CHITWAN: A tiger entered in an open enclosure and killed one of its inhabitant wild water buffaloes in Padampur region of the Chitwan National Park (CNP), on Tuesday.A onitoring team at the CNP found an adult female water buffalo dead in its enclosure after an attack by the tiger yesterday, acording to CNP Chief Protection Officer Ramchandra Kandel.A team headed to the spot to carry out a postmortem today found the half-devoured carcass of the water buffalo at the distance of 60 metres into a bush, according to CNP’s Assistant Conservation Officer Abhinaya Pathak. He said a tiger was also traced in the vicinity which was later chased away.Pathak said, the preliminary investigation shows that the big cat had entered the enclosure through the point which was repaired in the aftermath of the destruction caused by the monsoon floods. He added that the Royal Bengal tiger had used the same opening to get out of the enclosure.Of the total 15 water buffloes, a herd of 12 water buffaloes were translocated to the CNP from the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve (KTWR) while three others were from the Central zoo which died after sometimes. Also, two female water buffaloes had died in the aftermath of flood disaster on September 2 and 10. Currently, there are only nine wild cattle left in the CNP.
http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?250350/103-wild-tigers-in-Bhutan---A-Roaring-Success#
There are officially 103 tiger individuals (Panthera tigris tigris) roving freely within the wilderness of the country. The estimated range of credible tiger number in the country is within 84 to 124. From 78 tigers estimated in 1998, the tiger population has increased to 103 in 2015. This is 39 percent increase in last 17 years, which is almost more than one tiger every year.
There is 0.46 tiger for every 100 sq. km of the overall survey area of 28,225 sq. km. However, there are 2 to 3 tigers in every 100 sq. km in areas such as Royal Manas National Park (RMNP), Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park (JSWNP) and Zhemgang forest division.
All these were confirmed by the National Tiger Survey conducted by Department of Forest and Park Services (DoFPS) from March 2014 to March 2015 for the period of one year. The final report of the survey was released coinciding with the Global Tiger day on July 29, 2015. The set of pure national team undertook the gargantuan scientific exploration which strongly suggest that Bhutanese professionals have come of age.
The report states that the survey was conducted deploying latest methods known as Spatial Capture-Recapture (SCR) estimation method and the advanced models of camera traps. Considering the inherent limitations posed by numerous factors, the country was compartmentalized into Northern and Southern Block. A total of 1,129 cameras were stationed which captured 1,784 tiger images and 138 videos, the report states.
The survey found that tigers in Bhutan thrives from altitudes as low as 150 in the south to 4000 metres in the northern fringes. However, they are mostly concentrated in north-western, central and south-central region of the country. Only four individuals were recorded by the survey from the whole eastern region.
By virtue of the fact that tiger revalidation survey covered more areas, tiger presence were documented from the areas never known before. For the first time, tigers were confirmed in protected areas (PAs) such as Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary (WS), Jhomotshangkha WS, Phibsoo WS and Wangchuck Centennial National Park (WCNP). Similarly, tiger presence were established outside PAs within the jurisdiction of territorial forest divisions such as Tsirang, Gedu, Bumthang and Samdrupjongkhar. Zhemgang with 20 recorded consisting of 17 adults and 3 cubs, has the highest number of tigers.
The healthy population of the tigers also heavily depends on number of breeding individuals. The report boast of having captured five breeding sites in the whole country. Two females were spotted at Paro tailing by two and three cubs respectively. In addition, a breeding female was also recorded on movement between Jigme Dorji National Park (JDNP) and Thimphu division.
According to the national tiger survey report, in certain parts of the country, tigers exist in localized area. This means tigers are confined to one area, not moving from one place to another which tigers are generally known to do. For instance, none of the tigers of JDNP, Paro, Thimphu, Bumthnag, WCNP, and upper part of Zhemgang were sighted in Southern block, stated the report. Similarly, none of the tigers in Northern block were spotted in Southern block. http://www.moaf.gov.bt/nation-wide-survey-confirms-103-tigers-in-bhutan/
In September 2010, the BBC announced a stunning discovery of tigers (Panthera tigris) living at high altitude in the Himalayas. The article claimed that a BBC team had discovered first hand evidence of tigers living at 4,100 metres above sea level (asl) in Bhutan.
