Wildlife Officers Bait Trap With Noodles, Bananas to Catch Giant Sun Bear
Wildlife officers in Prachuap Khiri Khan are using baited traps with noodles and bananas to capture a 25-kilogram sun bear that has eluded capture for over 12 hours near a eucalyptus forest.
Prachuap Khiri Khan's Protected Area Division 1 has deployed rapid-response teams to encircle and capture a 25-kilogram sun bear using a large cage hidden near the eucalyptus forest behind the victim's home, where claw and footprint evidence measuring 138–140 millimeters was found. After more than 12 hours of surveillance overnight, the bear has remained elusive and refused to enter the trap.
The area extends 5 kilometers from Khao Yai National Park boundaries but connects through dense forest where the animal can easily hide across hundreds of acres. Officials are employing olfactory science, knowing that bears' sense of smell is hundreds of times superior to humans'. Strategy phase one uses a fresh killed chicken combined with instant minced pork noodles, whose pungent oil-based seasoning carries scent hundreds of meters on the wind. Phase two adds overripe bananas and sweet fruit, since sun bears favor fatty food scraps, ripe fruit, and honey; the sweet aroma is designed to stimulate taste receptors and draw the hidden bear out to feed.
The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation has issued warnings to residents in Sapan Hin subdistrict and Nadi district, particularly within 5 kilometers of the forest edge, to avoid leaving home between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., especially near eucalyptus areas. Residents must clean animal enclosures, stop discarding food scraps or animal carcasses with pungent odors around homes, and absolutely must not harm or hunt the protected species.
