Preserving habitat, wiping poachers vital for tiger conservation
Mysore, Mar 30: Preserving the habitat and eliminating poachers is vital for tiger conservation as the striped beauties whose roar echoed through the jungles in the country are sliding into extinction and may soon meet the fate of 'cheetah.'
The latest tiger census results indicated that there are only 1,411 tigers in the country, compared to last census conducted in 1997, which accounted for 3,508 tigers. The 'status of tigers co-predators and prey in India,' released by the National Tiger Conservation Authority and Wildlife Institute of India (WII) Dehradun, could be imbibed in full measure and corrective measures incorported, sources in the forest department told UNI here.
Bandipur and Nagarahole National Parks stand out as examples of how a sustained conservation effort with equal measure of protection to minimise human interference in jungles, could help arrest the tigers' slide into extinction. These forests located at a distance of 80 km from Mysore and spread over Mysore-Chamarjanagara-Kodagu districts has the highest density of tigers in India, and were the best bet for their long-term conservation, the sources added.
The latest report stated that Bandipur and Nagarahole, along with Mudumalai and Wynad in Tamil Nadu and Kerala respectively, formed the largest contiguous stretch of forests, giving hope for tiger conservation. It was not that the habitat was not disturbed. There were highways cutting across the national parks, wherein poachers were active.
The sources said man-animal conflict on the fringes of the national parks had intensified and the prolifiration of fire-resistnat species such as 'lantana' had a direct impact on the food available for herbivores.
The population of predator animals such as tigers, leopards and dholes or Indian wild dogs was dependent on the healthy population of herbivores, including spotted deer and Gaur or Indian bison. It was a complex balancing act in which the key issue was to manage the habitat by reducing human interference and extensive patrolling to eliminate the menace of poachers.
http://www.newkerala.com/one.php?action=fullnews&id=41727
Monday, March 31, 2008
Tiger mating game with genetic horoscopes
A tiger plays with her cub at the Guwahati zoo. Picture by Eastern Projections
Tiger mating game with genetic horoscopes
Notorious Govardana out of contention in Bhopal sanctuary’s search for a ‘suitable boy’
Monday , March 31 , 2008
OUR BUREAU
Guwahati/Bhopal, March 30: A big fat tiger wedding is coming up at the Assam State Zoo.
The match has not been finalised yet, but it is almost certain that the Guwahati-based zoo will be giving away a “son” to a national park in Madhya Pradesh that has been looking for a suitable mate for one of its lonely tigresses.
When the proposal came from Bhopal’s Van Vihar National Park a few days ago, the zoo management wrote to the Central Zoo Authority immediately for permission to send one of its tigers to Bhopal for “conservation breeding”. Once that comes through, the tigress and its prospective mates will be genetically matched to find the ideal suitor.
Van Vihar National Park has five grooms to choose from, excluding the notorious Govardana, who teamed up with his current companion Divya to maul a visitor to death on December 19 when he got too close to their enclosure.
An official said Govardana, gifted to the zoo by Karnataka in 2005, would not be considered because his genetic profile was not available.
The zoo has nine tigers, six of them male. Aniruddha, Rajiv, Joy, Bipin and Raghav are in contention for the Bhopal proposal.
“We have eligible male tigers and will be happy to provide one for conservation breeding,” the divisional forest officer in charge of the zoo, Narayan Mahanta, said.
He said permission from the Central Zoo Authority was only a formality and “should not take much time”. The zoo will send the “complete life histories” of the five shortlisted tigers to Bhopal for the national park authorities to pick the one best suited for the tigress.
“We will decide how to send the selected tiger to Bhopal in consultation with the Chief Wildlife Warden,” Mahanta said.
The Central Zoo Authority’s rules for translocation stipulate that a tiger can be sent from one zoo to another or a national park in two ways.
The first is a “breeding loan” from one zoo to another that requires a male or female of the species to increase the population. Once the numbers go up, the recipient is required to reciprocate by returning one member of the species.
The second option is the normal exchange programme, under which zoos and national parks can give or accept tigers to maintain a balance.
The principal chief conservator of forests in Madhya Pradesh, P.B. Gangopadhyaya, said he was relieved to have found five prospective male suitors for one of the tigresses at Van Vihar.
“Our search is hopefully over,” he said.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080331/jsp/northeast/story_9075385.jsp
Tiger mating game with genetic horoscopes
Notorious Govardana out of contention in Bhopal sanctuary’s search for a ‘suitable boy’
Monday , March 31 , 2008
OUR BUREAU
Guwahati/Bhopal, March 30: A big fat tiger wedding is coming up at the Assam State Zoo.
The match has not been finalised yet, but it is almost certain that the Guwahati-based zoo will be giving away a “son” to a national park in Madhya Pradesh that has been looking for a suitable mate for one of its lonely tigresses.
When the proposal came from Bhopal’s Van Vihar National Park a few days ago, the zoo management wrote to the Central Zoo Authority immediately for permission to send one of its tigers to Bhopal for “conservation breeding”. Once that comes through, the tigress and its prospective mates will be genetically matched to find the ideal suitor.
Van Vihar National Park has five grooms to choose from, excluding the notorious Govardana, who teamed up with his current companion Divya to maul a visitor to death on December 19 when he got too close to their enclosure.
An official said Govardana, gifted to the zoo by Karnataka in 2005, would not be considered because his genetic profile was not available.
The zoo has nine tigers, six of them male. Aniruddha, Rajiv, Joy, Bipin and Raghav are in contention for the Bhopal proposal.
“We have eligible male tigers and will be happy to provide one for conservation breeding,” the divisional forest officer in charge of the zoo, Narayan Mahanta, said.
He said permission from the Central Zoo Authority was only a formality and “should not take much time”. The zoo will send the “complete life histories” of the five shortlisted tigers to Bhopal for the national park authorities to pick the one best suited for the tigress.
“We will decide how to send the selected tiger to Bhopal in consultation with the Chief Wildlife Warden,” Mahanta said.
The Central Zoo Authority’s rules for translocation stipulate that a tiger can be sent from one zoo to another or a national park in two ways.
The first is a “breeding loan” from one zoo to another that requires a male or female of the species to increase the population. Once the numbers go up, the recipient is required to reciprocate by returning one member of the species.
The second option is the normal exchange programme, under which zoos and national parks can give or accept tigers to maintain a balance.
The principal chief conservator of forests in Madhya Pradesh, P.B. Gangopadhyaya, said he was relieved to have found five prospective male suitors for one of the tigresses at Van Vihar.
“Our search is hopefully over,” he said.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080331/jsp/northeast/story_9075385.jsp
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Let sleeping tigers lie...
Let sleeping tigers lie...
In this photo provided by the Las Vegas News Bureau, a white tiger rests during a warm day at the Mirage resort's Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat in Las Vegas. Friday, March 28, 2008.(AP Photo/Las Vegas News Bureau, Darrin Bush)
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//080328/480/ba9780323bd94496875...
In this photo provided by the Las Vegas News Bureau, a white tiger rests during a warm day at the Mirage resort's Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat in Las Vegas. Friday, March 28, 2008.(AP Photo/Las Vegas News Bureau, Darrin Bush)
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//080328/480/ba9780323bd94496875...
Smile! Wild tiger gets Hollywood bling
Smile! Wild tiger gets Hollywood bling
March 28, 2008, 9:20
Dentists are now available to Amur tigers. One of the big cats named Lyutik has been operated on by a team of specialists from Russia's Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk to cure its toothache. And it left with a bit of bling.
The dentists set up a tented laboratory fitted out with the latest animal dentistry equipment. The surgeons filled the big cat’s cavities and replaced a decayed fang with a 25-centimeter long denture.
They even sprayed it gold to make the denture more durable and improve Lyutik's smile.
In the middle of the last century, the Amur tiger was on the brink of extinction. Back then no more than 40 remained in the wild.
Russian authorities along with many partners including the World Wildlife Fund joined efforts to restore tiger numbers.
There are about 65 animals in the population now but only 25 per cent are young tigers.
Still, the work is slowly paying off, the population has remained stable over the last decade.
http://www.russiatoday.ru/features/news/22754
Topeka Zoo’s tiger goes to Oklahoma
Raguno and brother Kavi
Topeka Zoo’s tiger goes to Oklahoma
The Capital-JournalPublished Friday, March 28, 2008 at 2:23 p.m. CDT
Raguno, the Topeka Zoo’s male Sumatran tiger, has moved to Oklahoma. Raguno, who came to Topeka in 2003 from Akron, Ohio, left Tuesday for Oklahoma City, where he will be paired with a female tiger for breeding and to increase genetic diversity within the captive population.
In the next couple of weeks, Topeka Zoo will receive three Sumatran tigers from the San Diego Zoo. They will be on exhibit sometime in late April.
Sumatran tigers are the smallest of the five subspecies of tigers, with males ranging from 250 to 270 pounds and 8 feet in length, while females weigh in at 180 to 200 pounds and are 7 feet in length.
Tigers in the wild are highly endangered due to poaching and habitat destruction with numbers falling below 400 animals.
http://cjonline.com/stories/032808/bre_tiger.shtml
Conserving the Sundarban tigers
Conserving the Sundarban tigers
Adam Barlow
Published On: 2008-03-29
The tiger is arguably the most magnificent and recognized of all animals, but is facing a very real risk of extinction in the wild. As human populations continue to soar, the tiger's forest home has reduced to about 7 percent of its former extent. This severe habitat destruction as well aspoaching and prey depletion has reduced tiger numbers to probably less than 5,000 worldwide. In Bangladesh, this same forest destruction means that less than 10 percent of the country remains forested and the Sundarbans makes up around half the remainder. The Sundarbans ecosystem is essential for human existence, supplying oxygen, absorbing greenhouse gases, regulating weather patterns, protecting the country from cyclones and securing sources of fish, golpatta, wood and honey. The tiger is an integral part of the Sundarbans ecosystem and its protection will also secure the protection of its forest home. The tiger is also the national symbol of Bangladesh and often referred to in the country's literature. Conserving the tiger both in its own right and as guardian of the Sundarbans, will therefore preserve a cultural icon and help protect humans and their livelihoods. So, if we understand the tiger's importance and the threats it faces then why do tiger numbers continue to plummet, and what can we do about it?
One option is to do nothing and hope that the problem will go away. This option will of course lead to the certain demise of tigers. Fortunately there is another approach and one employed by tiger conservation projects worldwide in an international effort to save the tiger. For tigers to have a fighting chance of survival we need to collect the necessary information to formulate and implement sound management decisions. Trying to manage a tiger population without any information is like trying to manage a business without any idea of: your customer's (tiger's) needs, how many customers (tigers) you have, what your rivals are doing (threats to tigers) or even if what you are doing is making a profit (counted by the number of tigers).
The fate of the Sundarbans' tiger population is jointly determined by the Forest Department, the local people that live next to and use the forest, and the general public. All have a role to play in being custodians of the forest and its biodiversity.
The Daily Star article by Sirajul Hossain entitled "Death of two tigers: Immature science in immature hands?" (22nd February, 2008) commented on the Sundarbans Tiger Project collaring activities and the use of the drug Telazol in tiger tranquilization. It also included criticisms of the use of snares, the use of cows as bait, the people involved and other project work . Unfortunately the article did not include available information on these issues that would help the Bangladesh people decide if collaring tigers is a useful management tool, and if Sundarbans Tiger Project is of benefit to tiger conservation in Bangladesh.
The Sundarbans Tiger Project is a joint venture between the Forest Department of Bangladesh and the University of Minnesota that has been set up to help ensure the long-term protection of tigers in Bangladesh. The project aims to achieve this goal through a combination of research, capacity building and conservation awareness. So far the project has successfully collared two Sundarbans tigers that provided valuable information on home range size, habitat requirements, behavior, movement patterns, predation rates and population carrying capacity. None of the tigers died or showed any abnormal behavior as a result of being collared, and through that research we now know that Sundarbans tigers may have some of the smallest home ranges of any wild tigers anywhere in the world. A small home range size means a high tiger density, which emphasizes the Sundarbans tiger population as globally important for the conservation of this species. In early 2007 the project carried out the first complete and scientifically sound survey of relative tiger abundance in the Sundarbans. This survey will be repeated every two years and changes in tiger abundance will be used as the measuring stick to evaluate if protection measures are working or require improvement.
As of January 2008 the project is conducting a prey survey to also start tracking changes in the deer population. The project has created the Forest Department Sundarbans Handbook which is being distributed for free along with training to every Forest Department personnel working inside the Sundarbans. The project's involvement with the BBC Ganges program and another program currently being filmed on tiger-human conflict is aimed at raising international awareness about tiger conservation issues in Bangladesh.
To raise further awareness, the project staff have given numerous talks to villagers, universities, government departments and the general public. Two new books are being made to be given out free to thousands of villagers; one book is aimed at children discussing some important aspects of tiger conservation, the other is aimed at general people living next to the Sundarbans and contains information on tiger behaviour, ecology and conservation. To deal with problem of tigers, the project is training Forest Department Tiger Response Teams to deal with man-eating and livestock killing to relieve economic hardship and unnecessary human misery for local communities and to decrease incidents where tigers are killed by villagers in retribution.
To address specific concerns raised about collaring, it is first important to consider that in any operation involving anesthesia, human operations included, there is a risk of death. In these situations we make a decision to proceed based on the risks of the anesthesia versus the benefits that the operation will bring. This is exactly the same decision made when anesthetizing a tiger in order to fit a collar; the benefits, in this case to the species, must outweigh the small risk posed by the tranquilization of the individual tiger. There are two main justifications of using collars. The first is to gather information on territory size, how many tigers an area can support, and what resources, like forest type and prey species, are important to ensure tiger survival. This information from collaring a few individual tigers can help conserve the entire population by guiding management strategy for protection and threat alleviation. For example a tiger project in Russia has used collaring data to help increase the tiger population from about 100 tigers to over 400 (http://www.wcs.org/ international/Asia/ russia/siberiantigerproject.The second reason is to save people, livestock and tigers by collaring problem tigers so that, by knowing where they are on a daily basis, we can help people avoid dangerous areas and stop the tiger entering a village where it is often killed. For example, in Kenya a project has used collars to greatly reduce the number of lions and livestock being killed in a very similar conflict scenario (www.lionconservation.org).
Several tiger range countries have already chosen to use collaring to help long-term management efforts to protect tigers. Collaring tigers has been going on since the 1970's when the first tiger was captured in Nepal. Since then over 100 tigers have been captured in collaring operations in countries such as India, Russia, Nepal and Thailand. If a country decides to use collaring, then it is necessary to use the best tools available considering the particular field conditions. For collaring, this includes consideration of how to catch the tiger and what drug to use.
The previous article presented some quotes and references that suggested Telazol was dangerous for tigers because it could cause death or in some cases damage to the central nervous system. The references used were either suggestions not to use Telazol or pointed to unnamed reports. None of these references, however, present any actual data to support the claim that either a single wild tiger has ever died or shown abnormal behaviour due to Telazol metabolism. To verify that either of these claims are true, one would expect to see some evidence gathered from either experiment or field experience. No such evidence was presented.