This revelation spread quickly, achieving worldwide media coverage within days. In a subsequent three-part television documentary Lost Land of the Tiger, BBC claimed that their strategically-placed camera traps had recorded video evidence of tigers, not just in the Bhutanese tropical lowland forests but also at 4,100m asl in high-altitude alpine meadows. Global media hailed this as a great discovery and a boon for tiger conservation.
The problem is, the BBC team were not the first to collect evidence of tigers living at this altitude. A country-wide Bhutan survey had found evidence of tigers living at altitudes of at least 3000m asl in 1989 - more than 20 years earlier.
Lost Land of the Tiger was lavish and gripping documentary filmmaking. The BBC dramatically portrayed their team risking lives to achieve their goal, culminating in a final episode showing remarkable high-altitude tiger footage. The documentary was a great success with approximately 4.5 million British viewers per night.
The documentary has subsequently aired in several other countries, including in the USA and Australia (as Expedition Tiger) in May 2011 and February 2012 respectively. Judging from the associated blogs, the hype has not lost any momentum and public applause for the BBC’s discovery continues.
But the BBC’s claim to this discovery is unethical.
Bhutanese wildlife ecologists have been surveying tigers for decades and systematically documenting their occurrence – including at high altitudes – since 2005 under a nationally mandated 10-year Tiger
A Bhutanese wildlife researcher setting a camera trap. The Bhutanese have amassed a large dataset from thousands of camera trap nights, some of which have yielded images of tigers at high altitudes. JDNP/DoFPS
The first photographic evidence of tigers at high altitude was reported by the late Nepalese conservation biologist Pralad Yonzon who, in collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Division (WCD) of Bhutan, recorded an adult tiger at a ‘camera-trap’ at 3,000m asl, more than a decade ago in 2000. During that fieldwork, the team also discovered tiger pugmarks (footprints) at 4,110m asl, firmly establishing the presence of tigers at this altitude before the BBC’s discovery.
Follow up tiger surveys by WCD in 2008, again before the BBC arrived in Bhutan, resulted in camera-trap photographs of tigers and pugmarks at altitudes between 3,700m and 4,300m asl.
Translocation (also called relocation) is a commonly used management tool to mitigate carnivore-human conflicts (Griffith et al. 1989, Linnell et al. 1997, Massei et al. 2010) and while it is a preferred non-lethal ma- nagement option by the public, translocation attempts are often met with mixed results (Griffith et al. 1989). Problems often associated with translocation include high costs and degree of expertise required, resumption of depredation by translocated animals, return of translocated animals to their original home ranges (e.g., homing), increased risk of disease transmission, potential confrontations with local dominant animals, and reduced survival or reproduction. Few have monito- red translocated animals to determine its effectiveness and even fewer have tried to elucidate the reasons for success or failure. Consequently, translocation has been hea- vily (and often justifiably) criticized as a management tool (Massei et al. 2010, Athreya et al. 2011, Fonturbel and Simonetti 2011). However, criticisms of translocation often ignore the desperate nature of conservation measures for critically endangered species such as tigers, where the goal is to not only reduce conflict, but also increase survival of individual tigers, where every individual counts. Here, we report on a successful tiger translocation in the Russian Far East (RFE) and discuss what we believe are the reasons for success and the efficacy of translocation for reducing human-tiger conflict and associated tiger mortality. In February 2010, the Wildlife Conservation Society Russia Program and the Primorski Krai Wildlife Management Department responded to a human-tiger conflict near the village of Orlovka in Lesozavodski Raion (county). Early in the morning of 15 February, a tiger approa- ched a farm on the outskirts of the village, wounded a horse, and was promptly scared away by the landowner. The horses were not secured in a barn at night but were fenced in a large pasture approximately 20 m from the house. The tiger returned several hours later, killed a different horse, and ate approximately four kilograms of meat before the landowner scared the tiger away and secured the carcass inside a barn. Later that evening the tiger returned and killed another horse. The tiger dragged the carcass to a fence ten meters away before being scared away by the landowner. The tiger returned an hour later and consumed about 6 kg of meat. This was a low to normal consumption rate compared to tigers preying on wild ungulates (5-15kg/ day; Pikunov 1988).
