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Tiger - Panthera tigris
Topic Started: Jan 7 2012, 08:50 PM (34,931 Views)
Warsaw2014
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The Tiger as Scavenger: Case Histories and Deduced
Recommendations.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/ak866e/ak866e00.pdf
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animalkingdom
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White tiger vijay at delhi zoo, look at size this is massive bengal tiger, for my estimate this white tiger is around 240 kg.

Posted Image

look at the teeth of this white bengal tiger at delhi zoo
Posted Image

Edited by animalkingdom, May 24 2016, 02:01 PM.
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Warsaw2014
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animalkingdom
May 24 2016, 02:00 PM
White tiger vijay at delhi zoo, look at size this is massive bengal tiger, for my estimate this white tiger is around 240 kg.

Posted Image

look at the teeth of this white bengal tiger at delhi zoo
Posted Image

"But several witnesses said the young man appeared to have lost his balance while standing on the edge of the barrier, possibly while throwing stones at the seven-year-old tiger, said to weigh around 470lbs. "

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/white-tiger-attack-delhi-zoo-staff-face-investigation-after-they-did-nothing-for-15-minutes-when-9752979.html
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Mammuthus
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Tiger kills women after getting out of the car

A tiger attacked two women after they left their car in a Beijing animal park on Saturday.

The beginning of the attack was caught on surveillance footage in the Siberian tiger enclosure of Badaling Wildlife World. The video shows the younger woman exiting her car and walking around it to get back in, when the tiger seizes her and drags her off-screen. In the widely-shared video, the woman’s husband and mother jump out of the car to follow the attacker.


The husband was uninjured, reports the New York Times, but the mother was killed trying to save her daughter, who sustained serious injuries. It’s unclear why the woman exited her vehicle in the middle of a tiger sanctuary: reports surfaced that she was having an argument with her husband, but the South China Morning Post reported that the couple wasn’t fighting and that they had thought they were out of the tiger area.

Park officials have declined to comment on the attack, but said the park has remained closed due to impending rain.



Edited by Mammuthus, Nov 21 2016, 05:07 AM.
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animalkingdom
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Warsaw2014
Oct 19 2016, 03:19 AM
animalkingdom
May 24 2016, 02:00 PM
White tiger vijay at delhi zoo, look at size this is massive bengal tiger, for my estimate this white tiger is around 240 kg.

Posted Image

look at the teeth of this white bengal tiger at delhi zoo
Posted Image

"But several witnesses said the young man appeared to have lost his balance while standing on the edge of the barrier, possibly while throwing stones at the seven-year-old tiger, said to weigh around 470lbs. "

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/white-tiger-attack-delhi-zoo-staff-face-investigation-after-they-did-nothing-for-15-minutes-when-9752979.html
^yEAH i have read that.
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zergthe
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National Geographic is really happy today...http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/02/wildlife-watch-tigers-chase-drone-farm-china/

What You Need to Know About Tiger Farms
A viral video showing tigers chasing a drone likely comes from a slaughter facility in China.

A video that went viral on Thursday of Siberian tigers chasing a drone may have a dark side, various media outlets have pointed out.

In the video, published by China Central Television, a state-run channel, a group of tigers run after a drone and eventually knock it out of the sky. The drone was reportedly part of the tigers’ keepers’ plans to keep the animals fit.

But the video’s fun value didn’t last long. Several news organizations have since reported that the tigers likely live on a tiger farm in China. The country has only an estimated seven tigers in the wild, in northeastern China, and the animals in the video are clearly obese—a sign of overfeeding. There are many such facilities in China—and across Asia.

WHAT IS A TIGER FARM?
A tiger farm is a facility that breeds tigers like livestock. While alive, the tigers attract tourists who come to gawk at the animals and even take selfies. Cubs in particular are a draw, encouraging speed breeding in which cubs are taken away from their mothers at a young age, forcing the females to go into heat again sooner than they would in nature. Tigers are later slaughtered for the luxury and medicinal markets. Farms range from small operations to industrial-size facilities, like those in China. They may be promoted as zoos or sanctuaries, such as Thailand’s infamous Tiger Temple, a popular tourist destination that was raided by authorities last year on the suspicion of tiger trafficking.

