KUANTAN — A three-year-old boy who was bitten by a monitor lizard on Pulau Tioman on Monday (Oct 7) had to be given 30 stitches for his wounds.

Faliq Iman Mohd Fadhirul Izwan, however, contracted an infection from the bite and has been given antibiotics.

His father, Mohd Fadhirul Izwan Mat Saridan, 34, said the doctor will be monitoring Faliq over the next few days and would discharge him once they were satisfied with his condition.

He said his son was still traumatised from the incident.

"He avoids talking about what happened to him. He keeps saying 'Aliq tak suka biawak.. biawak jahat' (Aliq doesn't like lizards... lizards are bad)," he said.

Mr Fadhirul hopes the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) will take action to avoid such incidents in the future.

Faliq was bitten on his foot by a 1.5m monitor lizard at a resort on the island where his father works.

The monitor lizard let go of its grip on Faliq's foot after the boy's father stepped on the reptile twice.

This was the second time such an incident occurred at the resort.

In 2014, an eight-month-old baby was injured after she was mauled by a monitor lizard.

Meanwhile, Perhilitan director Rozidan Md Yassin said he believed the monitor lizard did not view the child as a food source, but instead may have seen him as a potential threat or obstacle.

"I was told that the lizard had previously entered the resort looking for cats... maybe the reptile felt that the victim was blocking its path and in turn, bit him.

"We will carry out regular operations to control the population of reptiles on the island to avoid this from happening again," he said.

The last complaint made about the monitor lizards on the island happened on June 25 this year. An operation was carried out the same day.

Mr Rozidan advised residents not to provoke or disturb any wild animal in the area. Instead, they should contact the department immediately if any human-wildlife conflict occurred. NEW STRAITS TIMES