A Chinese New Year gift for the Malayan Tiger

Dear Supporters,

Thanks to your generous support, this campaign has successfully raised USD1858 and will be closed shortly. It is a little far from the target, so we would like to use the amount to pay the community rangers to patrol the poaching hotspots instead.

I hope I can reach out for your support when we have another campaign in the future.

Stay safe and healthy, everyone!

Kae

Thank you to those who contributed recently!

The community rangers attended a 2-day workshop on how to identify and disarm snares by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks or PERHILITAN. In this workshop, PERHILITAN shared the different types of snares encountered by their snare experts over the years, different types of trigger mechanisms and the aim of each snaring technique.The rangers were also out in the field and were given the chance to disarm active snares set up as dummies by PERHILITAN. This hands-on practice is aimed to provide the community rangers with the confidence to disarm snares safely while they are on patrol. The rangers were taught on the safety procedures when encountering active snares as well as clues to identify who may have set up the snare.

All in all, it was an informative session thanks to PERHILITAN. Everyone was indeed very happy and lots of laughter and smiles were shared in the 2-day workshop! We hope to provide the rangers with more training in the near future to constantly improve our patrols.

Happy Lunar New Year everyone!

While the online campaigning is going on, our Community Rangers continue to patrol and recently found and disarmed 3 active wire snares and 1 artificial salt lick bait in one of our poaching hotspots.

This hotspot is an area adjacent to an unused logging road leading to the edge of the national park. A decade ago, MYCAT research team was finding a dozen of snares every month, but now thanks to CAT Walk, the poaching incidence has significantly reduced, and threatened wildlife are recovering. Due to the easy access, proximity to villages and a slim chance of being caught, the heinous act of poaching does not cease. We lost a clouded leopard to a poacher there 2 years ago and the vivid memory of remains of the beautiful animal found hanging from a snare haunt us to date. Attempts to close the logging road have foiled. Locks on the gates were vandalized multiple times, a ditch before the entrance was circumvented by trespassers, and our camera traps to monitor the human movement were stolen. Booby traps made of nails and a plank buried on the road (MYCAT vehicle is authorized to enter) by poachers flatten the Hilux’s tires and nearly hurt an aborigine barefooted.

Some people living nearby have been arrested and prosecuted for possession of snares and wild meat, but this culture of poaching is a way-of-life that will take a long time to change. Critically endangered wildlife can’t wait for cultural change, so we must continue our work of safeguarding the tigers and their forests. Every snare disarmed can be one tiger saved. We will not give up.

MYCAT is a small office of 6 staff members. We can’t do this important work without the help of CAT Walk volunteers and now Community Rangers who are paid to patrol the area.

Thank you to those who have contributed in your very own way. Every single action taken by you is much appreciated and we hope to continue this momentum!