So why then do the quotes to which Sirajul referred mention there being danger associated with the use of Telazol in tigers? I posed the question to Dr Terry J. Kreeger, supervisor of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Veterinary Services Branch. Dr Kreeger is a renowned specialist in wild animal immobilization and has written the "Handbook of Wildlife Chemical Immobilization" kept regularly up to date with new findings from the field. Dr Kreeger has also published over 60 scientific peer reviewed papers, articles and reports on immobilization, animal physiology and disease. I supplied him with all the information on the two collared Sundarbans tigers together with a copy of the news article by Sirajul Hossain. Dr Kreeger's reply is below. Note that F1 is the short name of the first tiger collared in the Sundarbans "Jamtola Rani", F2 is the second "Chaprakhali Rani". The capitalizations are Dr Kreeger's own:
"Well, based on what information that I have, there is no way F1 died from being immobilized when the immobilization took place 6 months previously. There also does not appear to be any evidence that F2 died shortly after the second immobilization. Now, the bigger question is all the quotes saying that Telazol should not be used on tigers. Just last week, I was reading the chapter on felid immobilization in the new Zoo Animal & Wildlife Immobilization and Anesthesia book by West, Heard, and Caulkett (pages 443 and 445-446). In that chapter, the same warning about tigers and Telazol was given. I looked up the "references" for that warning and they provided no data. This whole "myth" started in the 1980's when a few tigers in zoos inexplicably died immediately (i.e., within an hour) or a few days after being given Telazol. As far as I know, there have been no studies in tigers to address this phenomenon. With that said, the warning about Telazol and tigers was included in the first and second editions of my Handbook of Wildlife Chemical Immobilization. However, I have been totally unable to secure first-hand references, reports, or other documentation that supports this warning. Most so-called reports are merely repeating previous undocumented claims. And of course, there have been no controlled research studies to examine the effect of Telazol on tigers. Being unable to verify or document that "post recovery neurological problems" have definitively been linked to Telazol or are even still observed these days (remember, Telazol has gone through a couple of formulation changes), I opted to drop the warning in the 2007 edition of the Handbook because it simply cannot be verified."
Dr Kreeger also mentioned that there is a report from Omaha Zoo by Armstrong who noted adverse effects on captive tigers from Telazol, but once again he could find no verifiable evidence to support the claim. Furthermore, although wild tigers have been darted in the wild since the 1980's with Telazol, there is no documented case I can find that records a death or adverse effects related to the drug's metabolism in the subject animal. For example in Nepal a total of 26 individual tigers were darted with Telazol (called CI-744 in the article) for a total of 50 times (Smith 1983). The following is an extract from the paper:
"Tigers had a wide tolerance for CI-744, and its overall performance appeared to be superior to other drugs used for large cats (King et al. 1977). We immobilized with dosages from 3.1 to 11.7 mg/kg (Table 1). The maximum used, 11.7 mg/ kg, was administered to an 86-kg male cub; the animal showed no signs of respiratory depression or loss of licking and blinking reflexes. It recovered (stood and moved into cover) within 5 hours."
"We found no evidence that darting or repeated dartings had adverse effects on either the behavior or physiology of tigers. After animals recovered from anesthesia, about 60 percent returned the same evening to feed on their bait-kill. No tiger altered its use of space or showed a change in either social or reproductive status. Three females immobilized in their last month of pregnancy subsequently bore litters and successfully raised them. One adult male captured during a mating association with an estrous female resumed this association within 12 hours." (Smith, J. L. D. 1983. A technique for capturing and immobilizing tigers. J. Wildl. Manage. 47:255-259.)
I have personally used Telazol to dart two tigers in Bangladesh and a further two tigers in Thailand. All tigers made full recoveries to their pre-tranquilized state, returned to the wild and continued their normal life in the jungle. Telazol is also a well established drug for immobilization in general and has been used on a wide range of animals including polar bears, horses, pigs, monkeys, ostriches, rabbits, leopard cats and leopards.
Sirajul's article also references Dr. Karanth's work in India:
"Dr. Ullas Karanth started tiger research in Nagorhole reserve forest in India using chemical immobilization and radio collaring. After the death of several tigers the Chief Wildlife Warden of India (same as our CCF) cancelled his permission for that fatal research."
In fact no tigers in Dr Karanth's study died from either capture, immobilization or collaring. [Karanth, K. U., and M. E. Sunquist. 2000. Behavioural correlates of predation by tiger (Panthera tigris), leopard (Panthera pardus) and dhole (Cuon alpinus) in Nagarahole, India. Journal of Zoology (London) 250:255-265.]
I would, however, point out that tigers have died during immobilization procedures but for reasons other than Telazol metabolism or snare injury. In 30 years of research there have been at least two deaths documented in Nepal and one in Indonesia, which would equate to an overall mortality rate for wild tiger capture of about 2 percent. So the risks are small and incomparable to the very real risk of letting the whole population of a species decrease because information is not available to manage them and their habitat correctly. Furthermore, a tiger's death should not be confused or connected to collaring unless that tiger died during the process which was not the case for either of the two Sundarbans tigers. The collars we used weigh 1.1 kg (or about 1% of the animal's body weight) and in over 30 years of collaring there have been no reports of collars affecting the survival or behaviour of tigers.
Tigers in the wild rarely live to more than 14 years old before they grow weak, unable to catch prey, and are forced out of their territories by younger stronger tigers. Both collared animals were old, approximately 12-14 years of age, when they were caught. Because of their age both tigers had broken and discoloured teeth. Jamtola Rani left her home range 5 ½ months after her collaring, presumably in response to another female tiger that took over her territory and she later died; a normal event for an old female. Chaprakhali Rani was recaptured 9 months after her collaring. She was weak because her bad teeth did not allow her to feed efficiently. She was released alive back into the jungle and observed for 3 consecutive days as she came back to feed off the same bait with which she was captured.
With reference to animal immobilization Sirajul's article also notes: "For wild animal the research is very difficult and often not permitted in most countries. Which is specially true for endangered and rare species" …"It struck in my mind that somewhere I read that tranquillizing wild tiger can be fatal to the animal and that's why it has been stopped in many countries and not permitted any more."
Firstly, the article does not list a single country that has stopped wild animal tranquilization. As anyone can discover through a brief internet search, immobilization of wild animals is a common practice in many countries. In fact, it is usually endangered species that receive more collaring attention to gather information to help save those species. There are projects catching, immobilizing and tracking tigers using collars right now in Russia, Thailand and India. Of particular note is the recent (December 2007) collaring of a female tiger in the Indian Sundarbans for research purposes, and they are busy trying to catch more.
With regards to snares, the Sirajul's article reads: "Traps and snares can injure tiger and that could be enough for the end of their life."
Common minor injuries from snaring include cuts or swollen feet but swelling goes down after removal of the snare and minor injuries will heal. The assertion that injuries sustained are enough to kill the animal is not backed up with any reference whatsoever and is not supported by experiences of researchers in the wild; there are no cases that I am aware of that document tigers dying as a result of snaring in the wild in Thailand, Russia or now Bangladesh.
A Russian study including 23 snare captures concluded, "We developed safe and effective capture techniques for Amur tigers despite their low density, large home ranges, and unpredictable movements….These techniques allowed us to launch a successful radio tracking program on a species whose secretive nature and dense habitat make them otherwise difficult to study." [Goodrich, John M. et. al.2001. Capture and Chemical Anesthesia of Amur (Siberian) Tigers, Wildlife Society Bulletin, Vol. 29, No. 2]
A study of the use of foot snares in Africa that caught 27 lions concluded that the method was both effective and safe: "Importantly, foot snares produced no significant detectable injuries in lions other than transient edema." (Frank, L. Simpson, D. Woodroffe, R. 2003. Foot snares: an effective method for capturing African lions. Wildlife Society Bulletin 31, 309-314.)
With regards bait, Sirajul stated "Researchers are using live cow as bait, which can infect wild species with new disease." However, Sirajul fails to mention a disease that he thinks is either present in the domestic cow population, or has ever been documented as spreading to wild tigers. More importantly, Sirajul did not mention that tigers already kill many domestic animals every year in the villages bordering the Sundarbans. If there is a disease present in the domestic cow population that could spread to the wild tiger population then it would have done so already. In any case, the project vaccinated cows used as bait away from human habitation.
"Dr. Karanth and many of his foreign partners seem very eager to tranquillize wild tigers maybe want to finish their incomplete research which failed in India. The tiger radio collaring project in Bangladesh was motivated by the group of experts who are very keen to do research where getting the permission for it is easier. In an interview with the famous Indian technology magazine "Dataquest" Karanth said in June 2007: "The biggest issue in use of technology, say radio telemetry or chemical immobilization, is the problem of getting research permissions."
First of all, tiger collaring for research has not "failed" in India. Collaring operations have been carried out in Panna, Nagarahole, Khana, Ranthambore and continue on the Indian side of the Sundarbans, where a tiger was collared just recently. Secondly, the article is questioning the motivations of Dr. Karanth and his '"foreign partners" (who are, by the way, not listed). This, I think, is an unnecessary attack aimed at Dr. Karanth who is an internationally renowned tiger scientist and who last year was awarded the Getty prize for lifetime contribution in tiger research and conservation. In any case, Dr. Karanth is not presently working on tiger conservation in Bangladesh, so it is hard to understand why he was included in the article.
"But even after inflating the project paradigm in such a vast forest like the Sundarbans, the project working manpower remained the same -- the PhD student Adam Barlow, one forest guard, one speedboat driver and three helpers who had no prior experience and no considerable education."
We have core staff of two trained Wildlife Technicians who have now 3-4 years of experience working on tiger research in the Sundarbans and the project is proud of the fact that they are local people, one of whom despite losing his brother to a tiger, remains dedicated to the cause.
After all, it is the local people who are living with tigers on a daily basis. I am unaware of anyone else with as much field experience conducting tiger research in the Sundarbans than these two staff members. The project staff work closely with Forest Department staff such as CF's DFO's, ACFs and Foresters and all operations are overseen by Forest Department officials. We also have volunteers and staff from the environmental departments of Bangladeshi universities.
"Many local people reported and in the BBC film "Ganges" it was commented that both the tigers showed abnormal behaviour and there were reports of attacking people."
The "many local people" mentioned are neither named nor verified. The Ganges program does not mention any abnormal behaviour resulting from any collaring operation and the BBC themselves wrote to The Daily Star to correct this misinformation.
"Even the first tiger jumped over Dr. Tapan Kumar Dey, DFO and his team when they were trying to photograph it collaring. They jumped on the nearby pond to save themselves in Kochikhali."
I assume that this is in reference to an incident where the tiger growled at some Forest Department staff that got too close whilst taking a photograph. This was a mistake, but neither the people or the tiger were harmed in any way. Furthermore, the incident was not during the collaring, the tiger did not jump over anyone, and Dr Tapan Kumar Dey, DFO was not one of the party!
"Thick canopy like the Sundarbans may also impair GPS function and can put a lot of void in data."
Collars include both GPS (satellite) and radio technology so that location data can be collected via satellite and also directly in the field via handheld radio receivers. Approximately 650 and 1500 GPS locations of each tiger were collected respectively. This is more than adequate for analysis purposes and the results are currently being written up in detail.
"The same research can be done with camera trapping (like Trail Master). Camera trapping is allowed everywhere and used worldwide without any harmful effect on the species for similar research."
The aspect of research to which the sentence refers is not stated. With regard to tiger research in general, however, in some scenarios camera trapping can give data on tiger abundance, but the technique has been already carried out on the Indian side of the Sundarbans and was assessed as impractical for use in this habitat type. (Karanth, K. U., and J. D. Nichols. 2000. Ecological status and conservation of tigers in India. Final technical report to the US fish and wildlife service, Washington DC, and Wildlife Conservation Society, New York. Center for Wildlife Studies, Bangalore, India.)
To conclude and based on the available evidence, it is useful to answer the following questions: Is there a risk to individual tigers from collaring? I would say absolutely, but the risks are very small. Will the whole tiger population suffer if management is lacking information collected from collaring? I would say definitely. In cases of human-tiger conflict, will people and tigers suffer if collaring is not used as a management tool? I would say undoubtedly. India, Russia, and Thailand continue to use this tool to further tiger conservation. If we choose not to use collaring then we also choose to accept continued loss of livestock, people and tigers.
I hope, for the sake of the tigers, that there will be no further unbalanced attacks the media that are at best divisive and at worse damage tiger conservation. It is much easier to criticize other people's efforts to save the tiger than to create solutions or come to work in the forest to help save tigers. While we debate tiger darting in the newspapers for example, more cows and dogs have been killed in Chandpai where we were trying to collar a problem tiger. The same tiger has killed over 60 domestic animals and one person. Livestock depredation by tigers is common in the eastern Sundarbans and man-eating is rampant in the West. Surely these kinds of issues deserve more attention in the newspapers. As recorded by the BBC news regarding Sirajul's article "According to Raghu Chundawat, a Delhi-based wildlife scientist who is not connected to the project, any long-term suspension of the radio-collar programme would be a "disaster" for the Sundarbans, and doubts about the safety of the drugs are "absolute nonsense"." What does it achieve to attack people's efforts to conserve tigers in the press? I think that the Forest Department's efforts to save the Sundarbans tigers should be highly commended. The tigers' only hope is that people can work together in a constructive way and I ask the Bangladesh people to unite behind tiger conservation before it is too late."
Adam Barlow is with the Sundarbans Tiger Project
The full referenced article is available on www.sundarbanstigerproject.info
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=29772
Adam Barlow
Published On: 2008-03-29
The tiger is arguably the most magnificent and recognized of all animals, but is facing a very real risk of extinction in the wild. As human populations continue to soar, the tiger's forest home has reduced to about 7 percent of its former extent. This severe habitat destruction as well aspoaching and prey depletion has reduced tiger numbers to probably less than 5,000 worldwide. In Bangladesh, this same forest destruction means that less than 10 percent of the country remains forested and the Sundarbans makes up around half the remainder. The Sundarbans ecosystem is essential for human existence, supplying oxygen, absorbing greenhouse gases, regulating weather patterns, protecting the country from cyclones and securing sources of fish, golpatta, wood and honey. The tiger is an integral part of the Sundarbans ecosystem and its protection will also secure the protection of its forest home. The tiger is also the national symbol of Bangladesh and often referred to in the country's literature. Conserving the tiger both in its own right and as guardian of the Sundarbans, will therefore preserve a cultural icon and help protect humans and their livelihoods. So, if we understand the tiger's importance and the threats it faces then why do tiger numbers continue to plummet, and what can we do about it?
One option is to do nothing and hope that the problem will go away. This option will of course lead to the certain demise of tigers. Fortunately there is another approach and one employed by tiger conservation projects worldwide in an international effort to save the tiger. For tigers to have a fighting chance of survival we need to collect the necessary information to formulate and implement sound management decisions. Trying to manage a tiger population without any information is like trying to manage a business without any idea of: your customer's (tiger's) needs, how many customers (tigers) you have, what your rivals are doing (threats to tigers) or even if what you are doing is making a profit (counted by the number of tigers).
The fate of the Sundarbans' tiger population is jointly determined by the Forest Department, the local people that live next to and use the forest, and the general public. All have a role to play in being custodians of the forest and its biodiversity.
The Daily Star article by Sirajul Hossain entitled "Death of two tigers: Immature science in immature hands?" (22nd February, 2008) commented on the Sundarbans Tiger Project collaring activities and the use of the drug Telazol in tiger tranquilization. It also included criticisms of the use of snares, the use of cows as bait, the people involved and other project work . Unfortunately the article did not include available information on these issues that would help the Bangladesh people decide if collaring tigers is a useful management tool, and if Sundarbans Tiger Project is of benefit to tiger conservation in Bangladesh.
