Sabah to control croc population by culling

KOTA KINABALU: The culling and trapping of crocodiles will be carried out in areas where the reptiles have attacked human, the Sabah Wildlife Department says.

Department director Augustine Tuuga said rangers would be deployed to trap crocodiles in areas where the reptiles posed a danger.

He said crocodile hunting was allowed under the state’s Wildlife Protection Enactment 1997 but only a few licences had been issued as they were listed under Ap­­pendix I of the Convention on In­­ternational Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Sarawak downgraded crocodiles to Appendix II that allowed for the controlled trade of the reptiles during the Con­­ference of Parties last year. This allowed Sarawak an export quota of 500 crocodiles caught from the wild.

He said Sabah was seeking its own export quota of crocodiles but it would have to come up with a management plan for them .

Augustine said the department contacted wildlife research NGO Danau Girang Field Centre to do a study.

Kinabatangan MP Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin had called for the state to emulate Sarawak and allow hunting of the reptiles after a man and his 13-year-old son were killed in a crocodile attack along Sungai Kinabatangan on Mon­day.