Nature - Siberian Tiger Quest

Chris Morgan has tracked large predators in some of the wildest and most remote places on Earth. He now embarks on his greatest challenge - to find and film the Siberian tiger living wild and free in Russia's far eastern forests. This film features the work of Korean cameraman, Sooyong Park, who spent two years in the forest tracking and filming the world's biggest cat. Park's tracking technique was very unconventional. He dug himself into an underground pit and, incredibly, waited there for weeks at a time, hoping for a glimpse of a wild tiger. Morgan adopts the same method while he shares with us firsthand the difficulty of seeing the rare Siberian tiger.

There are only 300 Siberian tigers left in the wild

Liz Bonnin took her life in her hands every time she ventured outside while filming her new two-part BBC2 series, Operation Snow Tiger. 

In temperatures of -38˚C and with wild tigers roaming the Russian forest where Liz was camped out in a rustic cabin with no mod cons, she knew that becoming a big cat’s breakfast was a definite possibility. 

‘You were pretty safe when you were with the group, but on your own you were vulnerable,’ explains Liz. 

‘Whatever you were doing you had to be quick, because at those temperatures you didn’t want to get frostbite. And if you let your imagination run riot, you’d think there was a tiger behind you...’ 

Luckily Liz, already well known to fans of the science show Bang Goes The Theory, survived her no-frills adventure and is back in the UK to talk about tigers, a cause particularly close to her heart – she studied tiger conservation in India and Nepal for her masters degree. 

For Operation Snow Tiger Liz travelled with a BBC camera crew to Primorye in the far south-eastern corner of Russia, to film the efforts being made to save the estimated 300 remaining Siberian tigers in the wild. With a dead tiger fetching £30,000, they’re being hunted to the brink of extinction for use in traditional Chinese medicine.

Liz and the team met experts in the protected Ussurisk Zapovednik area monitoring the remaining tigers, and the BBC Natural History Unit’s crew brought along motion-sensor cameras to capture its first-ever footage of Siberian tigers, at 70 stone the largest and most elusive of the big cats.

Liz joined the scientists to follow tiger tracks in the snow, collect hair for DNA analysis, and use radio signals to help locate seven previously tagged tigers. There was the odd scary near-miss.

‘When we were out tracking, the radio signal would bounce off hills and obstructions and wasn’t always reliable,’ says Liz. ‘Once I was chatting to one of the scientists and he said, “Wait, wait!” and suddenly the signal told us a tiger was very close.’ 

They dashed to the Jeep. 

‘My heart was beating through my chest! Only about 50 metres away was a tiger in the trees. Usually they want nothing to do with us, but on rare occasions a tiger will be dangerous if it’s injured or starving or you’re encroaching on its prey area.
‘Part of the fascination of these animals is that they’re so elusive and secretive – the fact they try not to be seen adds to the mystery and magic. We came across their beds in the snow. They were so perfect you could see where the female had lain there for six hours, where her tail had been, and there was an imprint of her chin and nostrils that had melted the snow as she slept. It was almost a 3D picture. The snow brings these tigers to life.’

There was high drama over several days when three tiger cubs whose mother had been shot by poachers had to be tracked down, captured and sent to a rehabilitation centre before they starved. ‘No one could have anticipated such dramatic events occurring while we were there,’ says Liz. 

‘When the rangers located the first one and rescued her, they got her into a cage and I was allowed to see her. Seeing those eyes staring back at me melted my heart. But it was sad because she was orphaned, bewildered, separated from her siblings.
'I wanted her to be out in the forest with her mother, but instead she would be held for a year, with minimal human contact, and trained to hunt wild prey until she was deemed fit for release into the wild. I’d love to go back next spring when hopefully all three cubs may be ready for release.’ 

Born in France but raised in Ireland, Liz took a biochemistry degree at Trinity College, Dublin, then a masters degree in wild animal biology. In between her studies she presented entertainment shows on Irish TV and had a brief stint in a short-lived Irish girl band called Chill, before moving to the UK in 2002 for a job on Channel 4’s RI:SE and then Top Of The Pops.

But in 2006 she chucked it all in to study tigers because she ‘missed academia’, before returning to TV to present science shows such as Springwatch and Stargazing Live. Siberian tiger conservation remains her passion, though. 

‘This documentary series is the result of many years of me hassling the BBC Natural History Unit. Eventually they shut me up by sending me to the Russian Far East!’
Liz is currently filming another documentary series on animal behaviour, a follow-up to last year’s Super Smart Animals, and at this rate it’s not fanciful to imagine her career emulating that of her idol David Attenborough. 

She remains modest, though, and still seems surprised at her status as one of the rising stars of science television. ‘When I was younger, watching Big Cat Diary, I used to look at the presenters and think, “Imagine doing that as a job!” But now I’m here. At the risk of sounding slightly dramatic, I feel as though my whole life has led to this point.’