The Sundarbans Tiger Project is a joint venture between the Forest Department of Bangladesh and the University of Minnesota that has been set up to help ensure the long-term protection of tigers in Bangladesh. The project aims to achieve this goal through a combination of research, capacity building and conservation awareness. So far the project has successfully collared two Sundarbans tigers that provided valuable information on home range size, habitat requirements, behavior, movement patterns, predation rates and population carrying capacity. None of the tigers died or showed any abnormal behavior as a result of being collared, and through that research we now know that Sundarbans tigers may have some of the smallest home ranges of any wild tigers anywhere in the world. A small home range size means a high tiger density, which emphasizes the Sundarbans tiger population as globally important for the conservation of this species. In early 2007 the project carried out the first complete and scientifically sound survey of relative tiger abundance in the Sundarbans. This survey will be repeated every two years and changes in tiger abundance will be used as the measuring stick to evaluate if protection measures are working or require improvement.
As of January 2008 the project is conducting a prey survey to also start tracking changes in the deer population. The project has created the Forest Department Sundarbans Handbook which is being distributed for free along with training to every Forest Department personnel working inside the Sundarbans. The project's involvement with the BBC Ganges program and another program currently being filmed on tiger-human conflict is aimed at raising international awareness about tiger conservation issues in Bangladesh.
To raise further awareness, the project staff have given numerous talks to villagers, universities, government departments and the general public. Two new books are being made to be given out free to thousands of villagers; one book is aimed at children discussing some important aspects of tiger conservation, the other is aimed at general people living next to the Sundarbans and contains information on tiger behaviour, ecology and conservation. To deal with problem of tigers, the project is training Forest Department Tiger Response Teams to deal with man-eating and livestock killing to relieve economic hardship and unnecessary human misery for local communities and to decrease incidents where tigers are killed by villagers in retribution.
To address specific concerns raised about collaring, it is first important to consider that in any operation involving anesthesia, human operations included, there is a risk of death. In these situations we make a decision to proceed based on the risks of the anesthesia versus the benefits that the operation will bring. This is exactly the same decision made when anesthetizing a tiger in order to fit a collar; the benefits, in this case to the species, must outweigh the small risk posed by the tranquilization of the individual tiger. There are two main justifications of using collars. The first is to gather information on territory size, how many tigers an area can support, and what resources, like forest type and prey species, are important to ensure tiger survival. This information from collaring a few individual tigers can help conserve the entire population by guiding management strategy for protection and threat alleviation. For example a tiger project in Russia has used collaring data to help increase the tiger population from about 100 tigers to over 400 (http://www.wcs.org/ international/Asia/ russia/siberiantigerproject.The second reason is to save people, livestock and tigers by collaring problem tigers so that, by knowing where they are on a daily basis, we can help people avoid dangerous areas and stop the tiger entering a village where it is often killed. For example, in Kenya a project has used collars to greatly reduce the number of lions and livestock being killed in a very similar conflict scenario (www.lionconservation.org).
Several tiger range countries have already chosen to use collaring to help long-term management efforts to protect tigers. Collaring tigers has been going on since the 1970's when the first tiger was captured in Nepal. Since then over 100 tigers have been captured in collaring operations in countries such as India, Russia, Nepal and Thailand. If a country decides to use collaring, then it is necessary to use the best tools available considering the particular field conditions. For collaring, this includes consideration of how to catch the tiger and what drug to use.
The previous article presented some quotes and references that suggested Telazol was dangerous for tigers because it could cause death or in some cases damage to the central nervous system. The references used were either suggestions not to use Telazol or pointed to unnamed reports. None of these references, however, present any actual data to support the claim that either a single wild tiger has ever died or shown abnormal behaviour due to Telazol metabolism. To verify that either of these claims are true, one would expect to see some evidence gathered from either experiment or field experience. No such evidence was presented.
So why then do the quotes to which Sirajul referred mention there being danger associated with the use of Telazol in tigers? I posed the question to Dr Terry J. Kreeger, supervisor of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Veterinary Services Branch. Dr Kreeger is a renowned specialist in wild animal immobilization and has written the "Handbook of Wildlife Chemical Immobilization" kept regularly up to date with new findings from the field. Dr Kreeger has also published over 60 scientific peer reviewed papers, articles and reports on immobilization, animal physiology and disease. I supplied him with all the information on the two collared Sundarbans tigers together with a copy of the news article by Sirajul Hossain. Dr Kreeger's reply is below. Note that F1 is the short name of the first tiger collared in the Sundarbans "Jamtola Rani", F2 is the second "Chaprakhali Rani". The capitalizations are Dr Kreeger's own:
"Well, based on what information that I have, there is no way F1 died from being immobilized when the immobilization took place 6 months previously. There also does not appear to be any evidence that F2 died shortly after the second immobilization. Now, the bigger question is all the quotes saying that Telazol should not be used on tigers. Just last week, I was reading the chapter on felid immobilization in the new Zoo Animal & Wildlife Immobilization and Anesthesia book by West, Heard, and Caulkett (pages 443 and 445-446). In that chapter, the same warning about tigers and Telazol was given. I looked up the "references" for that warning and they provided no data. This whole "myth" started in the 1980's when a few tigers in zoos inexplicably died immediately (i.e., within an hour) or a few days after being given Telazol. As far as I know, there have been no studies in tigers to address this phenomenon. With that said, the warning about Telazol and tigers was included in the first and second editions of my Handbook of Wildlife Chemical Immobilization. However, I have been totally unable to secure first-hand references, reports, or other documentation that supports this warning. Most so-called reports are merely repeating previous undocumented claims. And of course, there have been no controlled research studies to examine the effect of Telazol on tigers. Being unable to verify or document that "post recovery neurological problems" have definitively been linked to Telazol or are even still observed these days (remember, Telazol has gone through a couple of formulation changes), I opted to drop the warning in the 2007 edition of the Handbook because it simply cannot be verified."
Dr Kreeger also mentioned that there is a report from Omaha Zoo by Armstrong who noted adverse effects on captive tigers from Telazol, but once again he could find no verifiable evidence to support the claim. Furthermore, although wild tigers have been darted in the wild since the 1980's with Telazol, there is no documented case I can find that records a death or adverse effects related to the drug's metabolism in the subject animal. For example in Nepal a total of 26 individual tigers were darted with Telazol (called CI-744 in the article) for a total of 50 times (Smith 1983). The following is an extract from the paper:
"Tigers had a wide tolerance for CI-744, and its overall performance appeared to be superior to other drugs used for large cats (King et al. 1977). We immobilized with dosages from 3.1 to 11.7 mg/kg (Table 1). The maximum used, 11.7 mg/ kg, was administered to an 86-kg male cub; the animal showed no signs of respiratory depression or loss of licking and blinking reflexes. It recovered (stood and moved into cover) within 5 hours."
"We found no evidence that darting or repeated dartings had adverse effects on either the behavior or physiology of tigers. After animals recovered from anesthesia, about 60 percent returned the same evening to feed on their bait-kill. No tiger altered its use of space or showed a change in either social or reproductive status. Three females immobilized in their last month of pregnancy subsequently bore litters and successfully raised them. One adult male captured during a mating association with an estrous female resumed this association within 12 hours." (Smith, J. L. D. 1983. A technique for capturing and immobilizing tigers. J. Wildl. Manage. 47:255-259.)
I have personally used Telazol to dart two tigers in Bangladesh and a further two tigers in Thailand. All tigers made full recoveries to their pre-tranquilized state, returned to the wild and continued their normal life in the jungle. Telazol is also a well established drug for immobilization in general and has been used on a wide range of animals including polar bears, horses, pigs, monkeys, ostriches, rabbits, leopard cats and leopards.
Sirajul's article also references Dr. Karanth's work in India:
"Dr. Ullas Karanth started tiger research in Nagorhole reserve forest in India using chemical immobilization and radio collaring. After the death of several tigers the Chief Wildlife Warden of India (same as our CCF) cancelled his permission for that fatal research."
In fact no tigers in Dr Karanth's study died from either capture, immobilization or collaring. [Karanth, K. U., and M. E. Sunquist. 2000. Behavioural correlates of predation by tiger (Panthera tigris), leopard (Panthera pardus) and dhole (Cuon alpinus) in Nagarahole, India. Journal of Zoology (London) 250:255-265.]
I would, however, point out that tigers have died during immobilization procedures but for reasons other than Telazol metabolism or snare injury. In 30 years of research there have been at least two deaths documented in Nepal and one in Indonesia, which would equate to an overall mortality rate for wild tiger capture of about 2 percent. So the risks are small and incomparable to the very real risk of letting the whole population of a species decrease because information is not available to manage them and their habitat correctly. Furthermore, a tiger's death should not be confused or connected to collaring unless that tiger died during the process which was not the case for either of the two Sundarbans tigers. The collars we used weigh 1.1 kg (or about 1% of the animal's body weight) and in over 30 years of collaring there have been no reports of collars affecting the survival or behaviour of tigers.
Tigers in the wild rarely live to more than 14 years old before they grow weak, unable to catch prey, and are forced out of their territories by younger stronger tigers. Both collared animals were old, approximately 12-14 years of age, when they were caught. Because of their age both tigers had broken and discoloured teeth. Jamtola Rani left her home range 5 ½ months after her collaring, presumably in response to another female tiger that took over her territory and she later died; a normal event for an old female. Chaprakhali Rani was recaptured 9 months after her collaring. She was weak because her bad teeth did not allow her to feed efficiently. She was released alive back into the jungle and observed for 3 consecutive days as she came back to feed off the same bait with which she was captured.
With reference to animal immobilization Sirajul's article also notes: "For wild animal the research is very difficult and often not permitted in most countries. Which is specially true for endangered and rare species" …"It struck in my mind that somewhere I read that tranquillizing wild tiger can be fatal to the animal and that's why it has been stopped in many countries and not permitted any more."
Firstly, the article does not list a single country that has stopped wild animal tranquilization. As anyone can discover through a brief internet search, immobilization of wild animals is a common practice in many countries. In fact, it is usually endangered species that receive more collaring attention to gather information to help save those species. There are projects catching, immobilizing and tracking tigers using collars right now in Russia, Thailand and India. Of particular note is the recent (December 2007) collaring of a female tiger in the Indian Sundarbans for research purposes, and they are busy trying to catch more.
With regards to snares, the Sirajul's article reads: "Traps and snares can injure tiger and that could be enough for the end of their life."
Common minor injuries from snaring include cuts or swollen feet but swelling goes down after removal of the snare and minor injuries will heal. The assertion that injuries sustained are enough to kill the animal is not backed up with any reference whatsoever and is not supported by experiences of researchers in the wild; there are no cases that I am aware of that document tigers dying as a result of snaring in the wild in Thailand, Russia or now Bangladesh.
A Russian study including 23 snare captures concluded, "We developed safe and effective capture techniques for Amur tigers despite their low density, large home ranges, and unpredictable movements….These techniques allowed us to launch a successful radio tracking program on a species whose secretive nature and dense habitat make them otherwise difficult to study." [Goodrich, John M. et. al.2001. Capture and Chemical Anesthesia of Amur (Siberian) Tigers, Wildlife Society Bulletin, Vol. 29, No. 2]
A study of the use of foot snares in Africa that caught 27 lions concluded that the method was both effective and safe: "Importantly, foot snares produced no significant detectable injuries in lions other than transient edema." (Frank, L. Simpson, D. Woodroffe, R. 2003. Foot snares: an effective method for capturing African lions. Wildlife Society Bulletin 31, 309-314.)
With regards bait, Sirajul stated "Researchers are using live cow as bait, which can infect wild species with new disease." However, Sirajul fails to mention a disease that he thinks is either present in the domestic cow population, or has ever been documented as spreading to wild tigers. More importantly, Sirajul did not mention that tigers already kill many domestic animals every year in the villages bordering the Sundarbans. If there is a disease present in the domestic cow population that could spread to the wild tiger population then it would have done so already. In any case, the project vaccinated cows used as bait away from human habitation.
"Dr. Karanth and many of his foreign partners seem very eager to tranquillize wild tigers maybe want to finish their incomplete research which failed in India. The tiger radio collaring project in Bangladesh was motivated by the group of experts who are very keen to do research where getting the permission for it is easier. In an interview with the famous Indian technology magazine "Dataquest" Karanth said in June 2007: "The biggest issue in use of technology, say radio telemetry or chemical immobilization, is the problem of getting research permissions."
First of all, tiger collaring for research has not "failed" in India. Collaring operations have been carried out in Panna, Nagarahole, Khana, Ranthambore and continue on the Indian side of the Sundarbans, where a tiger was collared just recently. Secondly, the article is questioning the motivations of Dr. Karanth and his '"foreign partners" (who are, by the way, not listed). This, I think, is an unnecessary attack aimed at Dr. Karanth who is an internationally renowned tiger scientist and who last year was awarded the Getty prize for lifetime contribution in tiger research and conservation. In any case, Dr. Karanth is not presently working on tiger conservation in Bangladesh, so it is hard to understand why he was included in the article.
"But even after inflating the project paradigm in such a vast forest like the Sundarbans, the project working manpower remained the same -- the PhD student Adam Barlow, one forest guard, one speedboat driver and three helpers who had no prior experience and no considerable education."
We have core staff of two trained Wildlife Technicians who have now 3-4 years of experience working on tiger research in the Sundarbans and the project is proud of the fact that they are local people, one of whom despite losing his brother to a tiger, remains dedicated to the cause.
After all, it is the local people who are living with tigers on a daily basis. I am unaware of anyone else with as much field experience conducting tiger research in the Sundarbans than these two staff members. The project staff work closely with Forest Department staff such as CF's DFO's, ACFs and Foresters and all operations are overseen by Forest Department officials. We also have volunteers and staff from the environmental departments of Bangladeshi universities.
"Many local people reported and in the BBC film "Ganges" it was commented that both the tigers showed abnormal behaviour and there were reports of attacking people."
The "many local people" mentioned are neither named nor verified. The Ganges program does not mention any abnormal behaviour resulting from any collaring operation and the BBC themselves wrote to The Daily Star to correct this misinformation.
"Even the first tiger jumped over Dr. Tapan Kumar Dey, DFO and his team when they were trying to photograph it collaring. They jumped on the nearby pond to save themselves in Kochikhali."
I assume that this is in reference to an incident where the tiger growled at some Forest Department staff that got too close whilst taking a photograph. This was a mistake, but neither the people or the tiger were harmed in any way. Furthermore, the incident was not during the collaring, the tiger did not jump over anyone, and Dr Tapan Kumar Dey, DFO was not one of the party!
"Thick canopy like the Sundarbans may also impair GPS function and can put a lot of void in data."
Collars include both GPS (satellite) and radio technology so that location data can be collected via satellite and also directly in the field via handheld radio receivers. Approximately 650 and 1500 GPS locations of each tiger were collected respectively. This is more than adequate for analysis purposes and the results are currently being written up in detail.
"The same research can be done with camera trapping (like Trail Master). Camera trapping is allowed everywhere and used worldwide without any harmful effect on the species for similar research."
The aspect of research to which the sentence refers is not stated. With regard to tiger research in general, however, in some scenarios camera trapping can give data on tiger abundance, but the technique has been already carried out on the Indian side of the Sundarbans and was assessed as impractical for use in this habitat type. (Karanth, K. U., and J. D. Nichols. 2000. Ecological status and conservation of tigers in India. Final technical report to the US fish and wildlife service, Washington DC, and Wildlife Conservation Society, New York. Center for Wildlife Studies, Bangalore, India.)
