An update on the Setiu River egg protection program

Words cannot describe how I feel about the river terrapin egg protection program in the Setiu River this year.

This year in the Setiu River, we recorded a total of only 11 clutches of river terrapin eggs, compared to an average of 23 nests between 2004 and 2010. Of these 11 nests, we were able to purchase only 4 nests (a total of 93 eggs) for incubation between 12th February and 23rd February 2011. However, none of these eggs hatched.

In March 2011, a bout of heavy rain caused the nests undergoing incubation to be inundated. Makcik Lina, the local villager who was hired to monitor the incubation did not realize that the level of the flood water had reached the eggs, until the nests were excavated at the end of the incubation duration. As a result, all the eggs had gone bad.

Though the river terrapin conservation program had been carried out since 2004 in Kg. Mangkok, Setiu, the local villagers still preferred to eat the eggs rather than to sell them to the project. Various education and outreach programs had been carried out in the village but these programs did not change the attitude of the egg collectors. Students and children, on the other hand, were more receptive toward our programs and had responded well to them.