The Saga of the Siberian Tiger

My last blog dealt with the declining vulture population in India. This week we’re going to Russia and Northern China to talk about the Siberian tiger.

This big cat also known as the Amur tiger is in terrible danger. Today, it is estimated 400 to 450 of these tigers remain in the wild. The good news, through conservation efforts by world organizations and government agencies, the species has came back from the brink when it was estimated only 40 tigers were left in their natural habitat in the 1950’s.

But the bad news is the gains made in the last 50 years are about to be wiped away in the next few years. This latest development has world wildlife conservations and experts on edge.

Why? There are a number of reasons:

1)    Poaching: Perhaps the greatest contributor to the tiger’s recent decline. Illegal hunting and the harvesting of tiger organs for traditional medicinal remedies used in China are having a huge impact. This activity is on the rise.

2)    Habitat Destruction: This can mean a number of different things. Increased logging which means road building. With the roads, large territories become cut off. Roads also make it easier for illegal hunters to move about. Climate change via forest fires has also contributed to habitat destruction.

3)    Lack of Law Enforcement: With the economies of China and Russia slowing down, budget cuts to wildlife enforcement will soon follow.  There are simply not enough good people to keep watch and to protect the tigers.

This is all very sad. But you might be saying to yourself there’s very little you can do. You can donate to international wildlife conservation funds and write letters to Chinese and Russian leaders. There are plenty of projects set up exclusively to save the Siberian tiger. Here is one project that has done a lot of work and continues to this day.

Free the Siberian Tigers In Cyprus

The Siberian Tiger is an Endangered Species inhabiting mainly the Sikhote Alin mountain region with a small subpopulation in southwest Primorye province in the Russian Far East where their dense and waterproof coats are built to withstand the cold temperatures. These beautiful creatures now reside in a crappy run-down zoo in Cyprus that should be shut down due to it's extremely poor living conditions, of not only exotic endangered tigers, but also of their Bird & Animal Park.

Some of the birds are kept in very small cages and aren't even allowed to fully stand upright due to the inadequate height of cage(s), with little to no shade from the scorching hot summer temperatures + poor water (small dirty dishes) and severe lack of care & compassion for these animals. This isn't a Zoo, but a prison for all it's residents. Please sign this petition in hopes of (at least) getting better accommodation for it's animal prisoners. These tigers need to roam and hunt and need a bigger living space or need to be moved to an appropriate Wildlife Sanctuary.. now!

They need a (safe, unpolluted) natural pond to bathe in, an air-conditioned room to keep cool, dens built as a refuge from the (temperatures can soar here during summer months - 37* C is probably a good day) heat.. and a better diet. They need wildlife experts & veterinarians called in regularly to oversee the situation and determine if the tigers are thriving. Throwing them some chicken and a few ice cubes in a pool is NOT SATISFACTORY! If the zoo can't afford to invest in the welfare of these tigers, and all of it's animals, it should release them immediately.

Please do the right thing, and sign this petition. Change starts here! Thank you!

Petition:

The Siberian Tiger is an Endangered Species inhabiting mainly the Sikhote Alin mountain region with a small subpopulation in southwest Primorye province in the Russian Far East where their dense and waterproof coats are built to withstand the cold temperatures.

These beautiful creatures now reside in a crappy run-down zoo in Cyprus that should be shut down due to it's extremely poor living conditions, of not only exotic endangered tigers, but also of their Bird & Animal Park. Some of the birds are kept in very small cages and aren't even allowed to fully stand upright due to the inadequate height of cage(s), with little to no shade from the scorching hot summer temperatures + poor water (small dirty dishes) and severe lack of care & compassion for these animals. This isn't a Zoo, but a prison for all it's residents. Please sign this petition in hopes of (at least) getting better accommodation for it's animal prisoners.

These tigers need to roam and hunt and need a bigger living space or need to be moved to an appropriate Wildlife Sanctuary.. now! They need a (safe, unpolluted) natural pond to bathe in, an air-conditioned room to keep cool, dens built as a refuge from the (temperatures can soar here during summer months - 37* C is probably a good day) heat.. and a better diet. They need wildlife experts & veterinarians called in regularly to oversee the situation and determine if the tigers are thriving. Throwing them some chicken and a few ice cubes in a pool is NOT SATISFACTORY! If the zoo can't afford to invest in the welfare of these tigers, and all of it's animals, it should release them immediately.

Please do the right thing, and sign this petition.

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/siberian-tiger/paphos-zoo-welcomes-rare-tigers/20120322

After you sign, please join the Facebook page: Saying NO Siberian Tigers In Cyprus

Tigers at Blank Park Zoo undergo rare insemination procedure

Two Siberian tigers at the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines underwent a rare artificial insemination today that could help the endangered species survive in the wild.

Natural breeding has failed for nearly a decade. Now researchers must wait about 40 days to find out if Goldy is pregnant by Kavacha’s sperm.

If successful, it would mark the first time this particular insemination method — advanced by scientists from the Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens — has helped Siberian tigers in captivity have cubs.

Two scientists from Cincinnati flew to Des Moines to help with the surgery. The project is a joint effort by the zoo, Iowa State University and the Cincinnati researchers.

Scientists said if the procedure is perfected with frozen semen, it could be used to improve the genetics of both captive and wild populations.

Siberian tigers, after decades of hunting, poaching and habitat destruction, are critically endangered. Fewer than 400 are estimated to live in the wild; 143 are in Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited institutions.

The number of recorded artificial insemination attempts with tigers is between 50 and 60, but only two or three have been successful.

Help save Siberian tigers from extinction

To the Editor:

My name is Rowan E. Montgomery and I’m 9 years old. I want to tell you about Siberian tigers and how they’re going extinct.

Siberian tigers live in Russia. They are aggressive and hunt alone. They’re active mostly at night. In the nature special I watched on the Discovery channel, these tigers were so aggressive that they destroyed a fake Siberian tiger that the scientists put out. The fake tiger was so realistic that even the dogs thought it was real! By morning all of the color was taken off and the head, arms and tail were destroyed. This shows how powerful these animals are. They can grow as long as 13 feet and weigh as much as 700 pounds!

Siberian tigers are being killed by guns and other weapons for their body parts and fur. People sell the whiskers, bones and skins. In China they make medicine out of the bones even though it is illegal. Siberian tigers live in forests that are getting cut down for logging, taking away the land they need to live. Between 360 and 450 Siberian tigers are left in the world.

You could help to save the Siberian tigers if you wrote letters to the government, made a donation to a tiger conservation organization, or adopt a Siberian tiger from a zoo. You can make a difference if you just try.


Rowan E. Montgomery
Clay

Russia's Siberian tigers 'face extinction'

A sub-species of tiger faces extinction by 2022 unless decisive action is taken, environmental group WWF warns.

Worldwide tiger populations have plummeted from 100,000 a century ago to less than 7,000 today.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, tigers could be extinct in the wild within a decade.
The Siberian or Amur Tiger is one of the rarest in the world, with only around 500 left in the wild in Russia. But poaching, disease, and habitat loss from intensive logging and development continues to threaten populations.

Siberian tigers may disappear in 20 years

The last remaining Siberian tigers living wild in Northeast China could disappear within decades, as poaching and illegal logging continue to take their toll, experts have warned.

Research by Chinese authorities and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has discovered that the animal is already one of the planet’s most endangered species.

In just the last 70 years, the estimated population of Siberian tigers, or Amur tigers, has plummeted from as many as 300 to just 18 to 22.

“If the government fails to take effective measures, it’s foreseeable that these creatures could disappear from China within 10 to 20 years,” said Zhu Chunquan, conservation director of biodiversity and operations at the WWF’s Beijing office.

“The poaching of wild animals, which is the tigers’ main food source, is the greatest threat to their survival,” he said, adding that extensive logging in the mountainous provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin has also massively reduced their natural habitats.

Since 1996, when hunting for wildlife was banned in both provinces, authorities have noted a sharp rise in poaching with iron-wire snares.

Zhu said traps can be easily bought in small shops close to forest areas, with most used to catch red deer, sika deer, wild boars and roe deer, which Amur tigers hunt for food.

“A decade ago, we’d see roe deer while driving by (the forests),” said Cao Zhiquan, director of Qiyuan Forest Farm in Dongfanghong township, Heilongjiang. “Now it’s even rare to see a squirrel.”

Traps also pose a huge risk to the tigers, too. In October, a dead Siberian tiger was found with a wire snare around its neck near a reservoir in Mishan, Heilongjiang. Wildlife experts said the animal did not choke to death straight away, but instead died several days later from starvation.

A WWF survey of the wild tigers’ habitats in Heilongjiang and Jilin found an average of 1.6 traps for every 10 kilometers.

“Volunteers from the WWF hold campaigns to remove traps every year, but we’ve gradually accepted the fact that we cannot clear all the traps ourselves,” Zhu said. “To effectively protect the tigers, we need to call on more people to stop eating wild animals. This isn’t something that can be done over a short time, though.”

As with poaching, illegal logging became prevalent after the government introduced restrictions, with a total ban placed on the felling of natural forest in 2000.

China’s State Forestry Administration said that due to technical constraints and poor management, most wild Siberian tiger reserves, such as the one in Wanda Mountain in Heilongjiang, still lack effective monitoring systems.

In addition, these reserves are often short of workers and do not have enough people with sufficient knowledge about tiger protection.

To preserve the precious tiger species, experts are calling for more international cooperation, especially between China and Russia.

An estimated total of 500 wild Siberian tigers live in Russia’s Far East and Northeast China, yet infrastructure construction has fragmented the populations.