To conclude and based on the available evidence, it is useful to answer the following questions: Is there a risk to individual tigers from collaring? I would say absolutely, but the risks are very small. Will the whole tiger population suffer if management is lacking information collected from collaring? I would say definitely. In cases of human-tiger conflict, will people and tigers suffer if collaring is not used as a management tool? I would say undoubtedly. India, Russia, and Thailand continue to use this tool to further tiger conservation. If we choose not to use collaring then we also choose to accept continued loss of livestock, people and tigers.
I hope, for the sake of the tigers, that there will be no further unbalanced attacks the media that are at best divisive and at worse damage tiger conservation. It is much easier to criticize other people's efforts to save the tiger than to create solutions or come to work in the forest to help save tigers. While we debate tiger darting in the newspapers for example, more cows and dogs have been killed in Chandpai where we were trying to collar a problem tiger. The same tiger has killed over 60 domestic animals and one person. Livestock depredation by tigers is common in the eastern Sundarbans and man-eating is rampant in the West. Surely these kinds of issues deserve more attention in the newspapers. As recorded by the BBC news regarding Sirajul's article "According to Raghu Chundawat, a Delhi-based wildlife scientist who is not connected to the project, any long-term suspension of the radio-collar programme would be a "disaster" for the Sundarbans, and doubts about the safety of the drugs are "absolute nonsense"." What does it achieve to attack people's efforts to conserve tigers in the press? I think that the Forest Department's efforts to save the Sundarbans tigers should be highly commended. The tigers' only hope is that people can work together in a constructive way and I ask the Bangladesh people to unite behind tiger conservation before it is too late."
Adam Barlow is with the Sundarbans Tiger Project
The full referenced article is available on www.sundarbanstigerproject.info
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=29772
A Unique Book about Amur Tiger is Published in Primorye
A Unique Book about Amur Tiger is Published in Primorye
Saturday, March 29 2008, 07 PM
The monograph is based on observing the predators for many years
VLADIVOSTOK, March 28, vladivostoktimes.com The monograph is devoted to the Amur Tiger, the master of Ussuri taiga, and contains the recommendations on its preserving in the wild life. The author of the book Galina SALKINA, the senior staff scientist of Lazo nature reserve named after Kaplanov, researched and proved many aspects of this predator ecology; the "Vladivostok" newspaper reports.
G. SALKINA has been working in the reserve for 27 years and for 20 years she has been researching the ecology of the Amur tiger. She is a follower of the Russian zoologists' school that researches the animals in their environment without forcing them. The monograph "Amur Tiger and its biocoenotic connection in the south-east of Sikhote Alin" is based on observing the predators for many years. The research work aims at revealing the ecological relationships of the Amur tiger and hoofed mammals, its potential victims. Besides, the author recommends the ways of preserving the predator listed in the Red Book, pointing out that the most efficient way to preserve the Amur tiger is to preserve it in the nature reserve.
Galina SALKINA is the author and co-author of about 50 research articles. Today she is searching for the opportunity to publish her work. She hopes that there are people who can assist her in publishing the monograph. Especially as nowadays the problem of preserving the population of the Amur tiger is being paid much attention to. So, last year two national parks - "Call of the Tiger" and "Udege Legend" were created in Primorye; they assist to preserve the striped predator. The Governor Sergey DARKIN in his report on development of the Primorsky Territory in 2007 and the tasks for 2008 promised that "there will be a tiger not only on the Primorsky Territory emblem but also in its native habitat."
http://vladivostoktimes.ru/show.php?id=23443&r=26&p=
Saturday, March 29 2008, 07 PM
The monograph is based on observing the predators for many years
VLADIVOSTOK, March 28, vladivostoktimes.com The monograph is devoted to the Amur Tiger, the master of Ussuri taiga, and contains the recommendations on its preserving in the wild life. The author of the book Galina SALKINA, the senior staff scientist of Lazo nature reserve named after Kaplanov, researched and proved many aspects of this predator ecology; the "Vladivostok" newspaper reports.
G. SALKINA has been working in the reserve for 27 years and for 20 years she has been researching the ecology of the Amur tiger. She is a follower of the Russian zoologists' school that researches the animals in their environment without forcing them. The monograph "Amur Tiger and its biocoenotic connection in the south-east of Sikhote Alin" is based on observing the predators for many years. The research work aims at revealing the ecological relationships of the Amur tiger and hoofed mammals, its potential victims. Besides, the author recommends the ways of preserving the predator listed in the Red Book, pointing out that the most efficient way to preserve the Amur tiger is to preserve it in the nature reserve.
Galina SALKINA is the author and co-author of about 50 research articles. Today she is searching for the opportunity to publish her work. She hopes that there are people who can assist her in publishing the monograph. Especially as nowadays the problem of preserving the population of the Amur tiger is being paid much attention to. So, last year two national parks - "Call of the Tiger" and "Udege Legend" were created in Primorye; they assist to preserve the striped predator. The Governor Sergey DARKIN in his report on development of the Primorsky Territory in 2007 and the tasks for 2008 promised that "there will be a tiger not only on the Primorsky Territory emblem but also in its native habitat."
http://vladivostoktimes.ru/show.php?id=23443&r=26&p=
Tiger attack victim arrested as theft suspect
You Are Not Forgotten Beautiful Girl...
Tiger attack victim arrested as theft suspect
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, March 29, 2008
(03-28) 16:09 PDT San Leandro - -- The younger of two brothers who survived a Christmas Day tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo was arrested on suspicion of trying to steal two video game controllers from a San Leandro store, police said Friday.
Paul Dhaliwal, 19, hid two Nintendo Wii controllers in his pants at the Target store at the Bayfair Center mall about 6:30 p.m. Thursday, San Leandro police Lt. Tom Overton said.
Store security officer Michael Marucut, dressed in plain clothes, told authorities that he witnessed the theft and followed Dhaliwal as he walked past the cash registers, "never making an attempt to pay for the concealed items," the police report said.
Once Dhaliwal walked outside the store, Marucut and several other security officials confronted him. Dhaliwal "was uncooperative and immediately began to resist," Marucut wrote in a statement included in the police report.
Dhaliwal was subdued and placed under citizen's arrest. Officer Warren DeGuzman arrived and took Dhaliwal into custody. After he was read his rights, Dhaliwal "admitted to selecting and concealing the merchandise," DeGuzman wrote in his report.
But Dhaliwal said he never left the store with the items, the police report said.
Dhaliwal, whose scars from the tiger attack are still visible on his head, was arrested for petty theft, Overton said. Dhaliwal posted $1,500 bail shortly before 3 p.m. Friday, police said.
The incident at Target happened on the same day the brothers filed a claim against the city of San Francisco, seeking unspecified monetary damages in connection with the tiger attack. A message left for Paul Dhaliwal wasn't returned.
The alleged shoplifting incident isn't his first brush with the law.
In February, both he and his brother, Kulbir Dhaliwal, 24, who also survived the tiger attack, were in court to seek the personnel records of San Jose officers who arrested them after they scuffled with police on Sept. 7. But at a hearing Friday, the defense withdrew that motion, said Stuart Scott, a Santa Clara County deputy district attorney. An attorney for Paul Dhaliwal did not return a call for comment.
After that incident, both men were charged with public intoxication and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors. Paul Dhaliwal was also charged with misdemeanor battery on a police officer.
The brothers were arrested after they allegedly refused to cooperate with officers who reported seeing them chase two men down the street, according to police reports.
Paul Dhaliwal is accused of hitting an officer in the chest with his forearm as the officer tried to restrain him, leading to the battery charge. He stopped resisting only when an officer held a stun gun to his neck and threatened to use it, according to a police report.
Kulbir Dhaliwal cursed at officers while kicking the security partition in a squad car, forcing police to pull him out and put him in leg restraints, the police report states.
In February, Paul Dhaliwal pleaded not guilty to marijuana possession after being cited Dec. 21 for allegedly having 1.8 grams of pot in his pocket while in the parking lot of a Milpitas hotel.
He had been placed on probation three days before that incident after pleading no contest to felony reckless driving and other charges for leading police on a 140 mph chase on April 28, court records show.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/28/MNSSVSB9R.DTL&tsp=1
Chennai hosts art exhibition to save tiger
Chennai hosts art exhibition to save tiger
Sanjay Pinto
Saturday, March 29, 2008 (Chennai)
NDTV's recent campaign to save the tiger has received different strokes of support in Chennai.
A tiger painting at an exhibition of modern art wasn't the odd piece framed. On the contrary its what made most heads turn.
That's because young artists decided to put their brushes where their signatures were.
''I was really inspired. I've signed but the sign is not much. But giving publicity to my view of saving tiger by painting in which is what am good at. If could compose a song, I would do it,'' said Subiksha Rangarajan, student, Stella Maris College.
And from another part of the state came a painting from a standard four student with the message don't the let tiger go the dinosaur way.
Also Read
Centre formulates plan to save tigers
MLAs in Andhra join NDTV's tiger campaign
PM thanks NDTV for tiger campaign
Corbett Park supports Save Tiger campaign
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080045341
Sanjay Pinto
Saturday, March 29, 2008 (Chennai)
NDTV's recent campaign to save the tiger has received different strokes of support in Chennai.
A tiger painting at an exhibition of modern art wasn't the odd piece framed. On the contrary its what made most heads turn.
That's because young artists decided to put their brushes where their signatures were.
''I was really inspired. I've signed but the sign is not much. But giving publicity to my view of saving tiger by painting in which is what am good at. If could compose a song, I would do it,'' said Subiksha Rangarajan, student, Stella Maris College.
And from another part of the state came a painting from a standard four student with the message don't the let tiger go the dinosaur way.
Also Read
Centre formulates plan to save tigers
MLAs in Andhra join NDTV's tiger campaign
PM thanks NDTV for tiger campaign
Corbett Park supports Save Tiger campaign
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080045341
Friday, March 28, 2008
Tiger Cubs Debut at Macon Festival
Tiger Cubs Debut at Macon Festival
Last Update: 3/27/2008 7:04:52 PM
Author: Evan Pinsonnault
Web Editor: Kari Webb
Ossira, Ravi and Sahib.
Those are the three new stars at the 2008 Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon.
They're entertainers, but they don't sing. They're performers, but they don't dance.
"They're baby Bengal tigers, two striped and one white," said trainer Mike Inks. "There's only about 20 snow-white tigers in the world, so it's pretty special to have a baby at this year's festival."
Before making their big debut this weekend, the baby tigers played with toy balls and wrestled each other in their own "playpen" cage.
"We're hoping everyone will want to come out and see them this year," said Inks. "They're each 7-months old, native to India, and very fun to watch."
13WMAZ's Junior Journalist Rebecka Bence was the first member of the media in the world to see the three baby Bengal tigers, according to Inks.
"I thought they were amazing... something I've never seen before or will ever forget," said Rebecka. "I think people will be very surprised at how big they look for babies."
You can see the baby Bengals this weekend and throughout next week at Central City Park.
The Cherry Blossom Festival runs from Friday, March 28 to Sunday, April 6.
http://www.13wmaz.com/news/local_story.aspx?storyid=50659
Last Update: 3/27/2008 7:04:52 PM
Author: Evan Pinsonnault
Web Editor: Kari Webb
Ossira, Ravi and Sahib.
Those are the three new stars at the 2008 Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon.
They're entertainers, but they don't sing. They're performers, but they don't dance.
"They're baby Bengal tigers, two striped and one white," said trainer Mike Inks. "There's only about 20 snow-white tigers in the world, so it's pretty special to have a baby at this year's festival."
Before making their big debut this weekend, the baby tigers played with toy balls and wrestled each other in their own "playpen" cage.
"We're hoping everyone will want to come out and see them this year," said Inks. "They're each 7-months old, native to India, and very fun to watch."
13WMAZ's Junior Journalist Rebecka Bence was the first member of the media in the world to see the three baby Bengal tigers, according to Inks.
"I thought they were amazing... something I've never seen before or will ever forget," said Rebecka. "I think people will be very surprised at how big they look for babies."
You can see the baby Bengals this weekend and throughout next week at Central City Park.
The Cherry Blossom Festival runs from Friday, March 28 to Sunday, April 6.
http://www.13wmaz.com/news/local_story.aspx?storyid=50659
Forest fire engulfs tiger reserve
Forest fire engulfs tiger reserve
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Nagpur: A devastating forest fire has engulfed around 100 sq km of forests and wildlife area in Melghat-Gugamal tiger reserves in Amravati district, approximately 250 km from here.
The areas that have been badly affected were: Dhakna, Wan, Sonala and Somthana forest ranges of the region. Sources said most of the forest officials, particularly middle-ranking and senior personnel, have been on leave since March 21. "The absence of staff has affected fire fighting efforts. Even incessant drizzle over the last two days, it has not helped us in any way to bring the fire under control," an official said.
The Forest Department said the area destroyed in the fire would be anything between 2,000 and 2,200 hectares of forestland.
A noted environmentalist, who visited the spot told Hindustan Times, on conditions of anonymity, that more than 50 sq km has been destroyed in the fire. "The fire continues to rage in most parts even on Tuesday evening. Not only have we lost forest areas but several species of wildlife were also affected," he said.
Environmentalist and secretary of Satpuda Foundation, Kishore Rithe, pointed out that almost all incidents of fire were man-made. "Some were done intentionally and some due to negligence. We have also witnessed incidents of fire due to carelessness of people who collect forest produces, particularly during the season when they collect Tendu leaf," Rithe said.
BS Hooda, field director of Melghat Tiger project, however, said only 2,100 hectares of forests were destroyed due to the fire. "We are trying our level best to extinguishing the fire," he said and claimed that the fire affected a small area of the tiger project.
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1308288
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Nagpur: A devastating forest fire has engulfed around 100 sq km of forests and wildlife area in Melghat-Gugamal tiger reserves in Amravati district, approximately 250 km from here.
The areas that have been badly affected were: Dhakna, Wan, Sonala and Somthana forest ranges of the region. Sources said most of the forest officials, particularly middle-ranking and senior personnel, have been on leave since March 21. "The absence of staff has affected fire fighting efforts. Even incessant drizzle over the last two days, it has not helped us in any way to bring the fire under control," an official said.
The Forest Department said the area destroyed in the fire would be anything between 2,000 and 2,200 hectares of forestland.
A noted environmentalist, who visited the spot told Hindustan Times, on conditions of anonymity, that more than 50 sq km has been destroyed in the fire. "The fire continues to rage in most parts even on Tuesday evening. Not only have we lost forest areas but several species of wildlife were also affected," he said.
Environmentalist and secretary of Satpuda Foundation, Kishore Rithe, pointed out that almost all incidents of fire were man-made. "Some were done intentionally and some due to negligence. We have also witnessed incidents of fire due to carelessness of people who collect forest produces, particularly during the season when they collect Tendu leaf," Rithe said.
BS Hooda, field director of Melghat Tiger project, however, said only 2,100 hectares of forests were destroyed due to the fire. "We are trying our level best to extinguishing the fire," he said and claimed that the fire affected a small area of the tiger project.
