THE MALAYSIAN TIGER'S DAYS ARE NUMBERED

There has been much international concern and distress following an article in the Malay Mail (15.8.02) that tigers in Kelantan in Malaysia could be shot on sight by the army.

This shocking action was in response to the sharp increase in tiger attacks in the region. Attacks on humans have been rare until now, with only around 15 deaths attributed to tigers in the past 22 years, but in recent months there have been at least three deaths and two maulings in Kelantan and, not surprisingly, the local people are calling for action to be taken.

The State's Chief Minister, Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat believes the army should be brought in because the State's money is wasted on capturing and holding the tigers. "Malaysia has far too many tigers and they are better of dead" he told local reporters.

The New Scientist (7.9.02) reported that these plans were denounced by Law Hieng Ding, the Malaysian Minister for Science, Technology and the Environment, as these Indo-Chinese tigers are a protected species. But - the article pointed out that this may not be enough to protect them: a legal loophole allows tigers to be killed or captured if they threaten human lives.

Today a spokesman from the Malaysian High Commission in London confirmed to Born Free that land matters are in the hands of local "State" government, not the Federal Government, so the Government's hands are tied to a great extent. And Kelantan's Chief Minister is also a member of the opposition, so does not have to toe the Government's Party line. Despite this potentially dangerous situation, it appears the killings are not going ahead.

PUBLIC PRESSURE SAVES TIGERS

Letters and petitions from the international conservation and welfare community, and public concern from within Malaysia at this shoot to kill policy seem to have had an effect. Days after his first interview hit the headlines, Kelantan's Chief Minister was defiant in his defence of the slaughter. However, since the public uproar it appears his advisors have recommended caution. Two tigers trapped since then have been sent to zoos in other states (there are no zoos in Kelantan).



ALTERNATIVES TO ZOOS

Many supporters of Born Free and our Zoo Check campaign would agree a zoo is not place for a wild tiger - or any tiger. We have seen wild-born tigers enduring zoo visitors within a few feet of their sterile concrete cages, the tigers' compulsive, stereotypic behaviours testament to their stress at the captive environment. Some of these tigers may indeed be "better off dead".

The increase in human population means the conflict between people and tigers is set to increase within all the tiger range states. The tiger usually pays the ultimate price. The tigers' natural habitat is cleared for farmland and local people and poachers kill the tigers' prey. In Kelantan the rubber plantations now go right to the edge of the forest and conflict between the normally nocturnal tiger and the rubber tappers working early in the morning, is almost inevitable.

In India a range of measures are proving successful in reducing this conflict.

1. Public education - e.g. advising local people, when relieving themselves, not to squat at the edge of the forest, or in undergrowth that could hide a tiger. Squat facing possible danger. Standing upright and yelling at the tiger can scare the tiger away.

2. Wearing hats with a human face painted or sewn on the back - tigers seem wary of attacking humans from the front.

3. Use of electric dummies in the fields to give the tiger a shock on contact.

4. Support of improved and sustainable farming methods to reduce reliance on forest products.

5. Development of fuel wood alternatives / more fuel efficient stoves to prevent human incursions into the forest for wood collecting.

6. Swift and full compensation for death of humans and livestock. If payments are not immediate then those affected will defend themselves by trapping, shooting or poisoning the tiger.

WESTERN DOUBLE STANDARDS

Some of the above measures must sound patronising. In the UK and much of Europe we have wiped out our large and dangerous mammals; and there has been the predictable outcry at the mere mention of re-introducing wolves and bears to the Scottish Highlands. As Indian tiger conservationist, Billy Arjan Singh says to us, "You want to save the tiger, but not in your own country." However, in Asia people and tigers have co-existed for generations. Man-eating and livestock killing appears to develop in elderly or injured tigers who are unable to hunt their own prey and seem to develop their dangerous tastes by accident. Otherwise the co-existence of humans and tigers seems remarkably harmonious.

Nowadays, the sudden increase in the human population with its destruction of tiger habitat, along with the huge demand for Traditional Chinese Medicine, some of which use tiger body parts, fuelled by the booming Asian ecomomies, is seeing the frightening fall in tiger numbers. Three sub-species have become extinct in the last 50 years. - Born Free



Of the estimated 7,000 tigers left in the world, scientists know the least about the roughly 2,000 thought to remain in Southeast Asia.

