The image of a mother elephant mourning her dead calf—killed by a lorry on a highway in Perak— has haunted Malaysians this week. It has forced the country to confront the cost of development when nature is in the way. But elephants aren’t the only victims. The Malayan tapir — shy, solitary, and just as iconic — is being pushed toward extinction. Since 2020, at least 112 have been killed by vehicles— often at night, on roads that cut through what’s left of their forest habitat. On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with I.S. Shanmugaraj Subramaniam
Executive Director of the Malaysian Nature Society.
Executive Director of the Malaysian Nature Society.
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NewsTranscript
00:00hello and good evening i'm melissa idris welcome to consider this this is the show where we want
00:16you to consider and then reconsider what you know of the news of the day malaysia has already lost
00:21our last sumatran rhino in 2019 and now we may be watching another gentle ancient species fade
00:30quietly into extinction the malayan tapir more than a hundred have been killed by vehicles since
00:37two since 2020 and they're often at night and on roads that cut through what's left of their forest
00:44habitat is there still hope that we can save the malayan tapir and what must be done before that
00:51window closes joining me now on the show is is sean mugaraj subramaniam who is the executive
00:57director of the malaysian nature society sean welcome to the show thank you for joining me
01:03this is a distressing statistic to learn that over a hundred malayan tapirs have been killed on roads in
01:10the last four years can you maybe begin our conversation by explaining why does this keep
01:15happening why do these slow gentle animals end up on roads and why can't we stop them from getting
01:23killed in road traffic collisions um yeah as we know uh our our forests you know is really shrinking to say
01:34and uh and uh and tapir they they they move around you know they cross in uh areas which uh uh open areas
01:46especially grassland and all and and most of the time when tapir comes you know across with a vehicle
01:53they just stay put you know they don't run yeah and in the in the wire as well you know when they they
02:01they see something bigger than them and all they just stay put and then they just don't move and then
02:07then slowly they will move you know this is it's a very slow moving uh animal in the forest and and and
02:15and tapir likes to you know fit on on uh plants so they go to forest age and they go to areas where there is
02:26openings in in in forest forest gaps and all and uh so they they got more than not mistaken 217 species of
02:36vegetation or or you know that they eat so uh so they they they cannot climb trees so they like to eat
02:45young shoots and young you know leaves and all and so that's why they come to the forest age so closer to
02:53yeah so sean can i just ask you about these um so our roads that cuts through forested areas
03:01and have them has there been consideration about them you know the migration the way animals move
03:07uh have we thought about wildlife crossings is that been built into the design of our roads
03:15is it we we have wildlife crossing in in few areas in the country uh but is it enough that one
03:21would not know and and as well as animals you know they when you build this type of crossing
03:30yeah maybe one time they will use but not regularly okay and uh if if the if their areas been disturbed
03:40for sure they will they will go to the nearest uh place you know roaming areas where they move in there
03:46is disturbance in these areas they will move uh and they will they will cross over roads and and and
03:53maybe plantations and maybe uh housing areas and and most and most of the time our our our roads
04:03are really crossing over uh huge landscapes and forest landscapes yeah beyond roadkill um what do you
04:12think are some of the main threats that that's really driving the lane tapir towards extinction are we how
04:18concerned are you what what indicators are you watching uh is the shrink of uh forest areas huge forest areas
04:27there's a lot of uh areas been open for uh you know everybody knows this this you know state revenue
04:36related to logging and all so and and uh so when there is opening of or there is disturbance in the forest
04:45and and this tapir starts to move around and they are not a very aggressive animal so they are very shy
04:53so sometimes they if there is a lot of uh disturbance and all they will they will just
04:58you know go away from that landscape and also food food source and if there is lacking of food source as
05:07well they will still move and if you see where where you know in the ecosystem uh you know trees grows
05:17vegetation grows certain high level and if you don't have elephants and around to you know break the the the
05:26open the the the dog the the vegetation so that the the more smaller creatures can feed along where the
05:33elephant moving moving ground areas so that's why we find across uh uh uh tapir starts to come out to
05:43housing areas and and this type of uh uh field areas yes so you said that you know they're they're shy
05:52they're not aggressive they're rarely seen they're slow moving they're gentle creatures they're not
05:59as um i would say if i may say they're not as iconic as the malayan tiger or the the elephant can i ask
06:08you why we should save the tapir what do we lose both ecologically and morally if we let this species vanish
06:17is it uh the malayan tapir the black and white you find in only in this region yeah even though there
