Rare hornbill rescued by SFC after public tip-off

SFC officers with the rare hornbill that was rescued.

MIRI: Public tip-offs on social media have led the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) to rescue a rare hornbill kept illegally by a resident of a village in the Limbang district in northern Sarawak.

The bird was traced to a house in Kpg Sayung in Limbang.

SFC chief executive officer Zolkipli Mohamad Aton said SFC received information from the public about the case on Sept 27 via social media.

"SFC has rescued a Black Hornbill after the public tipped us off about the bird being kept in the village.

"SFC deployed an enforcement team from Miri to Limbang and managed to trace the owner in Kpg Sayung.

"The owner said he had kept the hornbill in a cage since it was young.

"He claimed that he did not know where to surrender the bird.

"Our SFC team took possession of the hornbill after convincing the owner to surrender it.

"The rescued hornbill was found to be in good health and was released into a nature reserve," he said in a press statement on Sunday (Sept 29).

Zolkipli said SFC will continue its relentless drive to end poaching and trafficking of wildlife as well as illegal logging.

He thanked the public for giving good information that had led to numerous successful rescue of wildlife statewide.

Zolkipli warned that anyone who trap, catch and supply wildlife to buyers are also committing a serious crime.

"Anyone who hunts, traps, captures, kills, imports, exports, possesses, offers for sale and sells any totally protected and protected live animal or the body-parts is committing a serious crime.

"They can be fined between RM25,000 to RM50,000 and jailed between two to five years," he warned.

Members of the public who have information about these wildlife abuses are urged to alert the SFC hotlines immediately.

Kuching SFC hotlines are 019-8859996,016-8565564; Sibu 019-8190140,019-8894474; Bintulu 019-8223449,019-8332737; Miri 019-8224566 and 019-8290994.

There have been many complaints from locals and expatriates that many pet shops in Sarawak are selling animals in cruel, cramped conditions.

It is suspected that some of them are actually acting as fronts for the wildlife trade.

The Star learned that among those who frequently buy these wildlife in Miri are foreigners too.

They are from a neighbouring country who buy from these Miri pet shops and smuggle them across the border into Brunei.

These animals fetch thousands of Brunei dollars each as they are considered prized trophies by the rich people there.