“Border fences as high as 2 meters are a big obstacle for the tigers to get past,” Zhu said, adding that the WWF is looking to help China and Russia protect and restore links between the tigers’ habitats. “By doing so, hundreds of wild Siberian tigers in Russia will be able to travel to China, which will result in more cubs being born.”

The conservationist said both countries should try to make agreements to use recording devices along the border, instead of fences.

“We are striving to double the population of wild Siberian tigers in China by 2022, but more international cooperation is needed,” Zhu said.

The State Forestry Administration said China has paid great attention to international cooperation on tiger conservation and has promised more joint projects.

The country has already reached agreements with India and Russia on tiger protection, while a series of measures, such as habitat surveys and information exchanges, have been carried out with other countries and international organizations.

Distemper – latest threat to Siberian tigers...

Distemper - a virus afflicting domestic dogs and many wildlife species - may be a growing threat to Siberian (Amur) tigers.

A team of Russian veterinary colleagues and health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo are collaborating to understand more about how the virus is affecting the species, helping conservationists formulate health measures to counter this latest threat to the world's largest cat.

The team of health experts, working at the Wildlife Conservation Society's wildlife health centre at Bronx Zoo, used histology along with PCR and DNA sequencing to confirm and characterise the infection in two wild Siberian tigers from the Russian Far East.

This diagnosis provides long-awaited genetic confirmation of the fact that distemper is affecting wild tigers, which WCS and Russian colleagues first documented in 2003.

Tiger wandered into village looking for an easy meal
Last year a tigress known as Galia - studied by WCS researchers for eight years in Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve in the Russian Far East - walked into the village of Terney, displaying abnormal neurologic signs. She was seemingly unfazed by the new surrounding, appeared gaunt, and was searching for dogs as an easy meal. The tiger was shot by local police after several capture attempts failed.

In November 2003, a similar event occurred when an otherwise healthy looking wild tigress walked into the village of Pokrovka in Khabarovski Krai. WCS staff immobilised the animal and worked with local Russian veterinarian Evgeny Slabe in treating the tiger, which later died in captivity. Samples for the diagnosis of distemper were collected only from these two animals.

But several other examples of tigers entering villages or stalling traffic on major roadways - behaviour possibly indicative of distemper - have been reported in recent years.

Already known to kill lynx and bobcats
Distemper is found worldwide in domestic dogs and has caused infection and death in wild species such as lynx and bobcats in Canada, Baikal seals in Russia, lions in the Serengeti ecosystem in Africa, and raccoons and the endangered black footed ferret in the United States.

‘With all the threats facing Siberian tigers from poaching and habitat loss, relatively little research has been done on diseases that may afflict tigers,' said Dale Miquelle, WCS Director of Russia programmes. ‘There are no records of tigers entering villages and behaving so abnormally before 2000, so this appears to be a new development and new threat. Understanding whether disease is a major source of mortality for Siberian tigers is crucial for future conservation efforts.'

Anatoly Astafiev, director of Sikhote-Alin Reserve, said: ‘We have seen a fall in tiger numbers within our reserve, so it is very important to know that at least one of the causes is a recognisable disease, something we may be able to address and potentially prevent.'

Canine distemper is controlled in domestic dogs through vaccination. In Africa, massive vaccination campaigns of dogs in villages surrounding the Serengeti appear to have been effective in reducing the disease's impact on lions.

Siberian Tigers Trained To Live In Wild

A Siberian tiger is seen at Erdaohe Tiger Park July 2, 2006 in Antu County of Yanbian Chaoxian Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

 

A feeder plays with a Siberian tiger cub at Erdaohe Tiger Park July 2, 2006 in Antu County of Yanbian Chaoxian Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

 

 

 

A feeder trains a Siberian tiger cub at Erdaohe Tiger Park July 2, 2006 in Antu County of Yanbian Chaoxian Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, China. About 15 artificially-fed Siberian tigers from Harbin Siberian Tiger Park are being trained to develop their ability to live in the wild. The wild Siberian tiger is listed as one of the most endangered species in the world, with its existing number estimated at around 400 worldwide, mainly in the northeastern part of China and the Far East of Russia. Reportedly there are more than 1,300 Siberian tigers which have been raised in China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

 

 

China celebrates Siberian tiger cub first

A seven-year-old tiger has given birth to a cub at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin, China, marking the country's first successful breeding in the wild.

After three months, the female cub is doing well and is quickly learning new skills.

A local zoologist said: "The Siberian tiger's successful breeding in the wild is an important breakthrough for us."

On June 27 and 28, the keepers could not find the female tiger, numbered 426.

They presumed she had given birth to a cub and went to look for her in a cave.

It is more than a decade since China began to study how to breed tigers in the wild.

Siberian Tiger Population Is Drastically Low, Scientists Report

The effective population of the Amur tiger, also known as the Siberian tiger, is down to just 14 animals, scientists report in the journal Mammalian Biology.