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1308288
Cowatch: Protecting tigers
Cowatch: Protecting tigers
Section: Voices Date:Mar 27,2008
By Bittu Sahgal
One of the world’s foremost authorities on tigers, Dr Ullas Karanth is a senior conservation scientist and Director of the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society’s India Programme. The central thesis of his work has been the connection between prey and predator numbers and the arena of most of his fieldwork has been Karnataka, particularly Nagarahole, though he has, of course, studied tigers across India. Winner of the Sanctuary-ABN AMRO Lifetime Service Award 2007, he speaks here with Bittu Sahgal about tigers, science and conservation.
Some would say you live a most adventurous life. You must have a host of unforgettable wildlife experiences to share with our readers.
I think darting of tigers from a precarious tree perch, which was well within a tiger’s leap certainly ranks high in terms of sheer thrill. I will never forget moments like the one from my field diary of 17 years ago: “Then, I spotted the tiger: a brief glimpse of black and sunlit gold. The Randia leaves made a harlequin pattern of light and shade on his body. Padding calmly down a trail, massive head swinging side to side, the tiger was a picture of power and grace… I swung my dart gun around very slowly hoping his keen eyes would not catch the movement… As his shoulder, flanks and, then the right thigh appeared behind the crosshairs, I gently squeezed the trigger…”
Has your life ever been threatened in the course of your work?
Not really. There have been potentially risky moments with elephants while sneaking quietly on transect surveys, or I might have been darting tigers, but I would say I face a greater potential risk by driving on the streets of Bangalore.
How much of an influence on you was your illustrious father, Dr Shivrama Karanth and what were his views on the wildlife issues so close to your heart?
He was a huge and a very early influence. He was the one who pointed me towards nature. He absolutely loved wildlife and read widely about animals. Our home was, in fact, a haven for all sorts of animals, and I grew up on stacks of nature books and Jim Corbett’s tales of man-eaters.
I guess there must have been several other influences from your family.
My aunt Vasantha Satyashankar who gave me my first Sálim Ali book in the 1950s and encouraged me to watch birds; my cousin, senior forester Shyam Sundar who took me to the jungle in the 1960s, and forest ranger and long-time friend since the late 1960s, KM Chinnappa, who taught me field craft in Nagarahole. Of course, looming large as an intellectual influence, there was George Schaller, whose work on tigers I read first in 1965 in Life Magazine.
Where did you actually grow up and where did you complete your schooling, Masters and Doctorate? I grew up in Puttur, a rural town in the Western Ghats region, 50 km. from Mangalore in Karnataka where I studied in a Kannada-medium school. I then went on to study engineering, and worked for a while. I got to study wildlife formally for my Masters degree in Florida and completed my Doctorate in Mangalore.
What does a day of your job entail?
At one time, my day involved getting up early morning to radio-track tigers. Now, I mostly supervise the work of my younger colleagues or students. I do try to get to the jungle as often as I can… when I do so, I go around checking camera traps set in the forest to photograph tigers and identify them in order to count them…
So would you say the rigors of academia are imperative for sound wildlife conservation action on the ground?
Absolutely, while it is really our hearts and passion that lead us to conservation action, unless we ensure that reason and science guide these, such actions may not deliver effective conservation. As in technology, medicine or agriculture, science has a major role in shaping results and letting us know in real time whether we are on the right track.
And Wildlife First, what prompted you to start and invest time and energy into this organisation?
I am an advisor to rather than an activist of Wildlife First. When a mob of thoughtless locals invaded Nagarahole in 1992 and tried to destroy the wildlife that Mr. Chinnappa had protected for two decades and tried to hamper our efforts to learn through science, I realised that focussed advocacy was necessary to counter such ignorance.
I also saw that most ‘wildlife conservation’ was confined to big city folks in India. The need to recruit middle class youth from rural and small town areas was essential to break the barriers of class and English language that isolated conservationists from people who made decisions on ground … After all, look at passionate advocates of other interests… women, adivasis, farmers - or at outfits like Maoists, communists or RSS - their core cadres come from this middle India. Now my Wildlife First idea has blossomed in the form of other advocacy groups: Bhadra Wildlife Trust, Kudremukh Wildlife Foundation, Wild Cat-Chikmagalur, Growing Wild and others are some newer examples. Another key element of the Wildlife First philosophy is not just to take ‘action’, but take action that is guided by reason and science.
What is the future of tigers in India now that the Forest Rights Act is a reality?
Most breeding tiger populations in India are now confined to some Protected Areas and a few critical habitats - less than 10 per cent of the tiger’s natural range. It is time to show some generosity towards nature. If the Rules framed under the Forest Rights Act ensure that within critical areas, a policy of fair and adequate relocation and compensation should guide the process of redressing past injustices, tigers can still survive. At least those who claim to have interests of both tigers and people at heart must now focus on this win-win approach rather than go on day-dreaming about painless coexistence of tigers and people in the face of increased forest use, even within remaining critical habitats. Conservationists must never forget that, Act or no Act, every forest dweller is free to move out voluntarily to a better life - no one can stop that.
Of course, there are those who say we don’t need tigers or nature anymore and India should be carpeted wall-to-wall with Special Economic Zones (SEZs), sugarcane fields or even tiger farms! I would like to politely differ: as the Earth heats up and becomes less and less habitable, they will, hopefully, change their views.
Bittu Sahgal is the Editor of
Sanctuary Magazine
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=18&id=223652&usrsess=1
Section: Voices Date:Mar 27,2008
By Bittu Sahgal
One of the world’s foremost authorities on tigers, Dr Ullas Karanth is a senior conservation scientist and Director of the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society’s India Programme. The central thesis of his work has been the connection between prey and predator numbers and the arena of most of his fieldwork has been Karnataka, particularly Nagarahole, though he has, of course, studied tigers across India. Winner of the Sanctuary-ABN AMRO Lifetime Service Award 2007, he speaks here with Bittu Sahgal about tigers, science and conservation.
Some would say you live a most adventurous life. You must have a host of unforgettable wildlife experiences to share with our readers.
I think darting of tigers from a precarious tree perch, which was well within a tiger’s leap certainly ranks high in terms of sheer thrill. I will never forget moments like the one from my field diary of 17 years ago: “Then, I spotted the tiger: a brief glimpse of black and sunlit gold. The Randia leaves made a harlequin pattern of light and shade on his body. Padding calmly down a trail, massive head swinging side to side, the tiger was a picture of power and grace… I swung my dart gun around very slowly hoping his keen eyes would not catch the movement… As his shoulder, flanks and, then the right thigh appeared behind the crosshairs, I gently squeezed the trigger…”
Has your life ever been threatened in the course of your work?
Not really. There have been potentially risky moments with elephants while sneaking quietly on transect surveys, or I might have been darting tigers, but I would say I face a greater potential risk by driving on the streets of Bangalore.
How much of an influence on you was your illustrious father, Dr Shivrama Karanth and what were his views on the wildlife issues so close to your heart?
He was a huge and a very early influence. He was the one who pointed me towards nature. He absolutely loved wildlife and read widely about animals. Our home was, in fact, a haven for all sorts of animals, and I grew up on stacks of nature books and Jim Corbett’s tales of man-eaters.
I guess there must have been several other influences from your family.
My aunt Vasantha Satyashankar who gave me my first Sálim Ali book in the 1950s and encouraged me to watch birds; my cousin, senior forester Shyam Sundar who took me to the jungle in the 1960s, and forest ranger and long-time friend since the late 1960s, KM Chinnappa, who taught me field craft in Nagarahole. Of course, looming large as an intellectual influence, there was George Schaller, whose work on tigers I read first in 1965 in Life Magazine.
Where did you actually grow up and where did you complete your schooling, Masters and Doctorate? I grew up in Puttur, a rural town in the Western Ghats region, 50 km. from Mangalore in Karnataka where I studied in a Kannada-medium school. I then went on to study engineering, and worked for a while. I got to study wildlife formally for my Masters degree in Florida and completed my Doctorate in Mangalore.
What does a day of your job entail?
At one time, my day involved getting up early morning to radio-track tigers. Now, I mostly supervise the work of my younger colleagues or students. I do try to get to the jungle as often as I can… when I do so, I go around checking camera traps set in the forest to photograph tigers and identify them in order to count them…
So would you say the rigors of academia are imperative for sound wildlife conservation action on the ground?
Absolutely, while it is really our hearts and passion that lead us to conservation action, unless we ensure that reason and science guide these, such actions may not deliver effective conservation. As in technology, medicine or agriculture, science has a major role in shaping results and letting us know in real time whether we are on the right track.
And Wildlife First, what prompted you to start and invest time and energy into this organisation?
I am an advisor to rather than an activist of Wildlife First. When a mob of thoughtless locals invaded Nagarahole in 1992 and tried to destroy the wildlife that Mr. Chinnappa had protected for two decades and tried to hamper our efforts to learn through science, I realised that focussed advocacy was necessary to counter such ignorance.
I also saw that most ‘wildlife conservation’ was confined to big city folks in India. The need to recruit middle class youth from rural and small town areas was essential to break the barriers of class and English language that isolated conservationists from people who made decisions on ground … After all, look at passionate advocates of other interests… women, adivasis, farmers - or at outfits like Maoists, communists or RSS - their core cadres come from this middle India. Now my Wildlife First idea has blossomed in the form of other advocacy groups: Bhadra Wildlife Trust, Kudremukh Wildlife Foundation, Wild Cat-Chikmagalur, Growing Wild and others are some newer examples. Another key element of the Wildlife First philosophy is not just to take ‘action’, but take action that is guided by reason and science.
What is the future of tigers in India now that the Forest Rights Act is a reality?
Most breeding tiger populations in India are now confined to some Protected Areas and a few critical habitats - less than 10 per cent of the tiger’s natural range. It is time to show some generosity towards nature. If the Rules framed under the Forest Rights Act ensure that within critical areas, a policy of fair and adequate relocation and compensation should guide the process of redressing past injustices, tigers can still survive. At least those who claim to have interests of both tigers and people at heart must now focus on this win-win approach rather than go on day-dreaming about painless coexistence of tigers and people in the face of increased forest use, even within remaining critical habitats. Conservationists must never forget that, Act or no Act, every forest dweller is free to move out voluntarily to a better life - no one can stop that.
Of course, there are those who say we don’t need tigers or nature anymore and India should be carpeted wall-to-wall with Special Economic Zones (SEZs), sugarcane fields or even tiger farms! I would like to politely differ: as the Earth heats up and becomes less and less habitable, they will, hopefully, change their views.
Bittu Sahgal is the Editor of
Sanctuary Magazine
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=18&id=223652&usrsess=1
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Yogie tiger succumbs today to illness
In Memory of Pooh BearYogie tiger succumbs today to illness
March 27, 2008
By Vickie Welborn
FRIERSON — Pooh Bear, a 16-year-old Siberian tiger who has made his home at Yogie and Friends Exotic Cat Sanctuary in Frierson since October 2001, died today.
Pooh Bear has been ill for about two months. His death today was attributed to urinary tract infection, according to an e-mail announcement from Executive Director Jenny Senier.
“We are extremely sad and are going to miss him,” Senier wrote.
Pooh Bear had been showing signs of age but was placed on antibiotic regimen to rule out anything that could have been causing his weight loss.
The massive tiger had a rough start, living his early life in a concrete enclosure. But the past several years he had enjoyed the “best comforts we could provide him. Nothing compares to a natural living outside of captivity, but he has a good life with us.”
All of the exotic cats at the sanctuary, with the exception of Moses who was unexpectedly born there over a year ago, were rescued from less than desirable situations. The sanctuary will open April 5 to the public. Access is typically limited to certain hours on the weekend so as to reduce stress the animals.
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080327/BREAKINGNE...
Pooh Bear has been ill for about two months. His death today was attributed to urinary tract infection, according to an e-mail announcement from Executive Director Jenny Senier.
“We are extremely sad and are going to miss him,” Senier wrote.
Pooh Bear had been showing signs of age but was placed on antibiotic regimen to rule out anything that could have been causing his weight loss.
The massive tiger had a rough start, living his early life in a concrete enclosure. But the past several years he had enjoyed the “best comforts we could provide him. Nothing compares to a natural living outside of captivity, but he has a good life with us.”
All of the exotic cats at the sanctuary, with the exception of Moses who was unexpectedly born there over a year ago, were rescued from less than desirable situations. The sanctuary will open April 5 to the public. Access is typically limited to certain hours on the weekend so as to reduce stress the animals.
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080327/BREAKINGNE...
Lions and tigers and … bone wine?
Lions and tigers and … bone wine?
BEN MOOK
Daily Record Assistant Business Editor
March 27, 2008 6:54 PM
Silver Spring-based Discovery Communications LLC was ordered Thursday to turn over footage from one of its Animal Planet shows about the use of tiger bones in winemaking to help bolster the defense of an animal rights group being sued in China.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare asked the U.S. District Court for Maryland, in Greenbelt, on Tuesday to compel Discovery Communications to turn over footage from an episode of its Wildlife Crime Scene show. A federal judge signed off on the subpoena and gave the company until April 25 to turn over the footage and describe where and how it was obtained.
The footage will be used in a civil lawsuit filed against the animal rights group on Oct. 11, 2007. The Guilin Xiongsen Bear & Tiger Mountain Villa Entertainment Center filed the lawsuit against the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in the Beijing High People’s Court. The company claims the animal rights group impugned its reputation through a web article claiming a wine it makes uses tiger skeletons as the primary raw material.
The show in question is a six-part series called Crime Scene Wild, hosted by Steven Gastler, which features undercover investigating along with DNA and forensic science to expose illegal animal trading. The episode being subpoenaed is the final episode that includes a look at the Bear & Tiger Mountain Villa and the making of bone fortified wine. The Crime Scene Wild episode has not aired, and is not slated to air, in the U.S. It has however, been aired in the Animal Planet’s Asian and Australian markets.
Guilen Xiongsen runs a tiger farm, villa, restaurant and winemaking operation at Bear & Tiger Mountain. According to a June 22, 2007, report in the Sydney [Australia] Morning Herald, there were “1,300 captive bred-tigers including 43 frozen carcasses of animals that have died of natural causes” at the site.
The company has vigorously denied an article on IFAW’s Web site that claimed that at any given time the winemaker had “400 tiger skeletons immersed in the entire wine cellar.” And, that “you can see an intact tiger skeleton by randomly looking into a wine tank.”
“The Xiongsen Brand Medicated Wine manufactured and sold by it is produced with animal bones such as aged African lion bones in the Bear & Tiger Mountain Villa upon approval of the [Chinese] State Forestry Administration and Forestry Bureau of the Guangzi Zhuang Autonomous Region,” the complaint in Beijing court reads.
Guilen Xiongsen also disputes the group’s account that tiger meat was served in the villa’s restaurant under the name “king’s meat.” The use of rhinoceros horn and tiger bones has been prohibited by Chinese law since 1993.
“In a word, the plaintiff has never engaged in any tiger bone trade, or prepared tiger meat into various dishes, or produced and sold the so-called ‘tiger-bone medicated wine,’” the company said in the lawsuit. “The main ingredients of the ‘animal bone medicated wine’ produced by [Guilen Xiongsen] are rice wine, papayas and African lion bones, and do not include any ‘tiger bone’ ingredients at all.”
http://www.mddailyrecord.com/article.cfm?id=4848&type=UTTM
BEN MOOK
Daily Record Assistant Business Editor
March 27, 2008 6:54 PM
Silver Spring-based Discovery Communications LLC was ordered Thursday to turn over footage from one of its Animal Planet shows about the use of tiger bones in winemaking to help bolster the defense of an animal rights group being sued in China.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare asked the U.S. District Court for Maryland, in Greenbelt, on Tuesday to compel Discovery Communications to turn over footage from an episode of its Wildlife Crime Scene show. A federal judge signed off on the subpoena and gave the company until April 25 to turn over the footage and describe where and how it was obtained.
