The Tiger

We know that Bengal tigers are killed by poachers for the Chinese traditional medicine market. What route do the carcasses take to get to China from India or the other countries adjacent to India where the Bengal tiger remains (just)? Well, some carcasses have been seized in Bangkok, Thailand and the smugglers interviewed. They say that the Bengal tiger was being smuggled from Malaysia to Thailand, a hub for trade in wildlife. As Malaysia is south of Thailand it must be the case that the carcasses were shipped from India across the Indian Ocean to Malaysia and then by road to Thailand and then by road to Laos or Burma before entering southern China. That's it. Thailand is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). And so is China. Ha, ha. It's a joke, isn't it? CITES is a complete failure, pretty well. CITES in relation to cats . Thai people are mainly Buddhists. They are meant to treat animals nicely. So-called “tiger bone gl...

People who follow tiger conservation probably know that the Panna Tiger Reserve was tigerless by December 2008. This was due to poaching. A fresh strategy had to be found. I am reading an article in the Feline Conservation Federation magazine of May/June 2011 (yes about one year old) by Shekhar Kolopaka. He was brought in to help devise new strategies to protect the tiger and Panna wildlife generally. What comes across are the enormous hurdles. There seems to be a general lack of interest in involvement by people local to the park in addition to many other problems such as an inability to stamp out poaching. Local hunters hunt local wildlife and that includes tiger prey or the tiger itself. The tiger carcass is very valuable. Mr Kolopaka started initiatives such as: Expanding the Panna Tiger Reserve by introducing a buffer zone . There is also talk of creating a corridor joining three national parks in the area. Expanding the reserve is bound to encounter general resistance part...

Chittal - tiger prey - Photo by monojussi Tigers eat anything in the jungle - whatever they can catch. But tigers need large prey to survive long term. Here is a list of prey items from Nagarole NP in India, Royal Bardia NP in Nepal and Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand, assessed from scats (feces). Tigers don't just live in jungle. They live in a wide variety of habitats including lowland evergreen forest, monsoonal forest, scrub oak, birch woods of Siberia (Siberian tiger) and the mangrove swamps of the Sundarbans (India and Bangladesh). The tiger is forced to live in these swamps (tidal salt marsh - largest in world). Tiger prey items in the above reserves: Chittal Hog deer Sambar Barking deer Gaur Barasingha (swamp deer) Wild pig Nilgai Chevrotain Hare Porcupine Hog badger Dhole Primates Lizards Of these the chittal is the most common prey. The sambar and barking deer are also common prey items. Prey items depend on the location. Ho...

I made these posts some time ago. There will be some overlap with pages on this site. Tiger Facts - Compressed version of the above Tiger Description - the appearance of the tiger is well known but this page looks at it in detail plus a large format montage image in support. Interesting Facts About Tigers - a compressed version of the above Bengal Tiger   Bali Tiger Bengal Tiger Habitat Bengal tiger man eater Blue Tigers Caspian Tiger Indochinese Tiger Javan Tiger Malayan Tiger Sumatran Tiger Deforestation in Indonesia - this is a death sentence Sumatran tiger attacks Siberian Tiger Habitat Siberian Tiger Prey Profile Siberian Tiger Picture - slides, collage and description Siberian Tiger Endangered? Snow Tigers South China Tigers The South China Tiger Is Extinct Tiger Attack - focusing on the Sundarbans in Bangladesh Tigers Babies The Tigers of Bhutan Tiger patterns and stripes Tiger Farms ...

Perhaps the most important factors in the survival of the tiger are loss of habitat and poaching . But a close second would be loss of prey. Poaching is news worthy and loss of habitat is all about the reserves and how they seem to be failing. But loss of the tiger’s prey is in the background and more subtle. Tiger prey densities can be measured but this task is less likely to be carried out than assessing tiger population numbers , which have been error prone or sometimes inflated for political reasons. The argument goes that even in small reserves, provided the prey base is suitable in numbers and size, the tiger population can persist. Under 3000 square kilometres for a reserve is considered small. All but one Bengal tiger reserve is small under that criteria. The effective size of the reserve depends on the quality of the landscape and habitat and how effective it is in supporting prey animals. Tigers depend on large prey. A tiger cannot live on small prey only. Large ungulate...

How can we reintroduce captive South China tigers into the wild in China, if as a Chinese expert says, the captive South China tigers are not purebred. They are hybrids; no longer a subspecies of tiger but a "generic" tiger. If the expert is correct, the game is over and the South China tiger has been persecuted to extinction. Let's get used to it and get over it. This post came to mind because the Feline Conservation Federation magazine mentions that at the last convention, the keynote speaker, Li Quan, spoke of her "brave and unique" crusade to rewild the South China tiger. There is a webpage on this subject . Can someone enlighten me on this? Clearly Li Quan believes that this subspecies of tiger still exists. Even if it does what chance of the tiger surviving in the wild in China? I am not optimistic about that considering it would be extremely rare and desirable...cut up for the medicine market.

Here is a list of tiger numbers by state in the United States that are living in USDA licensed facilities. The qualifying factor is more than 50 tigers. See a post about the number of tigers in Texas . I'll leave you to chew on the figures that come from Lynn Culver of the Feline Conservation Federation based on a request to the USDA-APHIS under the Freedom of Information Act.