00:00Hi welcome back to consider this we're discussing the decline of the population of the Malayan tapir
00:16which is already currently listed as endangered this comes as the natural resources and environment
00:24uh and sustainability minister uh nick nazmi nick ahmad he revealed that 112 malayan tapirs have
00:32been killed by road traffic in the past four years this is a disturbing statistic and joining us now
00:39to discuss how we can save the malayan tapir is dr evelyn lim ailin who is a senior lecturer at upm's
00:46faculty of forestry and environment she's also a research associate at its institute of social
00:52for social science studies dr evelyn thank you for joining me on the show um from your perspective
00:59having studied these wonderful creatures for many years how alarmed are you how alarm should we be
01:05about the decline in the malayan tapir population are we watching slow extinction in real time
01:14thank you melissa now when we talk about the malayan tapir the main primary cause is actually
01:21the loss of habitat and the creation of forest fragmentation these two has actually exposed
01:27the malayan tapir population to secondary threats and there has been an increasing trend of displaced
01:35malayan tapir from their habitat exposing them to human tapir conflict situations and becoming victim to
01:42road kills yeah and what is of real concern to us is actually the incidences of road kills
01:48uh why road kills versus human topic conflicts is that is because we know tapirs uh they are actually
01:55very shy so they have there hasn't been any record of you know human or tapir death because of human
02:01topic conflict you know when they are roaming in uh settlements or plantations yeah uh or even in in um
02:10uh carbon areas yeah but what we are of concern is actually the road kill statistics now between 2020 and
02:192024 alone uh uh there are between 23 to 25 individuals that have become victims of road kill annually yeah so
02:31so that is an alarming rate yeah and uh we know that these are because of the construction of roads and
02:39highways that parts through the habitat of the malayan tapir and these have contributed to increasing
02:45road kill incidences and among the highways which have high frequency uh road kills uh especially the east
02:53coast uh highways connecting uh pecan kuantan in pahang and koala terengganu these are generally in the lpt
03:01okay right yeah so so all road users who frequently use those roads to be extra careful when driving uh for
03:09to look out for these creatures can i just ask you uh dr evelyn just very quickly um talk to me about how
03:16important they are ecologically i understand the tapir is you know it's not a charismatic predator it's not
03:22a majestic um you know animal what it is to me but for most people it's overshadowed by other more majestic
03:30fauna ecologically though how important are they now malayan tapir are very important seed dispersers
03:38they are herbivores uh unlike some common misconception that they actually feed on insects
03:45just like the end eaters or pangolins uh they are actually are not of the same uh order they are
03:54actually from the odd tooth ungulates or we call them parisodactyla um generally they are herbivores
04:02so their favorite foods are actually uh you know leaves um you know um fruits uh which
04:10and they are quite generalist in terms of what they consume so because of that they are actually
04:15very important uh uh seed disperser and they are also very important in terms of regeneration of our
04:22forest right okay you mentioned a little earlier that forest fragmentation is a considerable threat to
04:30the malayan tapir talk to me a little bit about how that impacts the genetic diversity of tapir
04:37populations why it's important uh forest acknowledge what happens when their habitat is fragmented okay
04:45forest fragmentation actually results in the division of a large patch of forest and when that that
04:53happens uh the population of the malayan tapir or wildlife in general is also divided and separated from
05:01each other so uh this separation into smaller units make them very uh vulnerable to scholastic variables
05:10let's say in terms of the varietyness of diversity of uh genetic especially the good genetics for for
05:18reproduction uh they may face lack of mates inbreeding may even occur and reduce the strength in terms of
05:26their genetic quality dispersal issues may may be of concern and also more susceptible to diseases yeah
05:34right okay so um we if i understand correctly malaysia has a malayan tapir conservation action plan so we're
05:42aware aware that this is uh you know a real concern that we may be losing our malayan tapir to extinction um
05:51how effective do you think this action plan has been so far um the malayan topic action plan or medcap in
06:00shorter uh it's a 10-year uh period beginning from 2021 to 2030 but because of covet actually there was a delay in the
06:10implementation but uh we have actually uh identified or prioritized uh 16 outcomes and also 49 activities
06:20and these are actually ongoing yeah activities which have actually been uh been done even before the medcap
06:28plan was on um what is important is this uh uh this actually provides us a guidance of where you know the