WHY DO PEOPLE WANT TIGER PARTS?
Live tigers may be bought and sold to other tiger farms, where they’re used as props for tourists and as breeding stock, but most of the demand is for luxury goods and traditional medicine.

Some believe, erroneously, that tiger bone wine, which is made by steeping the animal’s bones in rice wine, will impart the drinker with the animal’s strength. Sellers have found many ways to get around China’s tiger wine ban, including simply taking the word “tiger” off the label. Bones are also ground into a powder and turned into pills, often sold as a cure for rheumatism. And tiger penis is said to be an aphrodisiac. Tiger parts are also used as a status symbol. Tiger rugs and necklaces with amulets containing pieces of tiger skin show off an owner’s wealth and prestige. Tiger claws and teeth are bought as charms, and meat is sometimes on the menu as a delicacy.

HOW MANY TIGERS ARE IN CAPTIVITY AND WHERE?
China alone has an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 captive tigers. In total there are believed to be 7,000 to 8,000 tigers on farms in Asia and Southeast Asia, compared to no more than 4,000 left in the wild (and that may be an overly generous estimate). There are also several tiger farms in South Africa. An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 tigers live in captivity in the United States, in backyards, roadside zoos, and private menageries, and there are more tigers in captivity in other parts of the world

In 2007 the international community passed a decision at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) agreeing that tigers should not be bred for trade in their body parts and saying that tiger farms should be scaled back. Numerous reports have subsequently shown, however, that both the domestic and international trade in tiger parts has grown.

DO TIGER FARMS HELP PROTECT WILD TIGERS?
Proponents of tiger farms say they take pressure off wild populations. Most conservationists agree that tiger farms simply increase the demand for tiger products.

“If there was any indication that they led to tigers in the wild not being persecuted, we would have seen it by now. We haven’t,” Kanitha Krishnasamy of TRAFFIC, the organization that monitors wildlife trade, told National Geographic in October.

Tiger farms help erase the stigma around tiger products, encouraging more people to buy them, and it’s believed that they fuel poaching of wild tigers. Some consumers believe wild tiger “medicines” are more potent than those from captive-bred tigers. “Trade in parts and derivatives of captive-bred tigers perpetuates the desirability of tiger products, in turn stimulating poaching of wild tigers,” Debbie Banks, of the Environmental Investigation Agency, a London-based NGO, told National Geographic in October.
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Taipan
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Indochinese tigers: Thai jungle cameras reveals new breeding population of endangered big cat
Updated earlier today at 1:03am


YOUTUBE: Rare Indochinese Tiger population discovered in Eastern Thailand on jungle cam

Images of Indochinese tigers and cubs captured on camera in Thailand's eastern jungle have confirmed the existence of the world's second breeding population of the critically endangered animals, wildlife conservationists said.

Poaching for the skin and body parts of tigers, used in traditional Chinese medicine, is a multi-million dollar business in Asia that has driven the animals to the brink of extinction in the wild.

Of about 3,900 tigers believed to be left in the wild globally, just about 350 belonged to the Indochinese species living in Thailand and Myanmar, figures from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) showed in 2011.

Images from 156 camera traps installed by Thai wildlife authorities along with Freeland, a group that fights wildlife trafficking, and Panthera, a global wild cat conservation group, documented at least six cubs from four females.

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PHOTO: Conservationist say the discovery provides a "little bit of hope". (Supplied: Freeland/Panthera)

Wildlife officials hailed the pictures as the first evidence of tigers breeding in Thailand's eastern region in more than 15 years, highlighting the success of authorities' patrol and protection efforts against illegal poaching and logging.

"It provides a little bit of hope that potentially, we no longer have all of our eggs in one basket," Eric Ash, a conservation project manager at Freeland, said.
"That really can only happen if tigers have effective, sufficient amount of prey and if they have sufficient protection."

Western Thailand was the site of the only previously known breeding population of Indochinese tigers.

