The Malaysian Palm Oil Promotional Council (MPOC) has pledged a sum of RM300,000 for funding the setting up of a Mobile Wildlife Monitoring Unit in FMU 17A. This include the purchase of 1 unit 4WD vehicle and employment of supporting staff.

The main logging road (Yayasan Sabah/Maxland OP) which runs through Tangkulap Forest Reserve and part of Sg. Talibu Forest Reserve provide easy access to poachers. To curb illegal hunting, all usable in-roads into the forests are gated and scheduled ground patroling is carried out by the management of Deramakot Forestry District and FMU 17A range office.

With the advent of high tech monitoring tools such as the motion triggered high definition cameras for camera trapping and the high definition camcorders for night spotlighting, efforts were undertaken to have the current FMU 17A wildlife management system revamped and upgraded with the help of Dr Marc Ancrenaz, a renowned primatologist and wildlife expert in this part of the world.  He is currently working on and recommending the most practical methodology of wildlife monitoring to be used for FMU 17A.  Apart from that, the SFD is also in collaboration with the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research of Germany on a program of Biodiversity Monitoring covering 3 areas of various management regimes which are FMU 17A (Tangkulap & Sg. Talibu FR), FMU 19A (Deramakot FR) and Kuamut FR.  The research program is funded by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research of Germany which involves among others wildlife DNA fingerprinting with blood sucking leeches and camera trapping of rare mammals.

Through camera trappings and opportunistic sightings, 75 wildlife species have been identified. This shows that FMU 17A, although ecologically degraded in terms of its forests, is biologically rich in wildlife. The extremely vulnerable wildlife species that thrives in FMU 17A are: