The Tiger

This is a compact infographic explaining why tigers are endangered. It is a broad-brush infographic covering the main issues. India recently announced the success of Project Tiger and said that there are now 3,167 tigers in India which is more than double the 1,411 recorded when the census began in 2006. This is based on a World Wildlife Fund for Nature camera trap count . I remain pessimistic about the future prospects of the Bengal tiger in India because the human population continues to grow. Tigers need a huge amount of space. Individual males need home ranges the size of a city. The reserves are too small to sustain decent-sized tiger populations. And poachers continue to kill tigers for body parts to supply the Chinese 'superstition market' believing that eating tiger flesh and drinking tiger bone wine does them some sort of magical good. It is all BS.

This is a highly contentious issue. It has been for a very long time. It affects tiger conservation dramatically. A research study published in 2008 provides us with some information about the attitudes of Chinese people living in China about eating bits of tiger and using Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) tiger products and the effect on conservation. Traditional Chinese Medicine tiger products which are hugely damaging to tiger conservation. Image: WWF The scientists surveyed 1,880 residents from six Chinese cities. In summary the results are as follows: 43% had consumed some products that were said to contain tiger parts (this points to the fact that some of these products may not have genuinely contained tiger parts but were sold as containing them) 71% of the respondents said they preferred wild products over farmed ones. This means that they believe that eating the body parts of wild tigers was more beneficial to them than eating the body parts of farmed tigers. You properly kno...

In 1997 a study was conducted on the decline and impending extinction of the South China tiger. The conclusion of the scientists was indeed very black and depressing. The scientists concluded that no wild South China tiger had been seen by officials in the wild for 25 years. The last one to be brought into captivity at that time was 27 years earlier. Some more black news was that the 19 reserves listed by the Chinese Ministry of Forestry included habitat which was and is fragmented. The fragmented sections were too small to support a viable tiger population. The reserves were useless in terms of tiger conservation. They stated that "over the last 40 years wild populations have declined from thousands to a scattered a few". They also confirmed that there were some occasional sightings of tigers in China but apparently no "intensive field study" had been conducted on the South China tiger and its habitat. At that time the captive population of tigers was 50. The South...

This is a video from Twitter which indicates to me that the managers of this tiger reserve (and I don't know which one it is) have got things wrong. They have allowed too many tourists in vehicles to visit the reserve which is disturbing the tigers.  Striking a balance between tourism to raise money for tiger conservation against disturbance to tigers. The pictures are from different reserves. Image by MikeB of PoC. These disturbances cause stress in tigers. Tourists in vehicles can upset the behaviour of tigers. And I'm going to suggest that the stress element can become so serious that it can prevent matings and of course successful breeding is part of tiger conservation. A critical part. There is a very difficult balance to be struck between allowing tourists to visit a tiger reserve to raise money to maintain the reserve to, in turn, benefit the conservation of tigers in India and the negative impact that tourists can have on tiger conservation if there are too many of them...

NEWS AND COMMENT: This tiger story from India irritates me a hell of a lot. The authorities rescued a tiger that had survived an arduous 75 mile swim down a swollen river. This is a large adult male who was swept into the Brahmaputra River in the North-east Indian state of Assam (as reported). The tiger was spotted by passers-by who were out walking on Tuesday. He was submerged up to his neck and apparently fighting to stay afloat long enough to reach an island in the river. Tiger rescued from river and sent to a bloody zoo. Image provided by the Telegraph newspaper. Aswani Kumar from the Assam State Zoo reported that the tiger was tranquilized after capture and sent to a veterinary hospital where they discovered lacerations to his body and where he was kept under observation. It is the following information which irritates me a lot. They're going to keep the tiger there and when the veterinarians give clearance that he is well enough to be moved they will take him to the Guwahati ...

It is the best I can do as the video quality is poor. 😢😒 This is a short Twitter video. It is not a great video, but it does make a clear statement about tourists interfering with tiger behaviour and irritating tigers. This video was probably captured in one of the many Indian tiger reserves and you initially see the camera focused on the bushes. After a little while, the tiger rushes out towards the vehicles. Sometimes, our ‘too much’ eagerness for ‘Tiger sighting’ is nothing but intrusion in their Life…🐅 #Wilderness #Wildlife #nature #RespectWildlife #KnowWildlife #ResponsibleTourism Video: WA @susantananda3 @ntca_india pic.twitter.com/B8Gjv8UmgF — Surender Mehra IFS (@surenmehra) November 27, 2022 The person operating the smart phone capturing the video is so struck by the aggressive approach of the tiger that they are unable to continue filming and the camera pans left and then it comes back to the tiger who then decides to retreat. It is a statement by the ...

It has been known for a long time, but a study confirmed that tigers don't like the presence of tourists. The stress levels, as measured by the amount of stress hormones in faeces, are such that it can be a barrier to mating and breeding thereby seriously undermining conservation efforts. "Tourists can both promote conservation and damage it." - Michael Tourist vehicles near a tiger at Sariska Tiger Reserve. Photo by Subhadeep Bhattacharjee The tiger is on its knees in terms of conservation, so this is important. Tourism helps to fund the reserves. Almost all Bengal tigers are in India's tiger reserves nowadays. It is a tricky problem to crack. But the study (' Physiological stress responses of tigers due to anthropogenic disturbance especially tourism in two central Indian tiger reserves '. Conservation Physiology ) calls into question the modus operandi of the tiger project conservation program. Tigers in reserves are great money spinners. One tiger is said ...

Traditional Chinese medicine is a major contributor to making the tiger extinct in the wild and the President of the country, Xi Jinping, supports and praises the medicine despite it being based on ancient superstitions. He thinks that it a good thing. But ancient medicine is bad medicine. Medical knowledge has grown hugely but traditional Chinese medicine is rooted in the past when there was little knowledge. It is therefore a fake medicine. It was first used in around 2,200 years ago when the world was relatively ignorant. It still bloody well is. Horrible, degrading tiger farms. Completely disrespectful of the magnificent tiger. Image in public domain. Peoples of the world have a duty to respect the cultures of others. Yes, I agree but not if that culture severely damages the planet and the animals that live on it. When this happens, we have a duty to criticise and try and change a deviant culture. One of the great problems of modern-day people is that some cultures are rooted in id...

Tigers are becoming extinct in the wild year-on-year. This is despite the best efforts of conservationists. Their efforts aren't enough in the face of exploitation by big business such as the traditional Chinese medicine marketplace which results in poaching Bengal tigers in India for example. The carcasses are shipped over via Thailand. It's horrible. There are other reasons such as habitat destruction which gets worse as human population grows. So, tigers are going extinct in the wild. Bengal tiger in Nepal. Image: Nepalese government. Why protect them? Well, I can think of two main reasons (1) tigers are an iconic species with which we share the planet. They were here before us. And (2) top predators have a very important place in the ecosystem. Iconic species Do we, humans, have a right to eradicate such a beautiful, iconic species from the planet with whom we are meant to share nature? I don't think we have the right to kill them off. We think we do but that's beca...

NEWS AND COMMENT-Sathyamangalam, Tamil Naidu, India: Sathyamangalam is a town and municipality in Erode district in the Indian state of Tamil Naidu. It is near the Western Ghats. There are rolling landscapes covered with dense forests. They have some beautiful tiger reserves. The Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve is located there with 80 tigers. The reserve is contiguous with other reserves. Clearly, tiger conservation is important in the area and a major part of the lives of the citizens. Tamil Naidu has five tiger reserves and 15 wildlife sanctuaries and national parks. Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve. Picture in public domain. However, the Communist Party of India (CPI) spokesperson in a meeting to discuss measures to protect the livelihood of tribal people and other forest dwellers stated that tiger conservation should not undermine the livelihoods of the hill people. This was a reference to an order passed by the Madras High Court that banned vehicle movement during night hours on Dhimbam...

This is a little-known tiger subspecies which I've recently written about. I focused on the extinction of this tiger . Back in the day, at the beginning of the 20th century, tigers were considered to be pests and nuisances. Bloodthirsty Europeans who were well-healed made their way to Asia to take pot shots at tigers including those on the island of Bali.  Bali tiger. It is said that they tied baits like goats to posts and under or around the goat they placed a leg trap. The tiger approached the goat and was trapped in the jaws of this clamp whereupon the great White Hunter shot the tiger at point blank range. They then went home and tell their wives and children what wonderful hunters they were. It is all very sad. In addition to being hunted to extinction probably before the 1950s, the Bali tiger was also pushed off their own land by human population growth and expanding human activities including plantations which destroyed their habitat. And humans have an insatiable appetite f...

Guinness World Records have declared that a tiger at Tiger Creek Animal Sanctuary, Tyler, Texas, USA, is the world's oldest captive tiger. Her name is Bengali. She came to the Sanctuary in 2000. The sanctuary say that they like "provide a safe and secure environment for animals in need of rescue or rehabilitation while conserving endangered and threatened species." Bengali the world's oldest living captive tiger at 25 years 319 days. Photo: Guinness World Records. Normally, tigers in captivity live to around 15-20 years. In the wild about 12 years is the norm. Bengali has more than doubled the average wild tiger lifespan. She has no cubs but the sanctuary considers her to be an important part of tiger conservation. They said: "We are extremely honored and very proud to know we have the oldest living tiger in captivity. We care deeply for every animal at Tiger Creek, and keeping Bengali healthy and happy for so many years is an incredible accomplishment for the...

My understanding of the attempts at Bengal tiger conservation, in at least parts of India, is that the local government pays compensation to the relatives or next of kin of a person who has been killed by a tiger. I will speculate that the purpose is to prevent retaliation attacks by the local people on the tiger. It appears that in some districts the local villagers have become tired of conservation efforts and want rid of the tigers.  Tiger attack at Chinese zoo. This is unconnected with the stories and the picture is here to solely illustrate the page. Tiger attacks in the wild are rarely if ever photographed. There are more tiger-human conflicts as the years go by because there are more people squeezing the amount of territory available for tiger reserves or they occupy land bordering tiger reserves or actually inside the reserves. All of which provokes confrontation. Example 1 A tiger mauled to death a 15 year old girl, Shivpyari Vishwakarma, who was collecting flowers in t...

NEWS AND COMMENT: Atkosia Tiger Reserve is located in the Angul district of Odisha, India covering an area of 988.30 km². A plan to repopulate the reserve with tigers has failed miserably with a catalogue of disasters. Sad failure in tiger conservation in India. Photo: The Hindu file photo. A tigress imported into the reserve (one of a pair) has been removed from the reserve to be returned to Madhya Pradesh. The tigress's name is Sundari. The tiger was kept in a special enclosure inside the Satkosia Forest before removal. A final act of failure. Before the return of Sundari it was claimed that the reserve had abundant prey and the management had asked for fresh tigers.  In the first year of the repopulation a tiger was gifted from Kanha and a tigress from the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve.  The tigress strayed into a human settlement surrounding the reserve and killed two people. And then, in Nov 2018, the first tiger was killed by poachers. Comment : poaching of Bengal tigers ...

COMMENT AND REPORT ON TIGER NEWS: This is a tragic story because the Amur tiger is rare. There are desperate measures being taken to protect and conserve this iconic animal. They live in the Far East of Russia, in that icy wilderness of birch trees and snowy landscapes. They are large animals. They've evolved that way to keep warm in the cold climate. It is believed that there are 500 left in the world. This puts pressure on zoos to try and breed them successfully.  Artificial insemination of a captive Amur tiger killed it. Photo: Cheyenne Mountain Zoom. Tigers usually breed well in zoos but in this instance, at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA, they tried artificial insemination of a female, Savelii, because their resident male wouldn't mate with her to produce offspring naturally. The operation went badly wrong and it killed her. A spokesperson for the zoo, Bob Chastain, said that: "She passed due to complications during recovery from this impo...

