Wildlboard caught on camera returning to the tabin Wildlife Park as African Swine Fever virus subsides.
KOTA KINABALU: Bearded pigs are beginning to reappear in Sabah's Tabin Wildlife Reserve after fears grew that the African Swine Fever (ASF) virus might wipe out the species in the state.
Conservationists with the Tabin wildlife reserve in Lahad Datu have spotted healthy bearded pigs, more commonly known as wild boar, within the reserve since early this year following a widespread die-off from the December 2020 outbreak.
Bring Back our Rare Animals (Bora) project manager Dr Zainal Zahari Zainuddin said camera traps captured healthy bearded pigs (Sus barbatus) in the Tabin wildlife area.
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The latest was spotted on July 17, he said, adding that it brought a sigh of relief after some thought that wild boars might have been wiped out by ASF, which had also crippled Sabah's pig farming industry.
"During our camera trap surveys in January, we started to see a small number (one to six) of bearded pigs at salt licks and riparian areas.
"The most recent (July) consisted of at least a dozen of them, with three males. All were in superb condition and sniffing the fresh air," he said.
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"The wild pigs made a good comeback, despite claims they would become extinct due to ASF," Dr Zainal said.
He said the deaths affected only the old and adults.
"No young pigs were seen clinically affected or dead from ASF. We don't know if the living Sus barbatus are carriers of ASF," he said, adding that they were still studying the impact and hoped to be able to tackle future outbreaks.
Some one dozen wildboars caught on camera in Sabah's Tabin Wildlife Park.
From observations, Dr Zainal said infected bearded pigs were mainly along the southern borders of Tabin Wildlife Reserve and immature pigs were surviving better than adults.
"Most surviving adults have moved into the better-quality forest away from the reserve border," he added.
Dozens of wild boars have died in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve since the outbreak.
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They were found by Bora volunteers rotting near ditches and drains. However, Dr Zainal said that strangely all were adult boars and sows, and none of the young appeared to have succumbed.
"It was also strange that the dead and rotting were not eaten by monitor lizards," he said, adding that volunteers saw some specimens weak and disoriented prior to dying.
"Some of the dead ones, we dusted with lime and buried in unmarked graves," he said, adding that the stench from the carcasses was obvious during their treks through the forest to set up camera traps and survey the Bornean Banteng.
"There were a lot of discussions on the Internet on the doom and extinction of Sus barbatus. In my mind, the wild pigs evolved 40,000 years ago in Borneo. I believe, over that (span of time), they have encountered epidemics and knew what exactly to do to survive," he added.
Bora experts speculate that the ASF virus might have been airborne when it affected the animals as there were few obvious modes of transmission from domestic pig sources into Tabin.