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PHOTO: The images were taken from 156 camera traps. (Supplied: Freeland/Panthera)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-30/rare-indochinese-tigers-captured-on-jungle-cam-in-thailand/8399068?WT.tsrc=Facebook_Organic
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Ntwadumela
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A curious genetic phenomenon, found nowhere else in the world, is occurring in the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) in Odisha. Normal tigers are giving birth to black or melanistic tigers and even normal cubs are being delivered by the black or melanistic tigresses. A census carried out by the Odisha forest department in STR in 2016 found six- seven melanistic tigers out of a total of 29, including cubs that have so far been recorded through camera traps. “We are witnessing a growing trend of black tigers in STR in the past few years. In a litter comprising three-four cubs, one or two are born dark,” says Ajit Kumar Satpathy, deputy field director, STR.

Complete article here: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/bright-and-black-57520
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Taipan
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Limited gene flow between two Bengal tiger populations in the western Himalayan foothills
Connectivity could be maintained by relocating villages, and banning sand and boulder mines


Date: April 26, 2017
Source:PLOS

Posted Image
Map showing tiger samples locations collected from WTAL, human habitation depicted by the amount of night light pollution and identified corridors C1&C2.
Credit: Singh et al (2017)
The flow of genes between Bengal tigers in two reserves of the Terai Arc Landscape in western Himalayan foothills is too low, according to a study published April 26, 2017 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Surendra Prakash Goyal from Wildlife Institute of India, India, and colleagues.

Tigers are endangered partly due to habitat loss, which can fragment populations and reduce gene flow among them. Gene flow between populations can maintain genetic variation and spread beneficial gene alleles, so understanding the gene flow of isolated tiger populations i.e. in western Himalayan foothills is crucial in developing management strategies for conserving these big cats. Goyal and colleagues analyzed DNA from 71 samples of tissue, blood or scat from Bengal tigers to assess their gene flow in an 1,800-square-kilometer region of the western Himalayan foothills. The region has two main subpopulations of tigers, one in the Rajaji Tiger Reserve and the other in the Corbett Tiger Reserve.

The researchers found that tiger gene flow between two reserves was asymmetrical and was lower than in previous reports in other tiger populations. Functionality of the corridor (C1 and C2 map) could remain viable if habitat quality does not deteriorate any more. However, given changing land use in the connecting corridor, the gene flow was inadequate. The authors suggest that measures to maintain connectivity between the tiger reserves could include relocating villages and industries, reducing human dependency, banning sand and boulder mining in the corridors.

Story Source: PLOS. "Limited gene flow between two Bengal tiger populations in the western Himalayan foothills: Connectivity could be maintained by relocating villages, and banning sand and boulder mines." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170426141724.htm (accessed April 26, 2017).




Journal Reference:
Sujeet Kumar Singh, Jouni Aspi, Laura Kvist, Reeta Sharma, Puneet Pandey, Sudhanshu Mishra, Randeep Singh, Manoj Agrawal, Surendra Prakash Goyal. Fine-scale population genetic structure of the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) in a human-dominated western Terai Arc Landscape, India. PLOS ONE, 2017; 12 (4): e0174371 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0174371

Abstract
Despite massive global conservation strategies, tiger populations continued to decline until recently, mainly due to habitat loss, human-animal conflicts, and poaching. These factors are known to affect the genetic characteristics of tiger populations and decrease local effective population sizes. The Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) at the foothills of the Himalaya is one of the 42 source sites of tigers around the globe. Therefore, information on how landscape features and anthropogenic factors affect the fine-scale spatial genetic structure and variation of tigers in TAL is needed to develop proper management strategies for achieving long-term conservation goals. We document, for the first time, the genetic characteristics of this tiger population by genotyping 71 tiger samples using 13 microsatellite markers from the western region of TAL (WTAL) of 1800 km2. Specifically, we aimed to estimate the genetic variability, population structure, and gene flow. The microsatellite markers indicated that the levels of allelic diversity (MNA = 6.6) and genetic variation (Ho = 0.50, HE = 0.64) were slightly lower than those reported previously in other Bengal tiger populations. We observed moderate gene flow and significant genetic differentiation (FST= 0.060) and identified the presence of cryptic genetic structure using Bayesian and non-Bayesian approaches. There was low and significantly asymmetric migration between the two main subpopulations of the Rajaji Tiger Reserve and the Corbett Tiger Reserve in WTAL. Sibship relationships indicated that the functionality of the corridor between these subpopulations may be retained if the quality of the habitat does not deteriorate. However, we found that gene flow is not adequate in view of changing land use matrices. We discuss the need to maintain connectivity by implementing the measures that have been suggested previously to minimize the level of human disturbance, including relocation of villages and industries, prevention of encroachment, and banning sand and boulder mining in the corridors.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0174371
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paul cooper
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Jun 27 2015, 09:04 AM
Some Tigers Could Be Wiped Out to Save Others
JUN 26, 2015 02:00 PM ET // BY JENNIFER VIEGAS

