up to 3% of livestock in North America and Europe were lost to carnivores, while it was higher in Africa and Asia, where up to 18% loss was recorded.

One of the well-known strategy is by using livestock guardian dogs. These guardian dogs have been implemented since centuries ago in Europe and Asia to protect livestock from predators and thieves. Many studies show that the use of livestock guardian dogs is effective in protecting livestock with significant reduction in livestock losses and cessation of predation activity. Livestock guardian dogs have been implemented all over the world, for example, dogs in Namibia protect livestock from cheetahs and in the USA, the dogs were used where wolves were present. However, besides the expense of obtaining these dogs, the producers needed to invest a substantial amount of time to train and learn about these dogs. Additionally, the effectiveness of guardian dogs depends on a number of factors, including the number of livestock they have to protect, the number of dogs used and the individual dogs' capabilities.

Apart from dogs, donkeys are also used as guard animals. They are highly vigilant and fearless against predators - where they will find the predators, chase, kick and even bite them. Donkeys are used to protect livestock against lions in some farms in Kenya. 

Fencing

Barrier fences have a long history in managing wildlife species in many parts of the world. Since the 1960s, electric fences were used to control wildlife invasion problems. It has many advantages compared to the traditional wire fence, including reduced cost, labour and maintenance. Electrical fences focus more on the psychological barrier than physical - where it highly depends on the animal's capabilities to remember the negative effect from touching the fence. 

A study compared the severity of HWC experience by the communities living near two different wildlife parks in Kenya; Maasai Mara Game Reserve (an unfenced park) and Lake Nakuru National Park (a fenced park). They found that the severity and the number of animal species involved in the HWC were higher in the area neighbouring the unfenced Game Reserve than the fenced National Park. During the study period, the areas surrounding the unfenced Game reserve recorded almost 10x more number of wildlife problem cases (1833 cases) compared to the areas surrounding the fenced National Park (186 cases). Moreover, 19 animal species including elephant, lion and hippopotamus, were recorded to be involved in HWC in the unfenced Game Reserve study areas, while only 5 species were recorded in the fenced National Park areas. 

From this study, fences were shown to be an effective solution to reduce the severity of HWC. However, fences also have its own limitation to certain species such as baboons, monkeys and warthogs. Over time, the primates can learn to carefully climb over the electric fence, while the warthogs can easily dig a hole beneath the fence. 

Olfactory Deterrents

Deterrent method provides a non-lethal control to reduce HWC. Olfactory or smell deterrent refers to substance that generates an unpleasant or painful smell, or it can also be a substance that can stimulate hormone that triggers fear in the animals; all enough to discourage the animals from proceeding the area. 

Chilli and tobacco were shown to be effective olfactory deterrents against elephants. Capsaicin resin, an active component of chilli peppers can cause an extremely unpleasant irritation and burning sensation. Upon implementing this chilli-based deterrents, farms near the Kakum National Park in Ghana, which recorded the highest elephant activities, harvested up to 7 bags of maize per hectare compared to only 0.5 bags or less per hectare before the implementation. Similarly to electric fences, chilli-based deterrents were shown to be less effective against primates such as baboons - where the effects were only successful for a short period of time.

To sum up, HWC is inevitable in this Anthropocene era, given that human population is continuously growing, driving and forcing wildlife to live in much smaller and fragmented habitat, leading to more frequent contact and hence conflicts. Therefore, it is very important that we keep reminding ourselves that wildlife is NOT THE ENEMY, and try our best effort to reduce HWC for the sake of both people and wildlife. 

Definition:

• Anthropocene: Human-dominated era, it could be said that the Anthropocene have started since the late 18th century, when analyses of air trapped in polar ice showed the beginning of growing global concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane. 

More about the mitigation strategies:

Barua, M., Bhagwat, S.A., & Jadhav, S. (2013). The Hidden Dimensions of Human-Wildlife Conflicts: Health Impacts, Opportunity and Transaction Costs. Biological Conservation, 157, 309-316.

Crutzen, P.J. (2002). Geology of Mankind. Nature, 415, 23.

Human-Wildlife Conflict: An Interview with Dr. Michael Hutchins

at: https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2013/03/09/human-wildlife-conflict-an-interview-with-dr-michael-hutchins/?fbclid=IwAR1drnZEecFaGI2DRv77p3wzAlB7tH-piwDAdXUgWjwKSA4NHO2euuLcTfo

Human-Wildlife Conflict Management at: http://www.fao.org/3/i1048e/i1048e04.pdf 

Kassilly, F. N., Tsingalia, H.M., & Gossow, H. (2008). Mitigating Human-Wildlife Conflicts Through Wildlife Fencing: A Kenyan Case Study. Wildlife Biology in Practise, 4 (1), 30-38.

Lamichhane, B.R., Persoon, G.A., Leirs, H., Poudel, S., et al. (2018). Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Attacks on Human and Economic Losses from Wildlife in Chitwan National Park, Nepal. PLoS ONE, 13 (4), 1-18.

Suryawanshi, K. R., Redpath, S. M., Bhatnagar, Y. V., et al. (2017). Impact of Wild Prey Availability on Livestock Predation by Snow Leopards. Royal Society Open Science, 4 (170026), 1-11.

Van Bommel, L., & Johnson, C. N. (2012). Good Dog! Using Livestock Guardian Dogs to Protect Livestock from Predators in Australia's Extensive Grazing Systems. Wildlife Research, 39, 220-229.