![\"CLICK](\"https:\/\/apicms.thestar.com.my\/uploads\/images\/2026\/07\/03\/3989822.jpg\")
CLICK TO ENLARGE<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cAnother reason is people throw food in rivers, which can attract crocodiles. They begin to associate human food as their food,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Sai noted that there should be more awareness programmes so people know what to do when they spot a crocodile.<\/p>\n
She further advised that people shouldn\u2019t handle the crocodile but rather immediately report the sighting and let the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) handle the reptile.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Sabah there are so many crocodiles that encounters can happen almost every week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a crocodile is sighted at a beach, the area should be evacuated and monitored for three days,\u201d she said, adding that they don\u2019t roam around the same place for too long.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaptured crocodiles will be sent to crocodile farms. But Sabah needs more rangers, and Perhilitan officers should study more on the biology and movement of crocodiles in depth,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Malaysian Nature Conservation Organisation president Prof Dr Santharasekaran Subramaniam said crocodiles are increasingly appearing near human dwellings, including drains close to new housing projects.<\/p>\n
Hence, he stressed that public safety should come first.<\/p>\n
\u201cFishing activities should be avoided at night or early morning when food competition with crocodiles is highest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere should also be more signboards placed at fishing spots with reporting numbers and warnings against throwing leftovers into rivers\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a long-time conservationist who has been active for over 30 years and wished to remain anonymous said wildlife is getting the chance to return to the riverine system, and that it goes beyond crocodiles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen society is much more aware of the environment and does not hunt, wildlife stands a chance of coming back, and crocodiles are also part of the wildlife entourage that recovers.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example otters in Singapore, deer in the United States, and beavers in Britain, he said.\u201d<\/p>\n
He recalled that crocodiles were once common in Malaysia during the 1800s and early 1900s, but bounties placed on them later caused their numbers to drop sharply.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese animals date back to the time of the dinosaurs, making them some of the Earth\u2019s longest survivors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said if there is a sighting the best course of action would be to report to the relevant departments, namely Perhilitan in Peninsular Malaysia, the Sabah Wildlife Dept in Sabah and the Sarawak Forestry Corporation in Sarawak.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Sarawak state government has developed the Sarawak Croc Watch app to monitor crocodile sightings and manage human-crocodile conflicts,\u201d said the conservationist.<\/p>\n
He also advised the public not to approach crocodiles as they are not \u2018cute\u2019 and to refrain from feeding them.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo not keep wildlife as pets, as this contributes to their decline in the wild and also exposes pet owners to zoonotic diseases if the animals are not screened for viruses and others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PETALING JAYA: When a local fisherman in Sungai Lereh pulled a 10kg saltwater crocodile from his net on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,275587,40584,275589,80679,275586,275588,71634,149470,275590,66,323,7099],"class_list":["post-777611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-crocodile-sightings","tag-habitat-loss","tag-human-crocodile-conflict","tag-perhilitan","tag-polluted-rivers","tag-public-awareness","tag-sabah","tag-saltwater-crocodile","tag-sarawak-croc-watch","tag-science","tag-wildlife","tag-wildlife-conservation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}