There are about 500 Amur tigers currently surviving in the wild, but the effective population accounts for genetic diversity. BBC reports that the tiger has a very low diversity, which means that any disease or rare genetic disorders will probably be passed on to the next generation. A more diverse genetic population would increase the tiger's chance of survival -- it would be able to "cancel out" diseases and disorders with healthy genes.

The Amur tiger is the largest cat in the world. It once lived across China, Korea, and Russia, until the early 20th Century, when human settlements, habitat loss, and poaching drove the cats to near extinction. By the 1940's, less than 30 individual tigers survived in the wild -- this has now led to a "genetic bottleneck," destroying the Amur tiger gene pool. The results of this are seen today in the tiger's lack of genetic diversity.

Not just Amur tigers are at risk of extinction. The World Wildlife Fund reports that climate change may be shrinking tigers' habitat by 96%. Bengal tigers are shrinking in size due to stress over environmental changes. The WWF goes so far as to state that if no action is taken, tigers may become extinct in the next 12 years.

This past November, a summit was held focused on saving tigers from extinction. The summit's biggest news? It was probably that Leonardo DiCaprio survived a plane accident and still managed to attend. But also at the summit, countries agreed to double the tiger population by 2022 and crack down on poaching and illegal trade of tiger parts. It is an uphill battle, but one worth fighting.

The last stand for Siberian tigers?

The endangered Amur tiger is down to barely a dozen, according to alarming new research.

But the headline grabbing figure that the big cat’s effective population is just 15 is less of a threat than loss of habitat, environmentalists say.

There are about 500 Amur tigers living in the wild – but genetic researchers have found that they are descended from just 15 animals.

And that, they claim, raises the spectre of genetic disorders and other illnesses in the population.

“The worryingly low effective population size challenges the optimism for the recovery of the huge Siberian cat,” the researchers from Russia, Germany and Spain wrote in the paper published in the magazine Mammalian Biology.

Russia has invested heavily in protecting its tiger population, with Vladimir Putin personally endorsing the campaign at an international forum in St. Petersburg last year.

Overstated

The research, and its gloomy conclusion, may not take into account the different effects of genetic diversity on different species, ecologists say.

“For example cats are less sensitive to it than dogs,” Vladimir Krever, biological diversity programme co-ordinator at WWF’s Moscow office, told the Moscow News.

And he pointed to the successful reintroduction of European bison into the wild to prove that the genetic pool might not be the main criteria for saving threatened creatures.

Since 1951 the European bison has returned to the wild, despite the fact that in the early 20th century there were fewer than 50 surviving animals, all living in captivity.

Tigers need trees

Today’s tigers are threatened by illegal woodcutting just as much as their ancestors were devastated by poaching.

“Currently the most burning issue is conservation of the habitat area,” Vladimir Krever said.

Poachers haven’t disappeared today, but luckily they don’t make any serious impact on the number of feline predators, Krever said, while stripping away their natural habitat clearly does.

Preserving the forests would help maintain stocks of hoofed mammals – tigers’ natural prey – and ensure that the big cats have enough to eat.

“And if we are aiming to increase their number further, it’s definitely forests restoration to start with,” Krever concluded.

Indian youth pledge to save the tigers

New Delhi, 1 December 2010: The International Tiger Conservation Forum ended in Russia last week with new efforts and commitments to maintain and enhance momentum towards tiger conservation initiatives across the globe.

Significant commitments were made at the Forum by all the tiger range countries with India too declaring its 39th tiger reserve and announcing eight more in development. Many donors committed additional funds towards tiger conservation in the coming years.

While the forum created the much needed government backing that is imperative to reverse the decline of this magnificent species, the International Tiger Forum was also unique for laying its focus on the youth and their role in conserving one of the world’s most iconic symbols of biodiversity conservation.

In parallel to the high level government meeting, WWF organised a Youth Tiger Forum in Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East, home of Siberian tiger, where youth representatives from all tiger range countries gathered together for a week, went on field visits in the land of the Amur tiger and developed youth outreach plans for tiger conservation in their respective countries.

Mr Ravi Singh, CEO, WWF-India said, ‘WWF-India is pleased with the extraordinary opportunity that the forum provided to the Indian Youth Tiger Ambassadors. We are impressed with the plans that the youth have developed at this forum and we will ensure that this broader vision gets conveyed back through a national level campaign that will raise the effectiveness of tiger conservation efforts in India.’’. Involving the youth will spur action and bring in originality in conservation initiatives in the country’’, he added.

At the youth forum, the representatives jointly wrote an Appeal, which they later made to the Prime Ministers and heads of delegation at the Tiger Forum through a video link to St Petersburg. Representatives from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia and China were among those present at this unique youth forum aimed at creating a productive mechanism to involve the future generation in conservation efforts.

The youth appeal to the high level delegation was both emotive and effective. “We know for many of our countries, development is important. However, we do not want development that results in us losing many of the world’s natural wonders and wild species like the tiger. We want our children to be able to inherit a living planet full of the wonders of the natural world.’’ The youth pledged to join hands together make this year a turning point for the tiger. They committed to continue ‘saving the tigers together’. Most of them will initiate campaigns which will drive changes in policy and management of tiger conservation in their respective countries.

