The population of many of Malaysia's iconic wildlife species have fallen to critical levels. Under current conditions, just protecting habitat will likely be insufficient to assure their survival. BORA urgently advocates for a range of pro-active wildlife management approaches to be undertaken across mixed landscapes comprising forest and agricultural areas. To be successful, these initiatives call for the collaboration of plantation managers, experts, government, non-government organizations and local communities.
"The Malayan tiger population recovery programme cannot be sustained until and unless the tiger prey population is thriving. That means for every tiger, there are at least fifty sambar deer or wild pigs born annually within each tiger's home range - representing its annual food supply. Currently, this is not happening. Sambar deer have been almost wiped out from Malaysia's forests after more than a century of hunting by humans, and all the best sambar deer habitats are gone.
Meanwhile, African swine fever has decimated wild pig populations from much of the tiger's range. This is perhaps why tigers have ventured out of their forest refuge to prey on domestic animals. A point to remember is that sambar deer are not a species of closed canopy forests or of steep slopes. They need forest edges and flat lands to maintain breeding populations. One way to boost sambar deer populations is to develop and maintain grasslands, as grass provides nutritious food for sambar deer.
BORA is proud to be providing technical assistance and capacity building to boost the carrying capacity of the Al-Sultan Abdullah Royal Tiger Reserve for sambar deer and therefore for tigers. As part of the team convened by Enggang Management Services and the Pahang State Park Corporation, with funding from the European Union, BORA will be developing these essential grasslands. Future approaches may possibly include farming of deer or wild pigs for release at selected areas."
Farmers generally want to keep wildlife out of their property, but farms could help sustain populations of wildlife species that cause minimal damage to crops (or where the potential for damage could be mitigated) by providing space for feeding and for moving between protected areas. This would apply to oil palm, rubber and industrial tree plantations.
A mindset shift among big land-owners, at both corporate and estate management levels could lead to changes in land management which positively impact conservation. For example, there is a sparse population of Bornean orangutans in theKinabatangan region of Sabah, where 90% of the land is under oil palmplantationsthrough the landscape to mate withfemales living in scattered forest patches.
Work is already underway with partner oil palm plantations in Kinabatangan, Sabah, in conducting experimental habitat restoration in favour of orangutans. This is done by enriching riparian zones, slopes, infertile sites, High Conservation Value sites and other set-aside lands with orangutans’ favoured food plants. The experimental work is done by BORA as a component of the WWF Living Landscapes programme, funded by WWF-Malaysia/Unilever. The source of planting materials is primarily the Sabah Ficus Germplasm Centre.
In cases where the long-term survival of a species in its natural habitat has become untenable, it may be necessary to bring individuals together in managed enclosures with the goal of maximising birth rate. The priority should be to prevent extinction before overall numbers and adequate breeding success reaches a point of no return. The European bison, Arabian oryx, Californian condor and Black-footed ferret are just some examples of endangered species that would now be extinct if this approach had not been applied.
Hunting might not be the sole cause of disappearance of a species from a given area. It might be that the current small clusters of animals are in sub-optimal habitat or on infertile soils, or the habitat is now too small to support a breeding population. Despite prevailing concerns over poaching, past hunting might have wiped out a species in places where it could now survive and breed. It is generally safer to have several separate populations of endangered species rather than just one or two.
There are a number of challenges that will need to be considered. If the species is considered as dangerous or destructive, suitable locations will need to be selected to avoid conflict with human settlements. Other challenges include the availability of source animals risk of inbreeding if the founder group is to individuals of some species can adapt well to a new habitat; the details and logistics of the operation; post-translocation monitoring.
For a few species and a few places, rewilding maybe a vital option. In Malaysia, this will likely be necessary to prevent the extinction of the Malayan tiger. The process will be difficult - but not impossible.