A tiger currently classified as being a Sumatran tiger. It would be reclassified as a Sunda tiger, if the suggested new guidelines were implemented.

Seven of nine tiger subspecies should be eliminated, advises a new paper that could radically change the way that not only tigers, but also other animals, are classified.

If the proposed changes, outlined in the latest issue of Science Advances, are implemented, the world’s tigers would only fall into two subspecies: the Sunda tiger and the continental tiger. These subspecies would no longer be recognized: Bengal tiger, Caspian tiger, Amur tiger, Javan tiger, South Chinese tiger, Balinese tiger, Sumatran tiger, Indochinese tiger and Malayan tiger.

“A classification into too many subspecies — with weak or even no scientific support — reduces the scope of action for breeding and rehabilitation programs,” lead author Andreas Wilting told Discovery News. “For example, tiger populations in South China and Indochina have been reduced to such low numbers that, if each continues to be classified as separate subspecies, they would likely face extinction.”

The situation is dire, as fewer than 4000 tigers inhabit the forests of Asia. The big cats occupy only 7 percent of their estimated former distribution range. Habitat loss and degradation, as well as hunting by humans, are the primary threats to tigers now.

Wilting explained, “There is still a very high demand for various products from wild tigers, particularly in Eastern Asia.”

For the study, Wilting and an international team of researchers compared the form and structure of more than 200 tiger skulls, as well as the coloration and stripe patterns of more than 100 tiger skins with molecular genetic data, ecological and life history traits.

The comparisons found that there is tremendous overlap between the existing nine subspecies. Tigers from the three Sunda islands — Sumatra, Java and Bali — were, however, different enough from continental tigers to warrant their classification into a separate subspecies.

Right now subspecies are largely defined by a population’s primary geographic region, which is why their locations are in their subspecies names, from Bengal to Malayan.

“The problem with using the geographical distribution is that it is arbitrary where to draw the lines, particularly on continuous habitats such as continental Asia,” Wilting said, explaining that no clear geographical barriers have existed over the past ten thousand or more years for mainland Asian tigers.

The taxonomic status of all living wild cats is now being revised by a working group of the IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group. The co-chairs of that are Urs Breitenmoser and his wife Christine Breitenmoser-Würsten.

While the Breitenmosers suggest that more research is needed on tigers before a decision is made on the proposed changing of subspecies, they told Discovery News that “the practical consequences for conservation could be that the reduction of subspecies in tigers could considerably ease translocation and therefore the recolonization.”

They explained that re-introducing tigers into their known native habitats is just one of many conservation tools that are being considered.

They believe that the new paper is “extremely interesting with regards to its possible practical consequences, and is a model case for future reevaluation of the phylogenetic (evolutionary history) status of widely distributed species.”

Wilting echoed that the new approach could likely be applied to animals other than tigers.

“We are certain that for many other species, the current taxonomy is invalid,” he said. “Most species and subspecies were described hundreds or decades ago, mainly based on a low number of available specimens.”