In the next six months, WWF-India’s Youth Tiger Ambassadors, Ansuha Shankar and Devanshu Sood will visit villages in some of the protected areas in the country to raise local awareness towards tiger conservation. The tiger ambassadors will continue to engage with WWF-India and take forward the organization’s campaign on tigers. As a part of their pilot project they will also involve their peers and start a youth movement in the country on saving this biggest cat.

Tiger Ambassador Anusha Shankar, a student of M.Sc Ecology and Environmental Science at Pondicherry University and Devanshu Sood the other Ambassador is a student of Class XII at Shriram School, Gurgaon and has been a core member of his schools’ Junior Tiger Task Force since the last 8 years.

For Further details please call-
Shaila Sam
WWF-India
011-41504797

Vietnam commits to tiger conservation

Vietnam stands ready to cooperate with foreign countries and international organizations in improving tiger conservation on its own soil and the region as whole.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Bui Cach Tuyen made this commitment at a historic tiger conservation forum held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, from November 21-24.

The forum, hosted by Russian Prime Minister V. Putin, was the first international forum on conservation of an endangered wildlife species.

The event was attended by high-profile representatives from 13 countries home to wild tigers, namely India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand, China and Vietnam. Also present were representatives of UN agencies and foreign non-governmental organisations engaged in biodiversity conservation.

At the forum, governments capped a year-long political process with about US$127 million in new funding to support the plan known as the Global Tiger Recovery Programme. The funding will include a large loan package from the World Bank to some tiger range countries and millions in additional grants from the Global Environment Facility.

The World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) committed US$50 million over the next five years on tiger conservation and set a goal of increasing that to US$85 million.

The Global Tiger Initiative was raised by the WB President in 2008 with tiger range countries committed to doubling the current wild tiger population of close to 3,200 individuals by 2022.

Protecting where the wild things are

IN MOSCOW The tale of the magnificent Siberian tiger, and its unfinished fight for survival, should be a compelling one for the 500 conservationists and world leaders arriving for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's tiger summit this weekend.

The summit on the fate of the tiger has been convened in St. Petersburg as the singular chance to keep the world's last 3,000 or so wild tigers from extinction, and the near-death experience of Russia's big, beautiful animals informs how they can be saved elsewhere.

"Russia was the first country to almost lose its tigers," said Dale Miquelle, director of the Russia program for the Wildlife Conservation Society, "and the first to bring them back. There's a long history of lessons in Russia."

Miquelle, who has been working in the Russian Far East since 1992, will attend the summit, and if asked, he knows what he would tell the dignitaries.

"Tigers need three things," he said Friday, from Vladivostok. "They need space. They need their habitat and prey protected - deer and wild boar. And they need laws against poaching vigorously enforced. It's a very simple formula. It's very doable."

Everyone seems to agree tigers - which numbered 100,000 worldwide a century ago - won't go on living unless people behave differently. But the world has never found it easy to agree on what to do about anything, and so it is with the tiger, which has inspired the imagination of humans everywhere, who see strength, fierceness and passion in the graceful cat.

In 2008, World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick organized the Global Tiger Initiative, targeting the summit in 2010 - the Chinese Year of the Tiger - as the time tiger countries would figure out a plan, now aimed at doubling the number of cats in the wild by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger.

Each of the 13 tiger range countries is arriving with its own plans, and the summit - from Sunday through Wednesday - is meant to consolidate them, set a common agenda, attract financing and mobilize the political and popular will to carry them out. The United States, a major donor to tiger conservation, will be there.

So far, there's been polite disagreement about how far-reaching the plans should be, with much sentiment to go big and broad - engaging and educating communities, vastly expanding protected landscapes and restoring tigers to a much wider range than they now inhabit. Others argue that the situation is so dire that time and money should be concentrated on relatively few areas before declaring loftier ambitions.

"We want to see tigers living in large, healthy landscapes," said Barney Long, WWF tiger program manager, "not in small parks where they are vulnerable to outbreaks of poaching."

The Wildlife Conservation Society and Panthera, a conservation organization dedicated to wild cats, have proposed narrowing efforts, and WCS has suggested 42 sites where tigers should be protected.

Joe Walston, director of WCS-Asia, says that with 70 percent of the world's tigers fairly concentrated - including 18 "source sites" in India, eight in Malaysia and six in Russia - money should be aimed at monitoring and strengthening law enforcement to stop poaching in such areas.

Broader attempts are too risky, warns Luke Hunter, Panthera's executive vice president. "If you start talking about infrastructure and saying a dam can't be built unless it doesn't harm tigers, that's all good," he said. "The problem is we don't have time for it. Educating communities is a good thing, but by the time the children have grown up, the tigers will be gone."