Once dead, the genomes of numerous endangered animals are lost forever. Technology now exists to preserve them alive. In the future, wildlife biologists and governments will thank the pioneers who started collections of cells preserved forever in liquid nitrogen. In vitro fertilization and embryo transfer into healthy females is done routinely in some livestock species (as well as in humans) but not, so far, for wildlife. Culture of living mammal cells is routine in some laboratories. It is now technically possible to create gametes (sperm and egg cells) from mammal somatic cell cultures, and to create embryos. Gametes, embryos and cell cultures can be preserved
Bornean bearded pig is the only wild pig species in Borneo. Historically, and up to the present, it represented a major food source for inland rural human communities. Smoked wild boar meat became a feature of many Borneo roadside stalls in the 2000s. TheAfrican swine fever virus swept from north to south Borneo in 2021, wiping outmore than 90% of all bearded pigs within six months. Despite a common belief that this disease is transmitted only by ticks and touch, its spread is clearly airborne.
In 2023, a small cluster of fewerthan ten surviving pigs was found refuging in a low-lying 40-hectare forest patch in an enormous oil palm landscape in eastern Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, some 20 km from the nearest large forest. This was the backdrop to ‘Accelerating recovery of Bornean bearded pig’.
Threats:
Small numbers in any one place: One big (and often underestimated) threat to the surviving Bornean bearded pigs now is the array of risks associated with only very small numbers existing in any one place. Those risks include random demographical issues (such as too old to breed, skewed sex ratio, or only siblings remaining), return of the disease (no-one yet knows if the survivors are resistant) and excessive deaths from other potential causes such as illegal hunting or feral dogs. Without rapid recovery in health and numbers, the ‘small numbers’ threat will remain.
2. Poor nutrition: The surest way to recover health and numbers is to ensure sufficient daily nutrition for every pig. But that requirement is uncertain. In the project area, probably only fallen oil palm fruits offer sustained daily food. Competing macaque monkeys, rodents and other small mammals take much of what could potentially be bearded pig food in remaining forest patches. Harassment by feral dogs may also be a concern.
The idea: how to sustain this cluster and facilitate its recovery?
The solution: ensure the pigs have ample nutritious food. The foods provided from November 2024 to mid-2025 include fruits, seeds, roots, domestic pig pellets and supplementary mineral blocks.
Challenges: Firstly, rainfall was much higher and morecontinuous than normal from December 2024 to May 2025. The forest soil was continuously wet and often under water. Secondly, many other animal species came, day and night to feed on the foods put out for the pigs.
Thirdly, probably due to those factors, thepigs spent most of their time outside the forest, inside the oil palm plantation. As of now, there are believed to be 15 bearded pigs (10 are younger ones) in the project area, with the prospect of births of at least two mothersin September or October 2025.
Project benefits: A well-fed female Bornean bearded pig of a few years old can produce two litters per year with up to twelve young per birthing. Bornean bearded pig offers a good source of sustainably harvested meat for non-Muslims, as it has adapted to mixed landscapes, including those with extensive oil palm plantation. The project will not benefit local communities directly because the project area is historically devoid of human use.
Rather, we see it as the beginnings of a potential model for how to sustain and recover severely depleted clusters of pigs left isolated from the former widespread population. As rural people In Borneo tend to continue the well-established trend of moving to towns, of losing the habits and skills of producing much of their own food, and of assuming urban lifestyles, the interest in hunting wild animals in protected forests for meats and products for sale to international markets in general will tend to decline.
Borneanbearded pig has unique potential to recover and be sustained as part of the rural economy and society. It is a rare example of conservation as sustainable use of renewable natural resources, as explained in the 1980 IUCN-UNEP-WWF World Conservation Strategy.
An approach similar to that adopted under thisproject could also help to bring back wild pigs as the now ravaged main prey item of the endangered Malayan tiger.
"Operation Sumatran Rhino" which premiered in 2016 chronicled the desperate quest to find the last Sumatran rhinos in Sabah's forest in order to try to save this critically endangered species. Filmed over three years, the documentary captures the highs of finding a new rhino, and the suspense of moving her to the sanctuary in Tabin. For a short time, she kindled hope that it would be possible to revive the species. Alas, by 2019, the last of the rhinos in Malaysia passed away. "Operation Sumatran Rhino" was part of the Mission Critical series of documentaries which were featured on National Geographic; it was written and directed by Chris Annadorai and produced by Lydia Lubon. This version in BM may be viewed in full on the website.