Planning tiger recovery: Understanding intraspecific variation for effective conservation

Andreas Wilting, Alexandre Courtiol, Per Christiansen, Jürgen Niedballa, Anne K. Scharf, Ludovic Orlando, Niko Balkenhol, Heribert Hofer, Stephanie Kramer-Schadt, Jörns Fickel, Andrew C. Kitchener


Although significantlymoremoney is spent on the conservation of tigers than on any other threatened species, today only 3200 to 3600 tigers roam the forests of Asia, occupying only 7% of their historical range. Despite the global significance of and interest in tiger conservation, global approaches to plan tiger recovery are partly impeded by the lack of a consensus on the number of tiger subspecies or management units, because a comprehensive analysis
of tiger variation is lacking. We analyzed variation among all nine putative tiger subspecies, using extensive data sets of several traits [morphological (craniodental and pelage), ecological, molecular].Our analyses revealed little variation and large overlaps in each trait among putative subspecies, and molecular data showed extremely low diversity because of a severe Late Pleistocene population decline. Our results support recognition of only two subspecies: the Sunda tiger, Panthera tigris sondaica, and the continental tiger, Panthera tigris tigris, which consists of two (northern and southern) management units. Conservation management programs, such as captive breeding, reintroduction initiatives, or trans-boundary projects, rely on a durable, consistent characterization of subspecies as taxonomic units, defined by robust multiple lines of scientific evidence rather than single traits or ad hoc descriptions of one or few specimens. Our multiple-trait data set supports a fundamental rethinking of the conventional tiger taxonomy paradigm, which will have profound implications for the management of in situ and ex situ tiger populations and boost conservation efforts by facilitating a pragmatic approach to tiger conservation management worldwide.

Thats a stupid idea.. each tiger subspecies is different from each other because they live in different places in the world, A bengal tiger is different from any other subspecies. Lmao make it easy and mix up all the subspecies, Lazy mofos. CONSERVation..
Edited by paul cooper, Sep 30 2017, 05:26 PM.
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Warsaw2014
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Wild versus domestic prey in the diet of reintroduced tigers (Panthera tigris) in the livestock-dominated multiple-use forests of Panna Tiger Reserve, India
Grazing livestock in openly accessible areas is a common practice in the multiple-use forests of India; however, its compatibility with the reintroduction of tigers to these areas requires examination. Here, we investigated the diet of tigers in a livestock-dominated multiple-use buffer zone of the Panna Tiger Reserve, India. We hypothesised that the presence of feral cattle, along with open-access grazing practices in multiple-use forests, would increase the incidence of predation on livestock by tigers, even when wild prey are available. We used generalised linear models to test whether predation of livestock versus wild animals was influenced by (1) the sex and age class of tigers, (2) season, and (3) the distance of prey from the core-zone boundary of the reserve. Overall, sub-adult tigers and male tigers killed more livestock than wild prey, even when wild prey was available. In the winter and rainy seasons livestock were killed in higher numbers in the buffer zone than in summers, this may be because of the seasonally changing livestock herding patterns in the area. Further, with increasing distance from the core-zone boundary, all tigers killed more livestock, possibly because livestock were more easily accessible than wild prey. Our results show that open-access and unregulated livestock grazing is not currently compatible with large carnivore conservation in the same landscape. Such practices will lead to an increase in negative tiger-human-livestock interactions. In conclusion, we suggest the need to encourage locals to corral valuable cattle, leaving feral/unwanted livestock for tigers. This simple strategy would benefit both local inhabitants and tiger conservation in the multiple-use forests of India.
Our final analysis included 627 kills from 10 tigers (6 ♀ and 4 ♂) collected over a 5-year period between 2009 and 2014. Tigers primarily preyed on large and intermediate sized wild and domestic prey animals in the PTR (Table 1). Wild prey represented 54% of all kills made by tigers, while domestic prey animals represented 43%. Sambar deer represented 70% of all wild prey that were killed. Cows represented 87% of all domestic animals killed (Table 1). Small-sized prey animals (like reptiles, birds, and mongoose) represented <5% of the tiger diet, and were better represented in tiger scats compared to carcass counts; however, large prey were also predominant in scats. As a result, scat analysis was used only used to validate the presence and quantity of small prey in the tiger diet (see online supplement).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5381891/
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Taipan
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Sumatran tigers on path to recovery in 'in danger' UNESCO World Heritage site

Date: October 23, 2017
Source: Wildlife Conservation Society

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A new study says Sumatran tigers are increasing in Indonesia's Bukit Barisan NP despite the continued threat of living in an 'In Danger' World Heritage Site.
Credit: WCS/Panthera

A new scientific publication from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park Authority looks at the effectiveness of the park's protection zone and finds that the density of Sumatran tigers has increased despite the continued threat of living in an 'In Danger' World Heritage Site.

