MELAKA: A stray tapir weighing about 250 to 290 kilogrammes was found on the fifth floor car park of a hotel in Banda Hilir here today before it was captured and relocated to Melaka Zoo.
State Department of Wildlife Protection and National Parks (Perhilitan) director Mohd Firdaus Mahmood said the process of capturing and transporting the animal by his department was conducted together with the Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) over four hours.
"Perhilitan has been observing and trying to locate the tapir for the past two weeks, which is believed to have strayed from its original habitat, which is the forest area in the north of Melaka bordering Negeri Sembilan and Johor.
"We also received information and calls about this tapir in several places but we were not able to track it until it was finally found today lost on the fifth floor, believed to have gone up to the top floor following the vehicle's route," he told reporters here today.
Commenting further, Mohd Firdaus said a total of ten members of Perhilitan were also dispatched to the scene and waited for the tapir to calm down and stabilised before it was captured in a confined space there.
He said the tapir also suffered minor injuries on its legs and was transferred to Melaka Zoo for treatment before being sent to the National Wildlife Rescue Centre (NWRC) in Sungkai, Perak.
Meanwhile, Melaka JBPM operations commander Senior Fire Officer II Sopian Hassan said his department received a distress call at about 9.04 am and eight firemen from Melaka Tengah Fire and Rescue Station were dispatched to the scene and added the operations ended at 2.30 pm.
