Half of tigers rescued from Thai temple have died, officials say

Inbreeding blamed as only 61 of 147 big cats survive after removal from tourist attraction

Agence France-Presse

Mon 16 Sep 2019 11.05 BST

More than half of the 147 tigers confiscated from a Thai temple have died, park officials have said, blaming genetic problems linked to inbreeding at the once money-spinning tourist attraction.

For years, the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple in the western province of Kanchanaburi attracted hordes of tourists who could be photographed – for a fee – next to scores of tigers.

But in 2016 park officials began a lengthy operation to remove the big cats amid allegations of mismanagement and claims the creatures were being exploited.

Dozens of dead cubs were found in freezers, sparking claims the carcasses were being sold by a temple rumoured to have raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds a year from visitors.

Tiger parts can fetch enormous sums in China and Vietnam, where some people falsely believe them to have medicinal properties.

The surviving adults were taken to two breeding stations in nearby Ratchaburi province but only 61 of the 147 have survived so far, parks officials said.

“It could be linked to inbreeding,” said Pattarapol Maneeon of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. “They had genetic problems which posed risks to body and immune system.”

Many suffered from tongue paralysis, breathing problems and lack of appetite that led to fatal seizures.

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Two tigers seized from traffickers every week, report finds

Closure of tiger farms among urgent steps needed to protect species, wildlife summit hears

Two illegally smuggled tigers per week are being seized by officials, according to a report, but this represents only a tiny fraction of those being killed.

The report, by the wildlife trade experts Traffic, was released at a summit of 183 countries under the Convention in the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), where many delegates have called for stronger action.

Traffic also found a surge since 2012 in seized carcasses, skins and bones from tiger farms. International trade in the species is banned, but the researchers said the captive-breeding facilities, mainly in China, undermine their protection by maintaining demand in domestic markets and enabling the laundering of wild tiger products.

There are fewer than 4,000 tigers in the wild but more than 7,000 in tiger farms, which sometimes masquerade as zoos. In 2016, more than 180 animals were seized at a tiger temple in Thailand.

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London Zoo Sumatran tiger Melati killed in fight

8 February 2019

An endangered Sumatran tiger has been killed by another tiger at London Zoo.

Male tiger Asim was brought to the zoo from a Danish safari park 10 days ago in the hope he would be the "perfect mate" for long-term resident Melati.

After spending time apart in the tiger enclosure to get used to the new arrangement, the two were then introduced to each other earlier.

But tensions "quickly escalated", things became "more aggressive" and Melati died in a fight, the zoo said.

A statement issued by the zoo said Asim was immediately moved to a separate paddock but despite the best efforts of the vets, 10-year-old Melati died.

It said: "Our focus right now is on caring for Asim, as we get through this difficult event."

Staff are "heartbroken by this turn of events", the zoo said.

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China's appetite for 'stinky' durian fruit threatening endangered tigers

Forests in the region of Raub in Malaysia are being burned and cleared to make way for durian plantations

The habitat of one of the world’s most endangered tigers is under threat, according to environmental groups, as forests in Malaysia are cleared to meet growing demand for durians, the divisively pungent fruit hugely popular in China.

Forests in the region of Raub in Malaysia, which has become a popular destination for Chinese and Singapore tourists on “durian tours”, are being burned and cleared to make way for plantations to grow the Musang King variety of the spiky but stinky fruit.

The land is home to the Malayan tiger, which is considered “critically endangered” with fewer than 300 left in the world. Environmental groups have said destroying their habit could have a “devastating” impact on the tigers’ survival.

World’s most controversial fruit may depend on giant bats for pollination

 

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Siti Zuraidah Abidin from WWF Malaysia said the Hulu Sempan area, where new plantations are planned, had been designated an “expected tiger habitat”. The area is adjacent to a protected area where most of the tigers live, she said. Malayan tigers are found only on the Malay Peninsula and in the southern tip of Thailand.

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Serial criminals could help save tigers

Date:  August 27, 2018

Source:  University of Kent

Summary:

A geographic profiling tool used to catch serial criminals could help reduce the casualties of human-tiger conflict, according to scientists who collaborated on an innovative conservation research study.

The results of their research, published in Nature Communications, help explain how villagers in Sumatra coexist with tigers. If used pre-emptively it could have helped cut attacks by half, saving tigers from poaching and retaliation killings.

Dr Matthew Struebig at the University of Kent's Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, in its School of Anthropology and Conservation and Dr Freya St. John at Bangor University, led a collaboration between spatial ecologists and social scientists to help predict where human-tiger conflict interventions could be most effective.

Tigers are on the brink of extinction due to deforestation and persecution. They are highly threatened and pose a public threat, but in Sumatra tigers continue to coexist with people, offering insights for managing dangerous wildlife elsewhere. Millions of conservation funds are spent each year trying to reduce people's risk of encountering harmful animals, and mitigating livestock losses of local farmers.

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Does the US have a pet tiger problem?

By James JeffreyAustin, Texas

11 June 2018

There may be more captive tigers in the US than wild ones in the rest of the world. But in states like Texas that bristle at government interference, no-one really knows how many are being kept as pets.

Taj was a four-month-old tiger cub when purchased at a Texas truck stop by the driver of an 18-wheeler lorry. But after Taj began tearing up the truck's cab, the driver contacted Austin Zoo to get the animal off his hands. The zoo now looks after the fully grown 17-year-old Bengal tiger male.