The footage will be used in a civil lawsuit filed against the animal rights group on Oct. 11, 2007. The Guilin Xiongsen Bear & Tiger Mountain Villa Entertainment Center filed the lawsuit against the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in the Beijing High People’s Court. The company claims the animal rights group impugned its reputation through a web article claiming a wine it makes uses tiger skeletons as the primary raw material.
The show in question is a six-part series called Crime Scene Wild, hosted by Steven Gastler, which features undercover investigating along with DNA and forensic science to expose illegal animal trading. The episode being subpoenaed is the final episode that includes a look at the Bear & Tiger Mountain Villa and the making of bone fortified wine. The Crime Scene Wild episode has not aired, and is not slated to air, in the U.S. It has however, been aired in the Animal Planet’s Asian and Australian markets.
Guilen Xiongsen runs a tiger farm, villa, restaurant and winemaking operation at Bear & Tiger Mountain. According to a June 22, 2007, report in the Sydney [Australia] Morning Herald, there were “1,300 captive bred-tigers including 43 frozen carcasses of animals that have died of natural causes” at the site.
The company has vigorously denied an article on IFAW’s Web site that claimed that at any given time the winemaker had “400 tiger skeletons immersed in the entire wine cellar.” And, that “you can see an intact tiger skeleton by randomly looking into a wine tank.”
“The Xiongsen Brand Medicated Wine manufactured and sold by it is produced with animal bones such as aged African lion bones in the Bear & Tiger Mountain Villa upon approval of the [Chinese] State Forestry Administration and Forestry Bureau of the Guangzi Zhuang Autonomous Region,” the complaint in Beijing court reads.
Guilen Xiongsen also disputes the group’s account that tiger meat was served in the villa’s restaurant under the name “king’s meat.” The use of rhinoceros horn and tiger bones has been prohibited by Chinese law since 1993.
“In a word, the plaintiff has never engaged in any tiger bone trade, or prepared tiger meat into various dishes, or produced and sold the so-called ‘tiger-bone medicated wine,’” the company said in the lawsuit. “The main ingredients of the ‘animal bone medicated wine’ produced by [Guilen Xiongsen] are rice wine, papayas and African lion bones, and do not include any ‘tiger bone’ ingredients at all.”
http://www.mddailyrecord.com/article.cfm?id=4848&type=UTTM
Sumatran tiger population in Seblat park down to 136
Sumatran tiger population in Seblat park down to 136
03/28/08 07:27
Muko Muko, Bengkulu (ANTARA News) - The population of the Sumatran Tiger (Phantera Tigris Sumaterae) in the Kerinci Seblat National Park (TNKS) has continued to decline, a foreign nature conservation worker said.
The tiger population in the park now was only 136, down from 150 spotted in 2007, coordinator for Sumatra of Flora Fauna International (FFI), Debby Martin, said in a report on the results of her research here Thursday.
Hunting and land clearing had become the main threat to the rare animal`s population, she said.
The research was conducted by FFI in coordination with the TNKS administration and some universities in a Sumatran Tigers` Monitoring (MHS) project.
The research had also shown that conflicts between humans and tigers which ended in the tigers` death had also reduced the population of the endemic species.
"Based on our last research, the current tiger population is not more than 136 or some 25 percent of the total number of existing Sumatran tigers. Land clearing and conflicts will become the main threat after hunting has been stopped," she said.
Debby said land clearing for plantations had recently triggered conflicts between tigers and local residents.
Land clearing activity had narrowed the territory where the tigers usually hunt for prey and forced them to encroach on farmers` lands.
"Recently in South Lebong, Lebong District, a tiger was seen in a farmer`s rubber plantation. We tried to make sure that both the tiger and the farmer remained safe," the British researcher said in fluent Bahasa Indonesia.
According to Debby, her team had helped to settle more than 20 conflicts between tigers and humans in the region.
Usually, she said, a tiger appears in a village to prey on livestock.
An FFI official, Agung Nugraha, said the FFI had monitored Sumatran tigers` movements in four provinces within the national park, namely Jambi, West Sumatra, Bengkulu and South Sumatra.
Since 2004, the monitoring team had installed tracking cameras in 88 sample areas.
Based on the survey, 90 percent of Sumatran tigers` activity was taking place inside TNKS conservation forests.
"Currently we are focusing on four locations in the southern coast of West Sumatra to Musi Rawas, Lubuk Linggau," he said.
Taking part in the research were students from Dice University of Kent, UK as well as local students and institutions.
http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2008/3/28/sumatran-tiger-population-in-seblat-park-down-to-136/
03/28/08 07:27
Muko Muko, Bengkulu (ANTARA News) - The population of the Sumatran Tiger (Phantera Tigris Sumaterae) in the Kerinci Seblat National Park (TNKS) has continued to decline, a foreign nature conservation worker said.
The tiger population in the park now was only 136, down from 150 spotted in 2007, coordinator for Sumatra of Flora Fauna International (FFI), Debby Martin, said in a report on the results of her research here Thursday.
Hunting and land clearing had become the main threat to the rare animal`s population, she said.
The research was conducted by FFI in coordination with the TNKS administration and some universities in a Sumatran Tigers` Monitoring (MHS) project.
The research had also shown that conflicts between humans and tigers which ended in the tigers` death had also reduced the population of the endemic species.
"Based on our last research, the current tiger population is not more than 136 or some 25 percent of the total number of existing Sumatran tigers. Land clearing and conflicts will become the main threat after hunting has been stopped," she said.
Debby said land clearing for plantations had recently triggered conflicts between tigers and local residents.
Land clearing activity had narrowed the territory where the tigers usually hunt for prey and forced them to encroach on farmers` lands.
"Recently in South Lebong, Lebong District, a tiger was seen in a farmer`s rubber plantation. We tried to make sure that both the tiger and the farmer remained safe," the British researcher said in fluent Bahasa Indonesia.
According to Debby, her team had helped to settle more than 20 conflicts between tigers and humans in the region.
Usually, she said, a tiger appears in a village to prey on livestock.
An FFI official, Agung Nugraha, said the FFI had monitored Sumatran tigers` movements in four provinces within the national park, namely Jambi, West Sumatra, Bengkulu and South Sumatra.
Since 2004, the monitoring team had installed tracking cameras in 88 sample areas.
Based on the survey, 90 percent of Sumatran tigers` activity was taking place inside TNKS conservation forests.
"Currently we are focusing on four locations in the southern coast of West Sumatra to Musi Rawas, Lubuk Linggau," he said.
Taking part in the research were students from Dice University of Kent, UK as well as local students and institutions.
http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2008/3/28/sumatran-tiger-population-in-seblat-park-down-to-136/
Tiger cubs at San Francisco Zoo get checkup
Tiger cubs at San Francisco Zoo get checkup
By Linda Goldston
Mercury NewsArticle Launched: 03/27/2008 05:52:08 PM PDT
The rare Sumatran tiger triplets at the San Francisco Zoo are growing quickly.
The 3-week-old cubs are still too young to appear in public, but the Mercury News got a glimpse during a recent checkup.
Their hearts, hearing and health all got high marks from the doctor. So did their appetites. Each of the male cubs had gained about a pound, as of their last weekend checkup, weighing in at 5.37, 5.84 and 5.88 pounds.
"They're all eating well, they're all vocal and they all have big bellies," said Jacqueline Jencek, chief of veterinary services at the zoo. Mom "Leanne is doing a wonderful job."
Leanne, a 5-year-old, 230-pound Sumatran tiger, is a first-time mom. She gave birth to the trio of male cubs on March 6. The father is George, a 10-year-old Sumatran tiger who will play no role in the cubs' upbringing, just as it is in the wild.
Sumatran tigers are critically endangered, with only 400 to 500 remaining in the wild. Leanne and George are part of a species survival breeding program.
For now, the baby tigers are known as Cub 1, Cub 2 and Cub 3.
They'll be up for "adoption" - which comes with naming rights - as part of an auction at the zoo's annual Zoofest fundraiser on April 25. Individual tickets for the event are $500.
It will still be awhile before the public can see the cubs, but their daddy can be seen daily in his grotto at the zoo.
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8720357
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Hope for endangered wildlife with breeding in parks, zoos
Hope for endangered wildlife with breeding in parks, zoos
WWF-MALAYSIA refers to the recent news “Hope Remains for Siberian Tigers” of the Siberian tiger cubs born in the Lost World of Tambun Sunway City.
The three new tiger cubs are the third generation born since they started breeding Siberian tigers in 2004. The birth of the cubs, according to the article, appears to bring hope for the conservation of Siberian tigers and they are being displayed to the public every day for half an hour for educational purposes.
The park is looking into rehabilitating the tigers once they have reached adulthood.
WWF-Malaysia supports educational and awareness-raising programmes using captive populations of endangered wildlife. These programmes, when designed properly, have far reaching impact on the public in understanding the ecology and plight of the endangered species.
However, breeding and rehabilitation of endangered species, especially of large carnivores such as the tiger, need to be based on organised and scientifically-controlled management.
Such conservation breeding should be part of a holistic species survival plan that includes in-situ research of the needs and feasibility of releasing the captive-born animals back into the wild.
While zoos and theme parks are a good avenue for conservation education, very few tigers are needed for this purpose. Tigers live 10 to 15 years in captivity, and for the display purposes only, it is not necessary to breed them year after year.
Specific awareness activities need to be developed as well to explain and educate the public on tiger conservation.
Educational signage, awareness-raising talks and support towards in-situ conservation in terms of research and funds are examples of activities that could be carried out by zoos and theme parks.
Although there are benefits to captive-breeding of tigers, such as having a gene pool for tigers, it does not contribute significantly to the conservation of tigers in the wild.
The possibility of releasing captive-bred tigers in the wild itself is small. These captive-born tigers will face great difficulties in surviving in the wild as they would have lost most of their instincts and hunting skills that need to be taught by their mother when they were cubs.
Finding a location to release these tigers would be another challenge as these areas must have adequate food resources and must offer very little opportunity for the tigers to come in contact with humans.
Furthermore, captive-bred tigers put back into the wild could be easily poached due to their lack of fear of humans.
In Malaysia, efforts to conserve wild tiger populations are still important. The National Tiger Action Plan, developed by the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (Mycat), provides a platform for streamlining tiger conservation efforts and knowledge within its five partners.
It outlines specific activities for the next eight years in saving wild tigers in Malaysia, and as such, does not include management issues relating to captive tigers.
With adequate protection of habitat and prey, coupled with enforcement of existing laws, there will be greater hope for the survival of Malaysia’s last 500 wild tigers.
Dr Dionysius S.K. Sharma,
Executive Director/CEO,
WWF-Malaysia .
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/3/25/focus/20736315&sec=focus
WWF-MALAYSIA refers to the recent news “Hope Remains for Siberian Tigers” of the Siberian tiger cubs born in the Lost World of Tambun Sunway City.
The three new tiger cubs are the third generation born since they started breeding Siberian tigers in 2004. The birth of the cubs, according to the article, appears to bring hope for the conservation of Siberian tigers and they are being displayed to the public every day for half an hour for educational purposes.
The park is looking into rehabilitating the tigers once they have reached adulthood.
WWF-Malaysia supports educational and awareness-raising programmes using captive populations of endangered wildlife. These programmes, when designed properly, have far reaching impact on the public in understanding the ecology and plight of the endangered species.
However, breeding and rehabilitation of endangered species, especially of large carnivores such as the tiger, need to be based on organised and scientifically-controlled management.
Such conservation breeding should be part of a holistic species survival plan that includes in-situ research of the needs and feasibility of releasing the captive-born animals back into the wild.
While zoos and theme parks are a good avenue for conservation education, very few tigers are needed for this purpose. Tigers live 10 to 15 years in captivity, and for the display purposes only, it is not necessary to breed them year after year.
Specific awareness activities need to be developed as well to explain and educate the public on tiger conservation.
Educational signage, awareness-raising talks and support towards in-situ conservation in terms of research and funds are examples of activities that could be carried out by zoos and theme parks.
Although there are benefits to captive-breeding of tigers, such as having a gene pool for tigers, it does not contribute significantly to the conservation of tigers in the wild.
The possibility of releasing captive-bred tigers in the wild itself is small. These captive-born tigers will face great difficulties in surviving in the wild as they would have lost most of their instincts and hunting skills that need to be taught by their mother when they were cubs.
Finding a location to release these tigers would be another challenge as these areas must have adequate food resources and must offer very little opportunity for the tigers to come in contact with humans.
Furthermore, captive-bred tigers put back into the wild could be easily poached due to their lack of fear of humans.
In Malaysia, efforts to conserve wild tiger populations are still important. The National Tiger Action Plan, developed by the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (Mycat), provides a platform for streamlining tiger conservation efforts and knowledge within its five partners.
It outlines specific activities for the next eight years in saving wild tigers in Malaysia, and as such, does not include management issues relating to captive tigers.
With adequate protection of habitat and prey, coupled with enforcement of existing laws, there will be greater hope for the survival of Malaysia’s last 500 wild tigers.
Dr Dionysius S.K. Sharma,
Executive Director/CEO,
WWF-Malaysia .
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/3/25/focus/20736315&sec=focus
Three tigers identified for rehabilitation in Sariska
Three tigers identified for rehabilitation in Sariska
24 Mar 2008, 1431 hrs IST,IANS
JAIPUR: The Rajasthan forest department has identified three tigers in Ranthambore national park for their rehabilitation in Sariska tiger reserve as part of the government's plan to reintroduce the big cats in the reserve after they were wiped out by poachers over three years ago.
The exercise to identify the tigers has started after the prime minister's office gave a clearance to the department's rehabilitation project recently, the officials said on Monday. The tigers are between 20 and 30 months old.
The Sariska tiger reserve has an area of around 866 sq km, and is located some 110 km from Rajasthan capital Jaipur. The reserve is also home to leopards, different varieties of deer, jungle cats and birds, among others.
"We have identified three tigers and as per plan one of the tigress would be first brought to Sariska from Ranthambore. After a few months one more tigress and a male tiger would join her. All of them would be radio collared," a senior official of the forest department said.
He said initially these wild cats would be kept in enclosures and their activities would be monitored.
"The tigers would be introduced in a seven-hectare enclosed area. Once they are acclimatised to the new habitat, they would be let out into the wild," the official said.
According to the proposal, five tigers would be brought here in a span of three years for rehabilitation, the official said. The date of shifting the remaining two tigers would be decided later.
Around Rs155 million has been earmarked for the rehabilitation exercise.
The Ranthambore national park, from where the tigers will be relocated, has an area of around 400 sq km and is situated in the Sawai Madhopur district, some 175 km from here. It is considered one of the finest tiger reserves in the country. It was declared a national park in 1981.
As per the recent census, the park has 32 tigers, up from 26 in 2005, as per a state government census. "We are optimistic that we would be able to successfully implement it, as Sariska forests are in good health with adequate prey base for the tigers," he said.
"If everything goes as per our plan, Sariska should have tigers by the end of this year," he added.
One of the priorities was to create a tiger-friendly environment before undertaking the rehabilitation exercise, he said.
Meanwhile, the relocation of villages from inside the tiger reserve has started and only after their relocation would the tigers be released in the wild.