For the past 20 years humankind has known that it has to protect the tiger because the animal is too iconic. It is the most outstanding and high profile wild species on the planet. The dichotomy arrives because the tiger interferes with the innate desire of humans to multiply their numbers, to grow their economy, to pursue their self-interest and to survive. Which objective is the more powerful? Tiger hunting by Col William Rice 1850 in India. Image in public domain. If we turn the clock back to India, where the tiger primarily lives, to 1850, an officer in the army, Col William Rice, shot 158 tigers between 1850 and 1854. Another officer, Col Gordon-Cumming shot 73 tigers in one district over two years. At this time tigers were seen as pests. They got in the way of village life and were seen as evil, destructive and treacherous. Killing them in large numbers was acceptable and indeed necessary. They discovered that it was harder and harder to find and shoot them. Ver...

At April 2016, they (the experts 1 ) say that there are an estimated 3,890 in the wild 3 on planet earth but note the word "estimated 2 " and note that the number will change from month to month and year to year. The change is usually downwards because the tiger is endangered due to human activities. They say the tiger population is bouncing back . I say there is a lot of political pressure to talk up tiger numbers. The pressure from human activities (poaching, loss of habitat etc.) is greater than the desire to talk up numbers. The long term prognosis is poor unless there is a radically different approach to humankind's relationship with all wild species. This change must come from the default desire for perpetual economic growth which invariable means diminishing tiger numbers. Business takes away tiger habitat - bye bye tiger. Business beats conservation. Economic growth = less wild life on the planet. There is no denying that simple formula. And we must not for...

Firstly, tigers are not necessarily becoming extinct and by 'extinct' we mean in the wild because there will probably always be captive 'generic' tigers. A recent camera trap survey of Bengal tiger numbers in India indicated increased numbers . The Bengal tiger in India and Bangladesh is high endangered and may become extinct in the wild due to (a) poaching in the reserves in India to supply the tiger body part business in China. Wealthy Chinese like to eat tiger body parts. Ask them why! Also (b) the Bengal tiger reserves are arguably too small. The population sizes in the reserves are consequently too small and they are island populations which can result in inbreeding and infertility. Essentially, the tiger does not have enough space due to constantly increasing human population size in India and Bangladesh. It could be said that the reserves were poorly created. The tiger reserves are not that well managed if we are honest. Some are and some are not. Four tiger ...

It is claimed by Valmik Thapar that there is too much interference with the wild tiger in the Indian tiger reserves. The main culprits are the forest managers. The sort of interference that takes place is: Artificial feeding of orphaned cubs until they are adults; Providing food to injured and slightly injured tigers to help in their recovery; To sedate injured tigers with tranquiliser guns and then treat them with antibiotics; To relocate tigers and manhandle them once they are tranquillised. Relocated tigers are often followed and chased in order to confine them to a certain part of the forest. Many people are employed to force them to change direction using noise reminiscent of the days when tigers were hunted and driven into the guns of professional or paying hunters; To artificially bait the tigers. Apparently, this increases their longevity as it makes them easier to watch and to photograph; We are also told that on occasions water tankers are employed to provide water to...

The Sanjay Gandhi National Park scheme to allow individuals to adopt captive lions, tigers and other animals within the park has been revived. The purpose of the scheme is to attract more visitors to the park by making them more interested in the animals. The objective is laudable but I have a strong feeling that the price of adoption is far too high. Tigers - Sanjay Gandhi National Park by Ipshita B  If an individual or a company were to adopt a lion, a tiger or a white tiger they would have to fork out about Rs.3 million which is about US$50,000. For that generous donation the adopter adopts let's say a tiger for a year. The amount paid is non-refundable and the state continues to own the tiger. The adopter has his name put on a plaque outside the cage and he can visit the the adopted tiger once per week. There will be no additional charges, understandably, when he or she participates in the scheme. That more or less sums up the scheme. If anybody reads this post I wonder...