06:29is uh uh the other species but the black and white species you find more in peninsula malaysia i think
06:36goes right up a bit to to thailand you know and vietnam a bit but then it's more towards in this
06:42peninsula that's why they call the malayan tapir you know so and uh uh when when and this species
06:52it's it's it's it's also related to the uh if not mistaken it was the horse family you know
07:01yeah yeah so i didn't know that and it's a very unique you know it's a very unique uh uh species
07:11and we have lost that i know and and to say like example we have certain states they are losing their
07:20wildlife as well in slango the biggest animal that they come across is only tapir
07:26okay okay we don't find uh elephant we don't find uh the sladang you know or even tiger in slango
07:38we only have tapir now and uh so other states also the same thing slowly uh you know when we have the
07:46the disturbance of of this uh habitat and this is where the species we lose this species and when we lose
07:54these species we there will be changes on the ecosystem as well all right uh so what what policy
08:04shifts have you seen to address this this isn't something that's happened overnight we've seen a
08:09decline in the malayan tapir population for several years now even the minister raised the worrying
08:15statistics i i mentioned at the beginning of the show about tapirs being killed by road accidents
08:22what policy shifts have you seen sean that um show that the state is the state both federal and state
08:30level um is serious about addressing the population decline yeah like like slango now they know that
08:37tapir is a very icon species and it becomes the the state the state species you know as tapir so for slango
08:44use the state uh what they call it animal and uh and as well as the the uh federal government has together
08:56with wildlife department they are looking at you know we have the tapir rehabilitation center in sungai
09:02doson and as well as the coming one that will be in negeri sembilan somewhere near kinaboy national park
09:09uh kinaboy forest reserve somewhere around there in in uh negeri sembilan so uh and they are looking at
09:17rehabilitation center but the other aspect is uh uh
09:24the habitat itself preserving the habitat this is where uh the the federal government is very strongly
09:31looking at uh more landscape to be uh uh protect that is what we are looking at we have the royal
09:40balloon we have the edda rompi national park and we we have the uh taman negara so but other places
09:49like the peat swamp you know we have to we have to have these these huge landscapes for this wildlife
09:56right so um what would you say would be the most urgent intervention right now i mean if we had to act
10:04as quickly as possible to protect the malayan tapir from um going extinct what would you like to see if
10:10you could push through one urgent intervention uh what would it be you see we have the forest reserve act
10:19but we also have the wildlife act not all forest reserve is wildlife act
10:28yes so like example taman negara yes we have taman negara we have double we have forest the whole area
10:34is uh is a is a permanent forest reserve and also is under the wildlife protection act
10:41so why not when we have the wildlife protection act which governance by the federal government
10:48so if we can have most of our important landscapes to be protected under the wildlife act which there is
11:00another that means you have double double law so either you protect the the trees and and and the whole
11:09ecosystem but we also need to protect the wildlife so this are this we already have the law we already
11:16have everything you just need to place it only the state government need to work with the federal
11:21government to it's a very it's a very straightforward thing if the state government says yes i protect
11:27this area together we have the forest reserve we protect with the wildlife act immediately it's it's a it's
11:34like a double protection in this landscape so so you're saying it's actually quite low hanging fruit it
11:40can be done uh what's stopping it from happening land when it comes to land is state matter so if if we
11:50have this double protection uh then anything they you know they have to get both parties to agree for
11:58opening land space like now states can open their land if they they just you know have their own uh
12:07discussion in the state level and they can just open the land for any development but if you have this
12:14double protection you will you start to protect yeah sean sean i have to ask you so you said that um
12:20you know selangor has made the tapir it's state uh icon it's state animal icon state mascot right is
12:26has that gone beyond just the cosmetic beyond just the superficial are they doing um are they acting on
12:33really protecting what has what they've made as their state animal icon uh yes they they are looking at
12:43uh these species they are they are trying to uh protect more uh landscape of of wildlife landscape
12:53because they know that they need to have huge areas for protection so the state is looking at it
13:00but uh all is how serious are there that is another thing that we have to look at
13:05okay well hopefully it's it's not too late before we lose this wonderful species sean thank you so
13:15much for joining me on the show and shedding some light on this really urgent and important matter i
13:20appreciate your time thank you that was is sean mugaraj subramaniam from mns there uh and that wraps up
13:27this segment of consider this we'll be back with more on the topic of saving the malayan tapir in just a few
13:32minutes stay tuned we'll be right back