In October last year, the Bhagani village in Tehla forest range was relocated to an alternative site near Behor in Alwar district, some 100 km from Sariska. The village was located in the heart of the reserve. The process of shifting the second village, Kankwari, has already started.
After the tigers were wiped out of the reserve in 2004, the central government had decided to reintroduce the big cats there, provided the state government created a safe habitat for the tigers.
The Tiger Task Force in the ministry of environment and forests had recommended the relocation of four villages in a time-bound plan, though there are 28 villages in all in the core area of the reserve.
Out of the four, the relocation of Bhagani village is complete. A second village will have to be relocated before the tigers can be reintroduced in the forest.
"After fully relocating two of the villages, we plan to start the process of rehabilitating the tigers," the official said.
The other two villages would be relocated later.
In the recent past, the state government and forest department had faced criticism from various quarters over the disappearance of tigers from the reserve.
A report brought out by the Wildlife Institute of India in March 2005 had confirmed that there were no tigers left in the reserve, although an official census conducted the previous year had indicated the existence of 16 to 18 tigers in the reserve. Poaching was blamed for the disappearance of the tigers.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Three_tigers_identified_for_Sariska/articleshow/2894345.cms
24 Mar 2008, 1431 hrs IST,IANS
JAIPUR: The Rajasthan forest department has identified three tigers in Ranthambore national park for their rehabilitation in Sariska tiger reserve as part of the government's plan to reintroduce the big cats in the reserve after they were wiped out by poachers over three years ago.
The exercise to identify the tigers has started after the prime minister's office gave a clearance to the department's rehabilitation project recently, the officials said on Monday. The tigers are between 20 and 30 months old.
The Sariska tiger reserve has an area of around 866 sq km, and is located some 110 km from Rajasthan capital Jaipur. The reserve is also home to leopards, different varieties of deer, jungle cats and birds, among others.
"We have identified three tigers and as per plan one of the tigress would be first brought to Sariska from Ranthambore. After a few months one more tigress and a male tiger would join her. All of them would be radio collared," a senior official of the forest department said.
He said initially these wild cats would be kept in enclosures and their activities would be monitored.
"The tigers would be introduced in a seven-hectare enclosed area. Once they are acclimatised to the new habitat, they would be let out into the wild," the official said.
According to the proposal, five tigers would be brought here in a span of three years for rehabilitation, the official said. The date of shifting the remaining two tigers would be decided later.
Around Rs155 million has been earmarked for the rehabilitation exercise.
The Ranthambore national park, from where the tigers will be relocated, has an area of around 400 sq km and is situated in the Sawai Madhopur district, some 175 km from here. It is considered one of the finest tiger reserves in the country. It was declared a national park in 1981.
As per the recent census, the park has 32 tigers, up from 26 in 2005, as per a state government census. "We are optimistic that we would be able to successfully implement it, as Sariska forests are in good health with adequate prey base for the tigers," he said.
"If everything goes as per our plan, Sariska should have tigers by the end of this year," he added.
One of the priorities was to create a tiger-friendly environment before undertaking the rehabilitation exercise, he said.
Meanwhile, the relocation of villages from inside the tiger reserve has started and only after their relocation would the tigers be released in the wild.
In October last year, the Bhagani village in Tehla forest range was relocated to an alternative site near Behor in Alwar district, some 100 km from Sariska. The village was located in the heart of the reserve. The process of shifting the second village, Kankwari, has already started.
After the tigers were wiped out of the reserve in 2004, the central government had decided to reintroduce the big cats there, provided the state government created a safe habitat for the tigers.
The Tiger Task Force in the ministry of environment and forests had recommended the relocation of four villages in a time-bound plan, though there are 28 villages in all in the core area of the reserve.
Out of the four, the relocation of Bhagani village is complete. A second village will have to be relocated before the tigers can be reintroduced in the forest.
"After fully relocating two of the villages, we plan to start the process of rehabilitating the tigers," the official said.
The other two villages would be relocated later.
In the recent past, the state government and forest department had faced criticism from various quarters over the disappearance of tigers from the reserve.
A report brought out by the Wildlife Institute of India in March 2005 had confirmed that there were no tigers left in the reserve, although an official census conducted the previous year had indicated the existence of 16 to 18 tigers in the reserve. Poaching was blamed for the disappearance of the tigers.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Three_tigers_identified_for_Sariska/articleshow/2894345.cms
Tiger preservation to get boost in Madhya Pradesh
Tiger preservation to get boost in Madhya Pradesh
March 25th, 2008 - 10:17 pm
New Delhi, March 25 (IANS) The Planning Commission Tuesday approved Rs. 141.82 billion as the plan outlay for Madhya Pradesh, including Rs. 1.5 billion for special projects like preserving tigers in the state during the 2008-09 fiscal. The outlay was approved at a meeting between Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and the Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
According to the state officials, the funds of Rs. 1.5 billion would mainly be spent on the initiatives for preserving tigers.
“Rs. 1.5 billion will be spent on the tiger preservation and other projects of special importance for the state,” an official, who did not like to be named, told IANS.
There are nine national parks - including the famous Kanha National Park - and 25 sanctuaries spread over an area of 10,862 square km constituting 11.40 percent the state’s total forest area.
“Efforts are also underway to increase the protected area network to 15 percent of the forest or 5 percent of the geographical area as suggested by the State Wildlife Board,” the official said.
As per the population estimates of 2003, there are 712 tigers and 1,090 panthers in the state.
Ahluwalia said the government needed to pay more attention on human development through initiatives aimed at creating investor friendly environment in the state.
“The government should avail benefits available under various social sector schemes, and special attention should be given to the schemes meant for Bundelkhand area,” Ahluwalia said.
Bundelkhand area in Madhya Pradesh is constantly faced with the problem of drought and the backwardness on all fronts.
“Livelihood opportunity will be created through generating economic activities based on natural resources. A number of new initiatives like Mukhya Mantri Mazdoor Surakhsah Yojana,” Chauhan said.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/tiger-preservation-to-get-boost-in-madhya-pradesh_10031220.html
March 25th, 2008 - 10:17 pm
New Delhi, March 25 (IANS) The Planning Commission Tuesday approved Rs. 141.82 billion as the plan outlay for Madhya Pradesh, including Rs. 1.5 billion for special projects like preserving tigers in the state during the 2008-09 fiscal. The outlay was approved at a meeting between Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and the Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
According to the state officials, the funds of Rs. 1.5 billion would mainly be spent on the initiatives for preserving tigers.
“Rs. 1.5 billion will be spent on the tiger preservation and other projects of special importance for the state,” an official, who did not like to be named, told IANS.
There are nine national parks - including the famous Kanha National Park - and 25 sanctuaries spread over an area of 10,862 square km constituting 11.40 percent the state’s total forest area.
“Efforts are also underway to increase the protected area network to 15 percent of the forest or 5 percent of the geographical area as suggested by the State Wildlife Board,” the official said.
As per the population estimates of 2003, there are 712 tigers and 1,090 panthers in the state.
Ahluwalia said the government needed to pay more attention on human development through initiatives aimed at creating investor friendly environment in the state.
“The government should avail benefits available under various social sector schemes, and special attention should be given to the schemes meant for Bundelkhand area,” Ahluwalia said.
Bundelkhand area in Madhya Pradesh is constantly faced with the problem of drought and the backwardness on all fronts.
“Livelihood opportunity will be created through generating economic activities based on natural resources. A number of new initiatives like Mukhya Mantri Mazdoor Surakhsah Yojana,” Chauhan said.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/tiger-preservation-to-get-boost-in-madhya-pradesh_10031220.html
Tiger kills villager in Nagbhid Forest
Tiger kills villager in Nagbhid Forest
25 Mar 2008, 0323 hrs IST,
CHANDRAPUR: In yet another incident of tiger attack, a villager was killed in the protected area of Nagbhid forest range under North Chandrapur Forest Circle on Monday morning.
Kashinath Suryawanshi (50) became the sixth human to have been killed by the big cat in Chandrapur district so far this year. He had gone to the jungle with his family members to collect leaves of the Palash tree, which are used to make leaf-plates (patrawali).
Sources said Suryawanshi, a resident of Jankapur village in Nagbhid tehsil, had gone to the forest under Mindala beat, close to the nearby Adyal Mendha village on Monday morning. Around 11 am, while the entire family had scattered in the forest to collect Palash leaves, the tiger attacked Suryawanshi, killing him on the spot.
Alerted by the loud noise, other family members rushed to the spot. And, before the tiger could drag away Suryawanshi's body deep into the jungle, the members started raised an alarm that scared the tiger away. Later, the Suryawanshis reached Adyal Mendha village and reported the incident to the forest department.
"The tiger attacked Suryawanshi from behind and he must have been instantly killed. Injury marks were found on his neck and we have recovered tiger pugmarks on the spot," said Rahul Sorte, RFO, Talodhi forest range, who was amongst the officials who performed inquest on the spot. He said an ex-gratia of Rs 2,000 had been given to the family as instant financial help, while compensation as per norms would be provided after completion of formalities. He also confirmed that there had been a similar incident in the same area in August last year, in which a villager was injured. However, it is entirely different area from Talodhi forest range, where last year a tiger had created menace, Sorte clarified.
This is seventh incident of tiger attack on human in the district this year, in which six persons have lost their lives while one was seriously injured.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Nagpur/Tiger_kills_villager_in_Nagbhid_Forest/articleshow/2896568.cms
25 Mar 2008, 0323 hrs IST,
CHANDRAPUR: In yet another incident of tiger attack, a villager was killed in the protected area of Nagbhid forest range under North Chandrapur Forest Circle on Monday morning.
Kashinath Suryawanshi (50) became the sixth human to have been killed by the big cat in Chandrapur district so far this year. He had gone to the jungle with his family members to collect leaves of the Palash tree, which are used to make leaf-plates (patrawali).
Sources said Suryawanshi, a resident of Jankapur village in Nagbhid tehsil, had gone to the forest under Mindala beat, close to the nearby Adyal Mendha village on Monday morning. Around 11 am, while the entire family had scattered in the forest to collect Palash leaves, the tiger attacked Suryawanshi, killing him on the spot.
Alerted by the loud noise, other family members rushed to the spot. And, before the tiger could drag away Suryawanshi's body deep into the jungle, the members started raised an alarm that scared the tiger away. Later, the Suryawanshis reached Adyal Mendha village and reported the incident to the forest department.
"The tiger attacked Suryawanshi from behind and he must have been instantly killed. Injury marks were found on his neck and we have recovered tiger pugmarks on the spot," said Rahul Sorte, RFO, Talodhi forest range, who was amongst the officials who performed inquest on the spot. He said an ex-gratia of Rs 2,000 had been given to the family as instant financial help, while compensation as per norms would be provided after completion of formalities. He also confirmed that there had been a similar incident in the same area in August last year, in which a villager was injured. However, it is entirely different area from Talodhi forest range, where last year a tiger had created menace, Sorte clarified.
This is seventh incident of tiger attack on human in the district this year, in which six persons have lost their lives while one was seriously injured.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Nagpur/Tiger_kills_villager_in_Nagbhid_Forest/articleshow/2896568.cms
APP irregularities threaten massive climate and tiger impact
Fresh tiger print on new APP logging road that will bring loss of habitat, bring tigers into more conflict with humans and allow easy poacher access to the last of Indonesia's tiger species.
© WWF-Indonesia/Eyes on forest
APP irregularities threaten massive climate and tiger impact
25 Mar 2008
Pekanbaru, INDONESIA – One of the world’s biggest carbon stores and a key tiger habitat are threatened by a new logging road in Riau Province, Sumatra, according to a new investigative report published today.
An absence of permits and other irregularities suggest that the new road cutting into Kampar peninsula is likely to be illegal, says Riau’s Eyes on the Forest group, a coalition of local NGO network Jikalahari, Walhi Riau, and WWF-Indonesia.
The road, like another exposed in January threatening indigenous peoples, elephants, orangutans and tigers in Sumatra’s Bukit Tigapuluh forest landscape, has been constructed by companies linked to controversial conglomerate Asia Pulp and Paper (APP).
“It is morally reprehensible for one of the world’s largest paper companies to so brazenly ignore Indonesian laws and destroy the natural resources that belong to the people of Riau,” said Teguh Surya of Walhi Riau.
“We strongly urge APP to join the ranks of responsible businesses and conduct its operations within the law. Until that time, the world’s paper buyers and investors should stop doing business with APP.”
Kampar peninsula can be considered a single hydro-ecological system, consisting entirely of a single dome of peat at depths mostly over 10 meters – extremely deep for a peatland, with an enormous store of carbon.
Drainage and plantation development activities on the top of the Kampar peat dome could cause the dome to collapse and emit large amounts of carbon, according to Eyes on the Forest.
Last month, a report by WWF, Remote Sensing Solution GmbH and Hokkaido University found that deforestation, peat decomposition and forest fires in Riau Province resulted in annual carbon emissions equivalent to 122 percent of the Netherlands total annual emissions, 58 percent of Australia's annual emissions, 39 per cent of annual UK emissions and 26 per cent of annual German emissions.
That report also found that the province had Indonesia’s highest deforestation rates, substantially driven by the operations of global paper giants APP and competitor Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Limited (APRIL).
Kampar peninsula is a contiguous peat soil area of around 700,000 hectares. Until 2002, the 700,000 ha of Kampar peninsular were still fully covered by by natural forest, but clearing for APP and APRIL pulp mills and related plantation development has been the major factor in cover being reduced to 400,000 ha by 2007
The Kampar peninsula area is also considered one of the last havens for critically endangered Sumatran tigers, whose wild population is estimated to be down to just 400-500. It is feared that Sumatran tigers may be on course to follow Indonesia’s Java and Bali tigers into extinction.
The landscape was designated a “regional priority” tiger conservation landscape by the world’s leading tiger scientists in 2006. A preliminary estimate by WWF-Indonesia shows that a well-managed Kampar peninsula could be home to as many as 60 tigers.
“Even as our investigators were out surveying the site last month, they came across tiger tracks walking along the APP logging road,” said Nursamsu of WWF-Indonesia and Eyes on the Forest coordinator.
“But the tigers of Kampar don’t stand a chance once APP begins logging full-scale and the poachers discover there’s easy access to this critical tiger habitat.”
Local NGO network Jikalahari and WWF have formally proposed that the Ministry of Forestry protect the natural forest of Kampar. Jikalahari also jointly signed an MoU with Siak and Pelalawan District Administrations at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali last year.
APP told Eyes of the Forest that the Siak district government had granted the company permission to build the highway to connect the two remote villages of Teluk Lanus and Sungai Rawa. But satellite images show that the road was not built anywhere close to the two villages, but does connect to two new logging concessions affiliated with APP.
”APP claimed that it was building this state-of-the-art, paved highway for the benefit of the local communities,” said Susanto Kurniawan of Jikalahari.
“It’s shameful to see a multibillion-dollar enterprise hiding behind the needs of desperately poor, isolated villagers, who will receive absolutely no benefit from this road but will likely suffer the consequences of APP’s activities.”
The logging concessions also suffer from irregularities, not least being an apparent contravention on clearing natural forest in good condition for plantation development or clearing on deep peat soils. Both concessions are based on licenses issued by District heads, who are not supposed to issue such licenses, according to Eyes on the Forest.
As well as Bukit Tigapuluh, APP also is currently threatening the Senepis and Kerumutan peatland forests in central Sumatra.
