Wildlife Coservation in Bota Kanan

Back in the early stage of my blog, I have discusses about the wildlife conservation generally in the Malaysia perspective. In this entry I would like to discuss about the wildlife conservation in my hometown: The River Terrapin Conservation Centre in Bota Kanan. First of all, river terrapin is not a tiger. As the name suggest, it is actually a creature that live in the river. The river terrapin or its scientific name, Batagur Baska ia the native dweller in the beach along the Perak River, mainly near the Bota.

River Terrapin aka Tuntung

This creature resembles a lot like a turtles or tortoise. It lays its eggs in the sandy beach in a certain months in the year. It mainly a herbivore and its diet consist of the water spinach “kangkung” and the buah berembang which is easily available near the river. River terrapin also has become one of the main identities when people come to Bota Kanan as the population of this creature is said to be the largest in this area compare to the other location in Malaysia.

Tuntung Conservation Centre in Bota Kanan

However, due to the human activity in the Perak River, the population of this creature has decrease over the year. One of the reasons is the pollution in the river due to the logging activity in the upstream. When there is logging activity in the upstream, the mud from the logging area comes to the river during the rain. This has caused the river been polluted with the muddy water. The muddy water also affected the life of the river inhabitant such as fish, shrimp, and river muscles and of course the terrapin. Before I forgot, the local call this creature with “tuntung”.

Happy terappin in the pond. =)

Then, there is also the sand digging activity nearby which has caused much damaged to the terrapin habitat. Not only their habitat is actively shrinking over the years, the level of river also has become decrease and become warmer the deep of the river is now being exposed with the direct sunlight. The warmer water is not suitable for the young terrapin as they are very sensitive to the temperature changing.

The young terrapin also face serious threat from their major preys such as big fishes, predator birds, lizard and also human.  The human also take the young, premature eggs of terrapins to be eaten and is believed to have a good impact to their overall health based on their old believes.

Their precious eggs

To counter the issue, the Jabatan Perhilitan Malaysia have set up a wildlife conservation where in this place, the terrapin is collected and are protected from the human activity in its natural habitats. The centre also take an initiative to increase the population of the river terrapin by providing a specialized place for them to mates and produce the eggs that will be lay in the sandy pond. Once the egg is matured, the young terrapin wil be put in a separated pond to make them feels comfortable with the environment.

Tuntung's natural habitat. now being endangered.

In this centre, the young terrapin will be given some tags before they reach their suitable ages and released to the Perak River just like the sea turtles in Terengganu. The tags is functioned as the Ids for each terrapin so that the Jabatan Perhilitan would notice which one is the natural born and which one is born at the conservation centre. The data is very crucial as it reflects whether the works done by them are succeeded or not. Up to this day, the population of river terrapin in Perak River have increased even though there are many challenges to be faced. =)

“the harmony in the nature can only be achieved if we can coexist”