Staying aware and keeping wildlife officials informed of out-of-place creatures is key to a safe environment for people and animals alike.<\/p>\n
A 13-foot, 1,100-pound saltwater crocodile was spotted swimming around the bay of Pulau Lubukan, Malaysia, prompting proactive measures to avoid conflict.<\/p>\n
What’s happening?<\/p>\n
According to the Daily Express<\/a>, the Malaysian Civil Defence Force received a report of the reptile from worried villagers. They collaborated with and gave the carefully captured croc over to the local wildlife department to assess next steps.<\/p>\n Because of the quick actions of all involved parties, neither the animal nor any people were injured in the process.<\/p>\n However, the concern remains why such a creature came so close to human civilization when crocodiles typically avoid it.<\/p>\n Why is this important?<\/p>\n As habitats shrink because of ecosystem changes attributed to rising global temperatures, human-wildlife conflict increases.<\/p>\n While the situation in Malaysia was resolved without incident, other animals and people have not been so lucky.<\/p>\n Oftentimes, when fauna finds itself thrust out of its natural routine, especially prompted by human actions such as spreading infrastructure, environmental destruction, and pollution, it is confused and frightened.<\/p>\n Many animals that end up at odds with humans are not attacking out of hate, but rather, out of fear.<\/p>\n When negative human-wildlife interactions occur, both sides suffer unfair consequences.<\/p>\n It is crucial to understand that wildlife is meant to be wild and should be left alone by the average person. Approaching wild animals is never a safe bet and can provoke retaliatory actions toward those involved.<\/p>\n If wildlife is involved in an altercation, it is an unfortunate but common truth that it can be put down as a result, despite the issue being avoidable.<\/p>\n What’s being done about this?<\/p>\n To mitigate human-wildlife conflict, people must be aware of why they shouldn’t approach wild animals.<\/p>\n Keeping both parties safe is imperative, as is avoiding problematic interactions.<\/p>\n Whether it be something as seemingly innocuous as a chipmunk or as potentially intimidating as a crocodile, if someone ever sees a wild animal in a place it shouldn’t be, the best thing to do is call the proper authorities.<\/p>\n It also helps to be educated on critical climate issues<\/a> that are causing habitat loss, which in turn leads to further contact between people and wildlife.<\/p>\n By understanding the avenues humans pursue that push wild animals from their homes, the hope is that individuals can take small actions in their own environments to keep ecosystems habitable.<\/p>\n Get TCD’s free newsletters<\/a> for easy tips to save more, waste less, and make smarter choices \u2014 and earn up to $5,000 toward clean upgrades in TCD’s exclusive Rewards Club<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Staying aware and keeping wildlife officials informed of out-of-place creatures is key to a safe environment for people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[121220,121222,121221,61,60,13935,121219,15677,82,24936,263,67416],"class_list":{"0":"post-239040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-daily-express","9":"tag-human-actions","10":"tag-human-civilization","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-malaysia","14":"tag-malaysian-civil-defence-force","15":"tag-saltwater-crocodile","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-wild-animals","18":"tag-wildlife","19":"tag-wildlife-officials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}