Taj is one of as many as 7,000 tigers living in the US either in zoos or privately owned, according to some estimates. That's nearly double the estimated 3,890 tigers still prowling in the wild around the world.

Many of America's tigers could be in people's backyards as pets, and often aren't registered, especially in states like Texas. No-one really knows just how many tigers there are out there.

At the heart of this surprising tiger turnout is the very American notion of a God-given right to do one's own thing, including owning a pet - no matter how exotic - being an individual liberty that the state should not mess with.

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Tigers cling to survival in Sumatra's increasingly fragmented forests

Date:  December 5, 2017

Source:  University of California - Berkeley

Summary:

A research expedition tracked endangered tigers through the Sumatran jungles for a year and found tigers are clinging to survival in low density populations. The study found that well-protected forests are disappearing and are increasingly fragmented: Of the habitat tigers rely on in Sumatra, 17 percent was deforested between 2000 to 2012 alone. Their findings have renewed fears about the possible extinction of the elusive predators.

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Kazakhstan to reintroduce wild tigers after 70-year absence

Project supported by WWF is likely to take many years and involves creation of nature reserve and restoration of forest

Sandra Laville

Friday 8 September 2017 08.52 BSTLast modified on Friday 8 September 2017 10.25 BST

Wild tigers are to be reintroduced to Kazakhstan 70 years after they became extinct in the country.

The animals will be reintroduced in the Ili-Balkhash region in a project that involves the creation of a nature reserve and the restoration of a forest that is part of the animal’s historical range.

If successful, Kazakhstan will be the first country in the world to bring wild tigers back to an entire region where they have been extinct for nearly half a century. Previous relocation projects have only been considered in existing tiger habitats, such as in reserves in India.

Poaching and habitat loss has decimated the wildlife on which wild tigers once fed, including the kulkan, or wild donkey, and bactrian deer, both native to central Asia. The animals will be reintroduced to the nature reserve to provide enough food for the tigers when they are relocated from elsewhere in Asia.

The project, which is being supported by WWF, is likely to take many years. The landscape has to be prepared and the wildlife they feed on reintroduced before the first tigers are brought in in 2025 at the earliest.

Igor Chestin, the director of WWF-Russia said: “Thanks to years of close collaboration between Kazakhstan and Russian conservation experts, we have now identified the best possible territory in Ili-Balkhash for the restoration of a thriving wild tiger population.

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Can’t we all just get along – like India’s cats and dogs?

Date: February 16, 2017

Source: Wildlife Conservation Society

A new WCS study in India shows that three carnivores -- tigers, leopards, and dholes (Asian wild dog) -- seemingly in direct competition with one other, are living side by side with surprisingly little conflict. Usually, big cats and wild canids live in different locations to avoid each other.

Yet in four relatively small reserves in India's wildlife-rich Western Ghats region, WCS researchers have found that they are co-existing, despite competing for much of the same prey, including sambar deer, chital, and pigs.

Using dozens of non-invasive camera traps for sampling entire populations, rather than track a handful of individuals, the research team recorded some 2,500 images of the three predators in action.

The authors found that in reserves with an abundance of prey, dholes, which are active during the day, did not come in much contact with the more nocturnal tigers and leopards. But in Bhadra Reserve where prey was scarcer, their active times overlapped, yet dholes still managed to avoid the big cats. In Nagarahole, a park teeming with all three carnivores and their prey, leopards actively to avoid tigers.

Overall, the authors say that these carnivores have developed smart adaptations to coexist, even while they exploit the same prey base. However, these mechanisms vary depending on density of prey resources and possibly other habitat features.

Said Ullas Karanth, WCS Director for Science in Asia and lead author of the study: "Tigers, leopards, and dholes are doing a delicate dance in these protected areas, and all are managing to survive. We were surprised to see how each species has remarkably different adaptations to prey on different prey sizes, use different habitat types and be active at different times. Because of small and isolated nature of these high prey densities in these reserves, such adaptions are helpful for conservationists trying to save all three."

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Research looks at importance of women's attitudes toward tigers in Nepal

Date: September 8, 2016

Source: Boise State University

The lion may be "king of the forest," but tigers are bigger, smarter, deadlier and can be found across an impressive range that includes India, Southeast Asia and Russia. And like lions, tiger populations are dwindling.

New research by Boise State's Neil Carter published in the journal Biological Conservation titled "Gendered perceptions of tigers in Chitwan National Park, Nepal," looks at how human perceptions of tigers affect how willing human communities are to coexist with these large predators, and particularly at how women's attitudes toward tigers differ from men's.

"Recently the field of wildlife conservation has focused on human dimensions, but has been lagging other disciplines in terms of understanding gendered differences in attitudes and behaviors," he said. "We know that women and men behave differently, and behaviors have conservation relevance. We wanted to find out what is driving that difference to help us understand ways to develop better conservation interventions."

The research was motivated by three basic challenges:

1. Because they spend more time in the forest gathering resources, women are at a greater risk then men of a tiger encounter. 2. Women tend to have more fears in general and more fear of wildlife in particular. 3. Compared to men, women tend to have less information and knowledge about conservation and wildlife.

Carter and his co-author Teri Allendorf of University of Wisconsin-Madison identified a number of ways that men and women view tigers differently and how these differences might affect tiger populations in Nepal. Identifying ways to address these challenges is vital because women have so much influence inside and outside of their families.

"Women have a lot of influence on a household as well as on each other," Carter said, noting their traditional role as nurturers as well as their more social natures. "They control what information their children access and this strongly impacts human behavior."

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