Zoellick contends that those points of view are less contradictory than they appear. "We all agree that if you don't preserve the core population, there's nothing to talk about," he said, but at the same time those populations need room to roam.

Somehow, the WWF says, everyone will agree, because they must if there's any hope of saving the tiger. "The impediment will be financing," said Mike Baltzer, head of WWF's Tigers Alive initiative. "We're hoping donors will step up."

Strong anti-poaching laws and financing strict enforcement will be on Russia's agenda as it hosts the summit. Russia has watched tigers decline or prosper as laws and police weakened or grew powerful.

Its Siberian tiger - the Amur tiger - once roamed the forests and mountains of the Russian Far East by the hundreds. But hunting and trade destroyed them, and by 1940, when Lev Kaplanov, the director of a Russian nature preserve, did the first scientific count, he found only 20 to 30.

By 1948, the Soviet government had outlawed tiger hunting and there was little means or reason to violate the law.

Guns were strictly controlled, the border with China was very much closed, preventing trafficking, and the sale of tiger parts was prohibited. By the late 1980s, perhaps 400 were on the prowl.

"There was no incentive to poach," Miquelle said, "and it largely ended."

As the Soviet Union slowly crumbled into chaos, however, those controls disappeared, replaced by a poverty that encouraged hunting and a ready market in nearby China, where tiger parts are valued for folk medicine. Now 20 to 30 tigers are poached in Russia every year, and Miquelle fears for the future of the 500 Siberians thought to be left. Few die of old age.

Just Monday, anti-poaching police in the Russian Far East stopped a truck in the Khasan region near the border with China and North Korea. They found a tiger carcass inside and arrested four people on poaching charges.

Miquelle mourned the dead tiger but rejoiced in the arrests.

"If we can't protect the tiger, we can't protect the natural resources we rely on," he said. "If we can save the big cats, we can save ourselves."

“Reduced to skin and bones” shows tigers under pressure

The WWF, based in Gland, near Geneva, says the world’s endangered tigers remain under pressure, with India, China and Nepal showing the worst poaching problems. In the past century the number of tigers worldwide has fallen from an estimated 100,000 to just 3,200. The WWF is a member of Traffic (wildlife trade monitoring network), whose “Reduced to Skin and Bones” report released 9 November shows that “from January 2000 to April 2010, parts of between 1,069 and 1,220 tigers were seized in 11 of the 13 tiger range countries—or an average of 104 to 119 animals per year.”


The report is published ahead of a meeting at the end of November of heads of government of tiger range countries to sign the Global Tiger Recovery Programme, a plan that aims to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022. The programme aims to push harder to reduce poaching and illegal trade, but also to reduce the demand for tiger parts.

Tigers are coveted for their use in traditional medicines, decoration, and as good luck charms.

Poachers sell “complete skins, skeletons and even whole animals—live and dead, through to bones, meat, claws, teeth, skulls, penises and other body parts,” says the WWF.

Pauline Verheij, joint Traffic and WWF tiger trade programme manager and an author of the report, says that “with parts of potentially more than 100 wild tigers actually seized each year, one can only speculate what the true numbers of animals are being plundered.”

India, which has the largest number of tigers, also accounted for the largest number of seizures, parts representing as many as 533 tigers, with seizures in China and Nepal accounting for nearly equal numbers of roughly 130 tigers in each country.

Tiger summit offers ‘last chance’

Last 13 countries with wild tigers to meet in St Petersburg, as deforestation and poaching push animal to extinction


Leaders of the few remaining countries where tigers are still found in the wild are preparing for a make-or-break summit in Russia, which they believe offers the last chance to save the critically endangered animal.

The Global Tiger Summit in St Petersburg next month will bring together the 13 countries that still have wild tigers, along with conservation organisations, in an attempt to thrash out a global recovery plan. Britain and the US are also being urged to attend.

The WWF (formerly the World Wide Fund for Nature) says it is optimistic about the summit’s chances of success, but warns that failure will lead to the extinction of the tiger across much of Asia. The draft communique for the summit, seen by the Observer, notes that in the past decade tiger numbers worldwide have fallen by 40% and warns that “Asia’s most iconic animal faces imminent extinction in the wild”.

It concludes: “By the adoption of this, the St Petersburg Declaration, the tiger range countries of the world call upon the international community to join us in turning the tide and setting the tiger on the road to recovery.”

The challenge was illustrated clearly last week when hidden camera footage showed the destruction of part of the Sumatran tigers’ Indonesian forest home to make way for illegal palm oil plantations. Meanwhile, in Singapore undercover officers seized several tiger skins that had been advertised for sale online.

Organisers of the summit, which is backed by the World Bank, hope agreements can be reached that will lead to a doubling of tiger numbers by 2022. But some conservationists fear it is already too late and the summit will be another talking shop that fails to deliver results.