Related links
Illegal logging and road building threatens tigers and tribes of the Heart of Sumatra
Pulp and palm oil the villains in Sumatra's global climate impact
http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=128041
Trunk-cam reveals jungle secrets
Trunk-cam reveals jungle secrets
Trunk-cams in action
Cameras held by elephants' trunks have been used to provide an intimate view of tigers in the jungle.
Because the big cats are used to the presence of elephants, the tusked giants were able to get far closer to them than a human film crew ever could.
Thanks to the "trunk-cams", the team was able to follow four newborn tiger cubs all the way through to adulthood.
The footage was recorded over a period of three years in the Pench National Park in India.
Newborns filmed
It is the basis of a three-part BBC One series: Tiger - Spy in the Jungle, which is narrated by Sir David Attenborough.
Series producer John Downer, from John Downer Productions, said: "Tigers are so secretive and they live in such dense jungle that it is very difficult for a human film crew to get close to them.
"But elephants are the ultimate four-by-four camera vehicle - and have allowed us to film these animals closer than we have ever been able to film them before."
The crew used three types of high-definition cameras, designed and built by Geoff Bell and operated by cameraman Michael Richards:
A remotely-operated trunk-cam, which could film while the elephants were on the move and could also be set down.
A remotely-operated tusk-cam, which was smaller than the trunk cam and could be carried by the elephants for much longer periods.
Log and rock cams - cameras disguised as logs or rocks - which could be set down either by an elephant or human crew member and were activated by motion sensors.
At the waterhole
Mr Downer said: "The elephants were remarkably stable - almost like a steady-cam, and they only needed a little bit of training to carry and set down the cameras.
"With these cameras, anywhere a tiger went or whatever it did, we could keep on filming it. They were the ultimate filming devices."
Mr Downer added: "This sort of thing hasn't been done before.
"It is a bit of a bonkers idea, and in my wildest dreams, when I thought about the challenges of filming tigers, I never thought we would suceed in doing what we did in this way, but now it seems the most natural thing in the world."
The cameras also recorded other animals, including langur monkeys, sloth bears and red dogs.
The first programme of Tiger- Spy in the Jungle will be shown on BBC One on Sunday 30 March at 2000 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7312511.stm
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
"Tiger - Spy In The Jungle" Slideshow
"Tiger - Spy In The Jungle" Slideshow
I am very excited about the documenatry "Tiger - Spy In The Jungle." I found these pictures from it and created a slideshow.
The trailers from the show are amazing! Elephants are awesome!!!
I especially enjoyed the tigress and her 10 day old cubs. Here are the links to the trailers:
Trunk-cams in action
BBC's elephant camera catches tiger cubs
Images from 'Tiger – Spy In The Jungle'BBC's elephant camera catches tiger cubs
By Richard Alleyne
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 25/03/2008
In pictures: Elephant cam captures unique tiger images
A BBC film crew attached cameras to elephants to shoot remarkable footage of tigers for the corporation's latest natural history series, it was disclosed yesterday.
Tiger - Spy in the Jungle, a three-part documentary narrated by Sir David Attenborough, follows the day-to-day lives of four cubs in the Pench National Park in central India.
John Downer, the film-maker who brought us the "boulder cam", came up with the idea of fixing cameras to the tusks and trunks of trained working elephants because the tigers were so dangerous and inaccessible.
Sir David said: "John's skill and ingenuity in using the elephants to get cameras within a few yards of the animals pays off extraordinarily well - it's brought a new intimacy to the genre."
The series begins on BBC1 next Sunday.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/25/eatiger125.xml
By Richard Alleyne
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 25/03/2008
In pictures: Elephant cam captures unique tiger images
A BBC film crew attached cameras to elephants to shoot remarkable footage of tigers for the corporation's latest natural history series, it was disclosed yesterday.
Tiger - Spy in the Jungle, a three-part documentary narrated by Sir David Attenborough, follows the day-to-day lives of four cubs in the Pench National Park in central India.
John Downer, the film-maker who brought us the "boulder cam", came up with the idea of fixing cameras to the tusks and trunks of trained working elephants because the tigers were so dangerous and inaccessible.
Sir David said: "John's skill and ingenuity in using the elephants to get cameras within a few yards of the animals pays off extraordinarily well - it's brought a new intimacy to the genre."
The series begins on BBC1 next Sunday.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/25/eatiger125.xml
Video of "wild" China tiger reported to be faked
Video of "wild" China tiger reported to be faked
Tue Mar 25, 2008 2:42am EDT
BEIJING, March 25 (Reuters Life!) - A Chinese TV journalist faces prosecution after he sought to pass off video footage of a circus tiger as evidence that a wild tiger lived in a forest park in southern China, local media reported on Tuesday.
It marked the latest in a series of cases in which China's media have questioned the authenticity of purported images of endangered animals.
Wu Hua, a reporter with a local television station in Pingjiang county in southern Hunan province, asked wildlife authorities on Wednesday to verify the identity of a tiger he said he had "unintentionally captured on film", Xinhua news agency said.
Local media had speculated that the animal might be the wild South China tiger, a sub-species long feared extinct, and the subject of a separate controversy involving photographs allegedly taken in China's northern Shaanxi province.
After a four-day probe, investigators identified Wu's tiger as a Siberian tiger belonging to a touring circus, Xinhua said.
"According to local villagers, many people had seen a cage enter the scenic area," the Beijing News reported, citing investigators, who had also noted tracks from a cage at the site where the video was shot.
The owner of the forest park where the tiger had been filmed confessed to investigators that the footage had been rigged, the paper said.
"(The journalist's) intention wasn't to do an animal report, but to do an advertisement for the (park)," the paper quoted an investigator as saying.
The reports did not explain the journalist's motive, but quoted a media academic as saying that there were "benefits" in obtaining official verification of the endangered South China tiger found in the wild.
The probe into the case was continuing but the people involved would face "at least" the charge of illegally transporting an endangered animal, the report said, citing a wildlife official surnamed Wang.
The case echoed a recent controversy surrounding photographs produced by a farmer in Shaanxi province of a tiger he said were taken in the forest near his village.
A local forestry official said they proved the South China tiger still existed in the wild, but he later apologised for hastily verifying the photographs after others denounced them as fake.
Last month, the chief editor of a Chinese newspaper quit after one of its photographers reportedly faked a prize-winning photograph of endangered Tibetan antelopes appearing unfazed by a passing train on the Qinghai-Tibet railway. (Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Ken Wills and Sophie Hardach)
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSPEK175249
Tue Mar 25, 2008 2:42am EDT
BEIJING, March 25 (Reuters Life!) - A Chinese TV journalist faces prosecution after he sought to pass off video footage of a circus tiger as evidence that a wild tiger lived in a forest park in southern China, local media reported on Tuesday.
It marked the latest in a series of cases in which China's media have questioned the authenticity of purported images of endangered animals.
Wu Hua, a reporter with a local television station in Pingjiang county in southern Hunan province, asked wildlife authorities on Wednesday to verify the identity of a tiger he said he had "unintentionally captured on film", Xinhua news agency said.
Local media had speculated that the animal might be the wild South China tiger, a sub-species long feared extinct, and the subject of a separate controversy involving photographs allegedly taken in China's northern Shaanxi province.
After a four-day probe, investigators identified Wu's tiger as a Siberian tiger belonging to a touring circus, Xinhua said.
"According to local villagers, many people had seen a cage enter the scenic area," the Beijing News reported, citing investigators, who had also noted tracks from a cage at the site where the video was shot.
The owner of the forest park where the tiger had been filmed confessed to investigators that the footage had been rigged, the paper said.
"(The journalist's) intention wasn't to do an animal report, but to do an advertisement for the (park)," the paper quoted an investigator as saying.
The reports did not explain the journalist's motive, but quoted a media academic as saying that there were "benefits" in obtaining official verification of the endangered South China tiger found in the wild.
The probe into the case was continuing but the people involved would face "at least" the charge of illegally transporting an endangered animal, the report said, citing a wildlife official surnamed Wang.
The case echoed a recent controversy surrounding photographs produced by a farmer in Shaanxi province of a tiger he said were taken in the forest near his village.
A local forestry official said they proved the South China tiger still existed in the wild, but he later apologised for hastily verifying the photographs after others denounced them as fake.
Last month, the chief editor of a Chinese newspaper quit after one of its photographers reportedly faked a prize-winning photograph of endangered Tibetan antelopes appearing unfazed by a passing train on the Qinghai-Tibet railway. (Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Ken Wills and Sophie Hardach)
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSPEK175249
Tiger pugmarks 'left behind'
Tiger pugmarks 'left behind'
26 Mar 2008, 0735 hrs IST,Vijay Pinjarkar,TNN
NAGPUR: In a bid to keep abreast of modern conservation methods and, at the same time, address an array of parameters related to the survival of tigers, 'Project Tiger' (now called the National Tiger Conservation Authority) has decided to discard the age-old pugmark method of counting tigers and adopt new techniques from this year.
Nandkishore, chief conservator of forests (CCF), wildlife, Nagpur, confirmed the development saying his office has received a notification from the chief wildlife warden on this issue. "The decision has been taken at a meeting with NTCA member-secretary Dr Rajesh Gopal. The issue had even come up for discussion in the meeting of top forest officials at Kanha on March 14-15."
Nandkishore informed that tigers, co-predators, prey and their habitat monitoring would now be done with the help of line transact method wherein field data collection protocols will be followed in consultation with field managers and scientists. "It'll be like knowing about the species with the blend of best available science and technology," he said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Tiger_pugmarks_left_behind/articleshow/2900168.cms
26 Mar 2008, 0735 hrs IST,Vijay Pinjarkar,TNN
NAGPUR: In a bid to keep abreast of modern conservation methods and, at the same time, address an array of parameters related to the survival of tigers, 'Project Tiger' (now called the National Tiger Conservation Authority) has decided to discard the age-old pugmark method of counting tigers and adopt new techniques from this year.
Nandkishore, chief conservator of forests (CCF), wildlife, Nagpur, confirmed the development saying his office has received a notification from the chief wildlife warden on this issue. "The decision has been taken at a meeting with NTCA member-secretary Dr Rajesh Gopal. The issue had even come up for discussion in the meeting of top forest officials at Kanha on March 14-15."
Nandkishore informed that tigers, co-predators, prey and their habitat monitoring would now be done with the help of line transact method wherein field data collection protocols will be followed in consultation with field managers and scientists. "It'll be like knowing about the species with the blend of best available science and technology," he said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Tiger_pugmarks_left_behind/articleshow/2900168.cms
Tigers: Spy In The Jungle
Tigers: Spy In The Jungle
Bouldercam and a host of new spycams are on their most exciting mission yet - to film the story of tiger cubs growing up deep inside the Indian jungle. In an extraordinary development that captures images of extraordinary intimacy, elephants become cameramen. This revealing programme follows the different stages of a tigers life from playful cubs, to learning adolescent and ultimately to young hunting adult. It also provides a unique insight into how the relationship with other jungle animals changes as they mature. The elephant camera assistants access the most remote jungle hideaways, in search of these elusive subjects.
Amazingly, due to their remarkable intelligence and sensitivity the elephants can carry the cameras on the their tusks and trunks. Using these Tuskcams and Trunkcams the elephants can film the tigers wherever they go, even on the move.
This is a world that has rarely been seen before. Tigers - Spy in the Jungle is a story filled with drama and humour - the most intimate portrayal of tigers ever captured.
VIDEOS
Tigers - Spy In The Jungle
http://www.jdp.co.uk/programmes/Tigers:-Spy-in-the-Jungle/
Bouldercam and a host of new spycams are on their most exciting mission yet - to film the story of tiger cubs growing up deep inside the Indian jungle. In an extraordinary development that captures images of extraordinary intimacy, elephants become cameramen. This revealing programme follows the different stages of a tigers life from playful cubs, to learning adolescent and ultimately to young hunting adult. It also provides a unique insight into how the relationship with other jungle animals changes as they mature. The elephant camera assistants access the most remote jungle hideaways, in search of these elusive subjects.
Amazingly, due to their remarkable intelligence and sensitivity the elephants can carry the cameras on the their tusks and trunks. Using these Tuskcams and Trunkcams the elephants can film the tigers wherever they go, even on the move.
This is a world that has rarely been seen before. Tigers - Spy in the Jungle is a story filled with drama and humour - the most intimate portrayal of tigers ever captured.
VIDEOS
Tigers - Spy In The Jungle
http://www.jdp.co.uk/programmes/Tigers:-Spy-in-the-Jungle/
Elephants capture amazing tiger footage
Elephants capture amazing tiger footage
By staff writers
March 25, 2008 01:00pm
ELEPHANTS fitted with high definition video cameras have been used to capture up-close footage of the life of tigers in a world-first.
UK documentary-maker John Downer replaced traditional cameramen with four elephants that had cameras attached to their trunks and tusks.
He describes the result on his website as “the most intimate portrayal of tigers ever captured”.
View a trailer for the new documentary here
“Using these Tuskcams and Trunkcams the elephants can film the tigers wherever they go, even on the move,” he said.
While the documentary, Tiger: Spy in the Jungle, focusses on the lives of tigers living in an Indian jungle, other animals make cameo appearances – including a group of monkeys so curious about the equipment attached to the elephants they reportedly began tapping on the camera lenses.
Footage of leopards, a sloth bear and jackals was also captured.
“(The documentary) also provides a unique insight into how the relationship with other jungle animals changes as (tigers) mature,” Mr Downer said.
He told the Daily Mail newspaper that he came up with the “Trunkcam” idea after he noticed how carefully elephants carried firewood to a camp.
“Elephants do not see tigers as a threat, and tigers are comfortable with elephants. So we had the perfect team,” he said.
“Elephants are natural inhabitants of the reserve, so the tigers aren't fazed at all by them. Eventually, they realise that we humans are no risk either.
“So we became, effectively, invisible - filming one of the world's most beautiful creatures in a way no one has ever done before.”
The documentary will be shown on TV by the BBC.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23428661-2,00.html
By staff writers
March 25, 2008 01:00pm
ELEPHANTS fitted with high definition video cameras have been used to capture up-close footage of the life of tigers in a world-first.
UK documentary-maker John Downer replaced traditional cameramen with four elephants that had cameras attached to their trunks and tusks.
He describes the result on his website as “the most intimate portrayal of tigers ever captured”.
View a trailer for the new documentary here
“Using these Tuskcams and Trunkcams the elephants can film the tigers wherever they go, even on the move,” he said.
While the documentary, Tiger: Spy in the Jungle, focusses on the lives of tigers living in an Indian jungle, other animals make cameo appearances – including a group of monkeys so curious about the equipment attached to the elephants they reportedly began tapping on the camera lenses.
Footage of leopards, a sloth bear and jackals was also captured.
“(The documentary) also provides a unique insight into how the relationship with other jungle animals changes as (tigers) mature,” Mr Downer said.
He told the Daily Mail newspaper that he came up with the “Trunkcam” idea after he noticed how carefully elephants carried firewood to a camp.
“Elephants do not see tigers as a threat, and tigers are comfortable with elephants. So we had the perfect team,” he said.
“Elephants are natural inhabitants of the reserve, so the tigers aren't fazed at all by them. Eventually, they realise that we humans are no risk either.
“So we became, effectively, invisible - filming one of the world's most beautiful creatures in a way no one has ever done before.”
The documentary will be shown on TV by the BBC.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23428661-2,00.html
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