Living only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the Critically Endangered Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is the only extant sub-species of 'Island tigers', which includes the now-extinct Javan and Bali tiger. This sub-species is genetically distinct from the other six sub-species of continental tigers.

Sumatran tigers face many challenges to their continued existence in the wild, where they require a home range of 25,000 hectares. These include being poached for their skin, bones and other body parts, involvement in conflict with people, a depleted prey base, and habitat loss.

The study set 123 PantheraCam camera traps over a 1,000 km2 forest block located in a protection zone specially designated by the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park Authority to improve park protection and aid in the recovery of flagship species.

Results of the camera-trap study showed a Sumatran tiger population density increase to 2.8 tigers/100 km2 (2015) from 1.6 tigers/100 km2 (2002). Furthermore, the proportion of male and female tigers recently recorded was 1: 3. "This ratio indicates that the tiger population in the National Park is in a healthy condition and breeding opportunity exists for many females within the areas we surveyed," said lead author, Wulan Pusparini, WCS Species Conservation Specialist. "Our study not only looks at population condition, but also used the photographs to assess the threat of people illegally entering the park."

Timbul Batubara, one of the co-authors and the then head of the Bukit Barisan National Park stated, "The tiger population increase can't be separated from our efforts to maintain this area through ranger patrols. With support from WCS and other partners, we conducted patrols in and around the park to remove tiger and prey snare traps and prevent habitat encroachment."

WCS-Indonesia Country Director and co-author of the paper Dr Noviar Andayani added, "This increasing population trend in Sumatran tigers is a dream come true for all conservationists in Indonesia. I appreciate the work of the park authority and our field team for their efforts in not only protecting tigers and their habitat, but also collecting robust research data to demonstrate this trend and ensure that in the coming years, the UNESCO Tropical Heritage of Sumatra can be removed from the 'in danger list'."

This work was supported by Panthera and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Story Source: Wildlife Conservation Society. "Sumatran tigers on path to recovery in 'in danger' UNESCO World Heritage site." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171023122930.htm (accessed October 24, 2017).




Journal Reference:
Wulan Pusparini, Timbul Batubara, Fahrudin Surahmat, Ardiantiono, Tri Sugiharti, Muhammad Muslich, Fahrul Amama, William Marthy, Noviar Andayani. A pathway to recovery: the Critically Endangered Sumatran tiger Panthera tigris sumatrae in an ‘in danger’ UNESCO World Heritage Site. Oryx, 2017; 1 DOI: 10.1017/S0030605317001144

Abstract
Reliable information on wildlife populations and the threats they face is crucial for assessing the performance of conservation strategies. As part of its efforts to improve the effectiveness of Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park in Sumatra, Indonesia, and aid the recovery of flagship species, the Park's management authority designated a 1,000 km2 forest block an Intensive Protection Zone. To set a baseline from which to evaluate the performance of this zone, we investigated the density of tigers Panthera tigris sumatrae, and spatio-temporal interactions between tigers, their principle prey and threats. The estimated density of tigers was 2.8 per 100 km2, whereas in 2002 camera-trapping failed to record any tigers in the Intensive Protection Zone. We found the study area contained a rich prey base, with muntjac deer Muntiacus muntjak, macaques Macaca nemestrina and wild pigs Sus scrofa occupying 85–98% of the area, and sambar Rusa unicolor 61%. Despite these promising findings we also recorded a relatively high number of people entering the Park illegally, with 77 incidents over 6 months, of which 20% involved armed poachers. The poachers operated mainly at night and were concentrated in two locations. Law enforcement patrol teams were active during the day, and therefore had little overlap with the poachers. Prioritizing these at-risk areas for increased protection by rangers would further secure the Intensive Protection Zone, and expanding ranger activity across the Park would support efforts to remove the Park from UNESCO's List of World Heritage In Danger.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/pathway-to-recovery-the-critically-endangered-sumatran-tiger-panthera-tigris-sumatrae-in-an-in-danger-unesco-world-heritage-site/4D70AFAFCB27CD39F4A2C262CD0ABBFE
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Taipan
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Endangered Siberian Tiger Returns From Exile
Vladik was once forcibly removed from the Russian city Vladivostok. Now, one year, 400 miles, and three dead bears later, he's back.




PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2, 2017

Vladik, a well-known, lone male Siberian tiger, has hit the road again.

The endangered four-year-old tiger was recently spotted in the same region where he was exiled this time last year.

Vladik first made headlines in October 2016 when he wandered into the far eastern Russian town of Vladivostok, his namesake. The Siberian tiger population in this area has been low after habitat loss and hunting caused their population to plummet in the 1930s. It's extremely rare for residents to see a tiger in the streets, so when 300-pound Vladik sauntered into town, they panicked.

The Siberian Times reported that police patrolled the streets with machine guns and drones. Vladik was eventually captured after police received a tip about his whereabouts, tracked him down, fired a sedative shot into his neck, and transferred the comatose tiger to the Amur Tiger Center, a group that works to rescue and rehabilitate Siberian tigers.

For seven months, Vladik stayed at the center, where veterinarians monitored his health and tested his hunting skills. For his release, Amur, World Wildlife Fund Russia, and Russia's Natural Resources Ministry sponsored a helicopter to fly the big cat into Bikin National Park.

It was a conservation success story with a happy ending. But Vladik had other plans.

For months, the tiger has been roaming the region, preying on Himalayan black bears, crossing a highway, traversing a railroad track, and bypassing several small towns. He walked nearly 400 miles south, where he was spotted just outside of his old stomping grounds, Vladivostok. This time around, however, Vladik seems to be exercising more caution and keeping a lower profile.

The center admitted they've known for months that Vladik moved out of the park but only recently made that knowledge public, out of fear for the cat's safety. Officials know where the tiger is because they fitted him with a GPS tracking collar before he was released into the park, in part to study movements of the species.

So far, Vladik hasn't walked in front of the camera traps the center has rigged along his predicted path, so they've only been able to track his motion from afar.

"We are joking that this might be a 'victory lap,'" said Andrey Shorshin from the Amur Tiger Center.

Large male tigers like Vladik are known to roam large distances in search of territory that may provide access to a mate and a steady food supply.

Ten percent of the world's endangered Amur tiger population resides in Bikin National Park, and officials speculated that Vladik may have left because of overcrowding. Reconciling a slowly rebounding tiger population with increasing development is a difficult problem for the Amur Tiger Center and other conservationists. Roughly 500 Siberian tigers can be found in the region, and their population is expected to grow.

By continuing to track Vladik, Shorshin said they can learn more about how Siberian tigers are adapting to human development.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/vladik-vladivostok-russia-far-east-siberian-tiger-spd/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20171102news-vladiktigerreturns&utm_campaign=Content&sf138374310=1
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Tigers cling to survival in Sumatra's increasingly fragmented forests

Date: December 5, 2017
Source: University of California - Berkeley

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Tiger 'poses' for a camera trap in Sumatra.
Credit: Matthew Luskin

A research expedition tracked endangered tigers through the Sumatran jungles for a year and found tigers are clinging to survival in low density populations. Their findings have renewed fears about the possible extinction of the elusive predators.

Tigers on the neighboring islands of Java, Bali, and Singapore went extinct in the 20th century, prompting new anti-poaching efforts to prevent the same fate for the subspecies on Sumatra. Those efforts have largely been successful. The density of tigers has increased over last two decades and their numbers are twice as high in unlogged forests, the study found. But the study also found that well-protected forests are disappearing and are increasingly fragmented: Of the habitat tigers rely on in Sumatra, 17 percent was deforested between 2000 to 2012 alone, erasing any gains to the tigers' chance of survival, the study authors wrote. Habitat destruction for oil palm plantations was a leading culprit of deforestation.

"Our results are a mixed bag," said lead author Matthew Luskin, who conducted the research for his graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and is now a research fellow with the Smithsonian Institution and based at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. "The loss of key habitat is causing significant conservation challenges for Sumatra -- and in particular for this critically endangered species."