Tiger numbers worldwide have collapsed from an estimated 100,000 over the past century, due to poaching and human encroachment. It is now thought there are no more than 3,200 tigers in the wild, of which only about 1,000 are breeding females. The situation is so critical that four of the 13 countries attending the summit – China, Vietnam, Cambodia and North Korea – no longer have viable breeding populations, according to a study released last month.

The study – produced by researchers from Cambridge University, the World Bank and the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society – concluded that “current approaches to tiger conservation are not slowing the decline in tiger numbers, which has continued unabated over the last two decades”.

It recommended that, rather than trying to save all the remaining tigers, governments should concentrate on sites that provided the most realistic chance of supporting a breeding population. “Conflict with local people needs to be mitigated. We argue that such a shift in emphasis would reverse the decline of wild tigers and do so in a rapid and cost-efficient manner.”

The study will have made uncomfortable reading for the host nation. It found there had been a “dramatic decline” in tiger numbers in the Russian far east over the past five years – understood to be about a 15% drop – which it associated with a decline in anti-poaching enforcement.

The Siberian tiger – also known as the Amur tiger – nearly went extinct in the middle of the last century, when numbers fell below 50, but there are now thought to be more than 400 left in the wild. Suggestions that numbers have dipped again will not have pleased Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir Putin, who will be hosting the summit and who has been keen to portray himself as a rugged protector of the animals.

In 2008 he accepted a tiger cub as a birthday present (the donor was never disclosed) and in the same year was at the centre of an extraordinary drama when it was claimed that he shot an Amur tiger with a tranquilliser dart to save the lives of a television crew. The team had been filming him taking part in a conservation exercise when the animal apparently broke free and charged.

But not only Russia is struggling to save the tiger. Earlier this year the Observer revealed how India’s tiger population remained in decline, with some conservationists estimating that only 800 remained in the wild, significantly fewer than the official claim of 1,411.

Events in India in recent weeks have demonstrated just how great the challenge is. In the Panna reserve, which had to be restocked from other national parks last year, two young tigers have gone missing and are presumed dead. The human-tiger conflict for land was illustrated when three people in Uttar Pradesh, just 150km from the national capital Delhi, were attacked in an area not previously associated with tigers.

In Indonesia, a hidden WWF camera shot footage of a rare Sumatran tiger in the forests of Bukit Betabuh. Later, the same camera filmed a bulldozer clearing the area – apparently for a palm oil plantation – and then recorded the tiger returning to the scene of devastation.

But despite the gloomy picture the summit’s backers remain optimistic. Diane Walkington, the WWF’s head of species programme in the UK, said that considerable progress had already been made to sketch out a global recovery plan and to concentrate the minds of politicians on the problem.

“Tiger numbers can recover, but you can never take your eye off the ball,” she said. “We are down to 3,200 and that is a really low number.” The solution, she said, was international co-operation to tackle issues such as smuggling. She cited deals between China and Nepal as an example of how that can bear dividends. But she warned that, with numbers so low, the tiger would not get another chance. “I think that if this is not a success we will see tigers going extinct in much of Asia,” she said.

Some conservationists worry that the summit is more about politicians wanting to be seen to be doing something, rather than tackling the issues on the ground, such as the encroachment into tigers’ traditional territory by poor farmers in search of land.

Aditya Singh, a conservationist and wildlife photographer who spends much of his time among the tigers of India’s Ranthambore national park, said previous summits had involved a group of leaders seeking answers to a problem they did not understand.

“There is little or no ground-level representation. As a result, the real practical problems never get highlighted,” he said. “There is no link between field workers and conservation leaders. They do not even know each other’s problems and the conservation efforts are not co-ordinated. Kind of like the climate summit.”

The “tiger range” countries attending the conference are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.


* Endangered species

* Animals

* Wildlife

* Conservation

* Deforestation

* Forests


Gethin Chamberlain

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions
More Feeds

WHY SHOULD WE SAVE TIGER?

Saving the tiger means saving mankind..

Not only is tiger a beautiful animal but it is also the indicator of the forest's health. Saving the tiger means we save the forest since tiger cannot live in places where trees have vanished and in turn secure food and water for all.

If we make sure tigers live, we have to make sure that deer, antelope and all other animals that the tiger eats (its prey base) live. To make sure that these herbivores live, we must make sure that all the trees, grass and other plants that these prey animals need for food are protected. In this way, the whole forest gets saved! Saving the tiger means saving its entire forest kingdom with all the other animals in it.

Also forests catch and help store rainwater and protect soils. In this way we protect our rivers and recharge groundwater sources. Areas with less trees lead to floods, killing people and destroying homes. It takes away the precious soil, leaving behind a wasteland. The soil jams up our lakes and dams, reducing their ability to store water. By destroying the tiger's home, we not only harm tigers, but also ourselves.

The tiger thus becomes the symbol for the protection of all species on our earth since it is at the top of the food chain. This is why we sometimes call the tiger, an apex predator, an indicator of our ecosystem's health