Unstable or repressive political conditions in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Malaysia have long impeded Western biologists trying to study tigers there. Much of the big cats’ habitat, meanwhile, consists of remote, extremely wild rain forest that offers near-perfect cover to the shy and elusive predators.

So tiger experts are hailing a new study of the tiger population in Malaysia as something of a landmark in research and conservation of the animals. The study, by recent University of Florida graduate Kae Kawanishi, provides the first scientifically rigorous estimate of a tiger population in Malaysia and one of the first such studies in the entire region. Such studies are important because they will aid conservation efforts in an area facing huge population and development pressures, experts say.

The research “has greatly advanced our understanding of the dynamics of tigers and their prey and, for the first time, given us a holistic picture of tigers living in the rain forest,” said John Seidensticker, a research scientist at the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., and chairman of ExxonMobil's Save The Tiger Fund Council. “This is essential to securing the tiger’s future through much of the rain forest remaining in Southeast Asia.”

Based on 61 photos of tigers taken by self-activating cameras in Taman Negara National Park, a 1,677-square-mile protected area that is one of the largest parks in Southeast Asia, Kawanishi used population models to estimate that the park supported a population of between 52 and 84 adult tigers. Equally significant, she found no evidence of illegal hunting or other human-induced threats to the tigers.

“When you compare that result with the threat to tiger populations in similar-sized parks in other tiger ranges, Taman Negara is unique and superb,” said Kawanishi, now a technical adviser for research and conservation to the Malaysian national park system.

But while her results are important, the grueling, nearly three years that Kawanashi endured in the rain forest also highlight the huge challenges and sacrifices faced by many wildlife biologists.

Kawanishi, 35, who graduated in December with her doctorate in wildlife ecology and conservation, began her field work in 1998 at Taman Negara. With only one eight-mile road and few trails, the park is among the world’s wildest regions.

Wildlife biologists trying to estimate tiger populations and gauge their ranges have long relied on their tracks or on capturing the tigers and fitting them with radio collars. However, neither method works in the rain forest, where tracks are hard to find, or lose definition and vegetation blunts radio signals.

As a result, Kawanishi used “camera traps” consisting of self-activating cameras set up along game trails or other spots where tigers were likely to visit. When animals approached the cameras, they tripped infrared sensors that triggered the shutters. Researchers returned periodically to pick up film, change batteries and ready the camera for more pictures.

Taman Negara’s terrain made setting up and monitoring the cameras a mammoth, risky project.

The hilly park is dominated by huge, ancient trees with rivers and streams cutting through valleys. There, vegetation is so thick as to nearly blot out all light. Seeking to maximize the chance of photographing tigers, Kawanishi and a support team of several Malaysian assistants and rangers set up some 150 camera traps on three 75-square-mile study sites. At two of the sites, the team spent at least two days on a boat just to reach base camp - trips that often included portaging over shallow areas. The team then had to hike several hours to reach each camera.

Hazards were numerous. For one thing, the rainforest’s mammoth trees stand on thin, eroding soil and frequently fall over, bringing down many smaller trees and vegetation with them. “This is the most dangerous thing in the jungle,” Kawanishi said. “We never came close to one, but we could hear them almost daily. It sounds like a big thunderclap, with vibration through the air and ground.”

Researchers also had to watch out for elephants and poisonous snakes, while insects, leeches and other pests were a constant annoyance. “If the ground is dry and covered with dry leaves, then you can hear the leaches inching toward you,” she said. “We couldn’t be bothered with leeches anyway. They are harmless compared to bees, scorpions, snakes, sand flies, fire ants and elephants.”

The researchers sampled each of the three sites for 11 months. Each trip was unique, with the team alternatively spending hours wading through python-inhabited rivers and streams, avoiding mud slides and dodging other hazards. Kawanishi said she sometimes wondered if she could continue.

“When it is a matter of survival, everything - all the intricate details of daily life, emotion and relationships boil down to a very thick essence,” she said. ‘Why am I doing this?’ ‘It is worth doing this?’ - these types of questions came to me over and over …”

But their perseverance paid off. The team wound up with thousands of photos of reptiles, numerous birds and mammals, including porcupines, wild dogs, sun bears, elephants and mouse deer. Among other potentially important findings, Kawanishi said the team also captured the first evidence of the storm’s stork, a rare bird, in the park and found that all leopards (about 150 were photographed) are melanistic, or largely black because of a recessive gene. During her time in the rain forest, Kawanishi never saw a tiger - but her 61 photos of the animals were just enough for the study to succeed. - UF News