The study was published December 5th in the journal Nature Communications and was funded by the National Geographic Society.

Obtaining information on rare, stealthy predators is not easy, especially in jungles. The researchers spent a year trekking through remote Sumatran forests, mounting hundreds of cameras that take pictures and video whenever an animal passes. Individual tigers are identified by their unique pattern of stripes, allowing the researchers to track their movement.

With data from the cameras, the scientists calculated a Sumatran tiger's home range to be roughly 150 square miles, about the three times the size of San Francisco. This is much larger than tiger home ranges in other regions like India and indicates they need larger parks to survive.

The study found that tiger densities are 47 percent higher in primary versus degraded (logged) forests and that extensive clearing of pristine lowland forest has disproportionately reduced tiger numbers. This is no surprise: Between 1990 and 2010, Sumatra lost 37 percent of its primary forest. As a result, tiger subpopulations also became significantly more fragmented, greatly increasing their threat of extinction in each individual forest and as a species. ?

The research team combined their results and with data from other scientists and estimated the number of tigers in each remaining forest in Sumatra. They found that there are now only two habitats large enough to host more than 30 breeding females, an indicator of viable tiger populations over the long term.

"The erosion of large wilderness areas pushes Sumatran tigers one step closer to extinction," Luskin said. "We hope this serves as a wakeup call."

Co-author Mathias Tobler of San Diego Zoo Global added: "Safeguarding the remaining expanses of primary forests is now absolutely critical to ensuring tigers can persist indefinitely on Sumatra."

The most famous of these expanses is Gunung Leuser National Park in northern Sumatra, where organizations like the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation work to prevent deforestation and poaching.

"Largescale reforestation is unlikely," Tobler said. "If we are going to save Sumatran tigers in the wild, the time to act is now."

Story Source: University of California - Berkeley. "Tigers cling to survival in Sumatra's increasingly fragmented forests." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171205170255.htm (accessed December 6, 2017).




Journal Reference:
Matthew Scott Luskin, Wido Rizki Albert, Mathias W. Tobler. Sumatran tiger survival threatened by deforestation despite increasing densities in parks. Nature Communications, 2017; 8 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01656-4

Abstract
The continuing development of improved capture–recapture (CR) modeling techniques used to study apex predators has also limited robust temporal and cross-site analyses due to different methods employed. We develop an approach to standardize older non-spatial CR and newer spatial CR density estimates and examine trends for critically endangered Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae) using a meta-regression of 17 existing densities and new estimates from our own fieldwork. We find that tiger densities were 47% higher in primary versus degraded forests and, unexpectedly, increased 4.9% per yr from 1996 to 2014, likely indicating a recovery from earlier poaching. However, while tiger numbers may have temporarily risen, the total potential island-wide population declined by 16.6% from 2000 to 2012 due to forest loss and degradation and subpopulations are significantly more fragmented. Thus, despite increasing densities in smaller parks, we conclude that there are only two robust populations left with >30 breeding females, indicating Sumatran tigers still face a high risk of extinction unless deforestation can be controlled.

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Attached File Sumatran_tiger_survival_threatened_by_deforestation_despite_increasing_densities_in_parks.pdf (1.26 MB)
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Warsaw2014
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[ *  *  *  * ]
Living with tigers Panthera tigris: patterns,
correlates, and contexts of human–tiger conflict in
Chitwan National Park, Nepal
R AJENDRA D HUNGANA , T OMMASO S AVINI , J HAMAK B AHADUR K ARKI
M AHESHWAR D HAKAL , B ABU R A M L AMICHHANE and S ARA B UMRUNGSRI

https://www.google.pl/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/14AF6D7983E80BFCB23243FB375015AE/S0030605316001587a.pdf/div-class-title-living-with-tigers-span-class-italic-panthera-tigris-span-patterns-correlates-and-contexts-of-human-tiger-confl&ved=2ahUKEwiL1_mCieXZAhVpYJoKHdIiBO0QFjAAegQIABAB&usg=AOvVaw2mGChOHfsZj8q3vwT5Icce
Edited by Warsaw2014, Mar 12 2018, 05:37 AM.
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