By Olivia Miwil
KOTA KINABALU: Haze and El Nino could disrupt Sabah's rainforest food chain, leaving wildlife facing prolonged food shortages, wildlife biologist Dr Wong Siew Te said.
He said Sabah had experienced a wildlife famine between 1999 and 2000, when prolonged fruit scarcity left sun bears and bearded pigs severely emaciated.
In his research paper, 'Impacts of fruit production cycles on Malayan sun bears and bearded pigs in lowland tropical forest of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo', Wong and his co-researchers documented a period of famine in Sabah's lowland tropical rainforest from August 1999 to September 2000.
The study found that all six Malayan sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) captured and fitted with radio collars were in poor physical condition, with two later found dead.
The physical condition of bearded pigs (Sus barbatus) that were captured, observed or recorded by camera traps also showed varying degrees of emaciation and starvation.
Wong's field observations showed that El Nino and abnormal weather conditions had disrupted the rainforest's normal fruiting cycles, resulting in prolonged food scarcity.
Among the key food sources are Ficus, or fig species, which can produce fruit outside major forest-wide fruiting events and serve as an important fallback food for wildlife.
"The 1999 famine provides a historical example of how abnormal climate conditions can affect Sabah's wildlife beyond direct heat or drought stress.
"If the current El Nino and dry conditions disrupt fruiting in the same way, wildlife could again face prolonged food shortages.
"People also need to understand that the haze will kill fig wasps. The local extinction of fig wasps will cause fig abortion. Fig abortion will mean there are no figs in the forest for wildlife to eat, as all fruit-eating animals depend heavily on figs in the forest," he said.
The Malaysian Meteorological Department has forecast that a "super" El Nino could affect Malaysia between October and November 2026 and persist into 2027.
As of press time, almost the entire island of Borneo was blanketed by thick smoke from forest fires.
Commenting on the choking haze, Wong said wildlife could also suffer respiratory complications similar to those experienced by humans.
An orangutan in Indonesia was reported to have died following exposure to smoke from a forest fire.
However, taking wildlife into captivity to minimise the effects of haze would not be a sustainable solution.
In Sabah, the wild sun bear population is unknown, although the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) currently cares for more than 40 rescued sun bears.
Sabah is home to about 11,000 orangutans, compared with an estimated 104,700 across Borneo, while the bearded pig population is declining due to African swine fever (ASF).
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