06:37conservation strategy uh and initiatives of the malayan tapir should go to you know in the next 10
06:43years uh because you know um as a whole there are so many wildlife that we need to look into so and and
06:50various wildlife would have different needs and and uh issues to handle so for the malayan tapir you know
06:57what we have actually focused is that uh we want to focus on you know roadkill issues which is actually a
07:04main threat to the malayan tapir in this sense um in terms of habitat management it is very similar
07:11with other wildlife and it is an integration with other policies and plans uh we also see the importance
07:18of a research component in this uh medcap plan because we would like to have scientific data uh which
07:27helps us to make sound judgment yeah and decision making yeah and we also have sipa initiatives but
07:35what i think it is um what we really need to push through the agenda here is uh to push through the
07:42initiative of sipa activities uh uh to increase knowledge because there is a lack of knowledge and
07:49misconception on the million tapir there is a lack of concern of uh the million tapir you know i've been
07:56asking students and also public you know what do you think about the malayan tapir i don't feel
08:00anything you know i don't even feel like like loving it um you know generally it's because they do not
08:06know what what is tapir and they do not even know that we have tapir so the roles and the functions uh why
08:14do we have it in fact you know this tapir malayan tapir it's endemic to southeast asian region
08:21you know uh in uh we have four species in the world three other species are in central america
08:27and southern america and this is the the largest uh species of all the four the only one with black
08:34and white coloration so you know um in the the uh among the community uh research community of tapirs
08:43they are actually very intrigued by the malayan tapir because of unique features so i think this
08:48intrigueness we must actually spread among malaysian so that they actually you know appreciate the
08:53presence of the malayan tapir through the ecological functions that it actually provides yeah definitely
09:02a need to increase you know awareness campaign increase knowledge and love for this uh for for the
09:07malayan tapir named after our country um can can i also can i get you to elaborate dr evely when you talked
09:14about you know providing um real protection for the malayan tapir how would you go about addressing
09:21the roadkill issues as you listed uh earlier and also when you talked about recent uh needing a
09:26research component what is it that we still don't yet know or don't understand about the tapir what
09:32what areas require more research um for us to save the tapir uh in terms of research uh research of the
09:40malayan tapir uh have been very active in in the early 2000 right to maybe about 2010 and then it's
09:49sort of like slowed down and um you know towards the end towards 2020 there was a need for us to
09:56understand to get more updated data so these are actually uh important data like you know where is the
10:02distribution what is the existing population because we are actually just doing estimations at the moment
10:08based on the different wildlife surveys uh you know public complaints you know observations so you
10:15know having a full uh you know uh data on on where are these wildlife would really help us yeah in in
10:23determining um the the strategy and how do we conserve it and what is also of concern to us is those
10:31uh outside of protected areas because in protected areas the wildlife species is actually protected
10:37but more of these are actually coming out because of habitat degradation you know fragmentation uh
10:44therefore there is a need for us to know where are these locations of of um habit uh uh areas where
10:53the malay tapir goes um so that we can also do you know um consolidated uh activities to regenerate back
11:02the forest or activities with the community okay so to know where to target and to help where help is
11:08needed the most uh are you optimistic that we can still save the malayan tapir is there still hope
11:16well it is estimated currently in 2020 uh there are 700 to 800 malayan tapirs uh with this number i am
11:26optimistic that we can we can sustain it but um you know we have to work very hard yeah to ensure that
11:37our initiatives are well coordinated well integrated and the human dimension should also be looked into
11:46because when we talk about conservation we always talk about conservation of wildlife we forget that
11:51conservation is also about the people because it is the people yeah uh who are facing these issues and
11:59they are the one reacting and uh developing these conservation strategies so that is a component which
12:06i think we should uh also balance up with the technical science uh that provides the hard data that is
12:13needed for the scientific part of decision making dr evelyn thank you so much for joining me on the show
12:21today and for sharing your insights and also for your work in helping save the malayan tapir that wraps
12:27up this episode of consider this i'm melissa idris signing off for the evening thank you so much for
12:33thank you so much for watching and good night
12:43you
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