On 16 February, the tiger returned to eat twice and was not disturbed by barking dogs five meters away or people in a truck shining a spotlight on the carcass. The tigress was most likely forced to eat domestic prey and willing to tolerate human presence, due to very low wild prey populations in the surrounding forests. Based on an agreement with the Primorski Krai Wildlife Department, and a capture per- mit obtained from the Ministry of Natural Re- sources, our team arrived on 17 February and captured a female tiger (identified as Pt99) the following morning in an Aldrich foot snare set on a trail leading to the carcass. Capture and anesthesia followed established proto- cols (Goodrich et al. 2001). Tracks of the captured female matched pugmarks at the depredation site and further snow tracking surveys suggested only a single tiger occupied the ge- neral area. Thus, we were confident that the captured tigress was responsible for killing the horses, and potentially also for a cattle depredation 11 km away that occurred several months earlier. The tigress weighed 130 kg (large for female Amur tiger), was in good body condition, and was estimated to be between six and eight years old based on tooth wear. Considering the importance of prime-age females for population growth (Chapron et al. 2008), we agreed to attempt a translocation. We fitted her with a Vectronic GPS PLUS collar (VECTRONIC Aerospace GmbH; Berlin, Germany) for subsequent monitoring. The collar was programmed to collect locations at three-hour intervals. With a GPS collar we were able to monitor her closely while our field teams focused their energy on field investigation of movements and putative kill sites. This real-time data acquisition would prove extremely valuable in assessing and intervening on her behalf.
On the morning of 19 February 2010, we released Pt99 approximately 121 km northeast of the capture site just south of Udeghe Legend National Park along the Perevalnaya River, a tributary of the Bolshaya Ussurka River. The release site was within the current range of tigers and chosen because of its remoteness (the nearest village was 25 kilometers away), sufficiently high prey densities, and ease of monitoring. Surprisingly, she killed and consumed a roe deer Capreolus pygargus on the day of release. She then spent the entire winter - nearly three months – using a 142.9 km 2 area of this drainage (90% minimum convex polygon, n = 533 locations), while moving an average of 2.1 kilometers per day. During the second week of May, she moved out of the Perevalnaya River drainage and spent the subsequent five weeks traveling an average of 7.1 kilometers per day, making two major excursions to the northwest. She crossed the Bolshaya Ussurka River in mid June and settled into an area northwest of the release site where she remained through June 2011. From mid June 2010 to mid June 2011, she used a well-defined area of 825.7 km 2 area (90% minimum convex polygon, n = 2381 locations) and moved an average of 5.3 kilometers per day. We estimated two minimum convex polygons from the two distinct concentrations of locations described above and selected 90% minimum convex polygon home range estimates to screen out occasio- nal wide-ranging movements common during translocations. On 21 December 2010, Pt99 was chased off a wild boar Sus scrofa kill by a hunter with two dogs. While the hunter claimed that the tiger attacked unprovoked, snow tracking revealed that the hunter tracked her away from the kill site for about two kilometers, where he shot Pt99 through an opening in the forest. Wounded and provoked, Pt99 charged the hunter. Although the man apparently shot again, this did not stop her from severely mauling him. The two dogs distracted the tigress and most likely saved the poacher’s life. Pt99 moved about 600 meters to the west and rested for nearly a day. Bed sites near where she was shot indicated that she had been wounded in the chest and possibly the hind quarters, but later bed sites were bloodless. We attempted to obtain visual contact and assess her condition on December 23 by approaching in a log- ging skidder. While unsuccessful, the attempt demonstrated that Pt99 was still capable of movement (she moved three kilometers in response to this disturbance), and her gait ap- peared normal. The GPS collar enabled us to promptly respond to this human-tiger conflict situation and closely monitor her movements. Given her injury and previous history, we feared she would approach a village in search of easy domestic prey and the specter of another attack on people was of great concern. Two small villages were only ten kilometers to the northeast and northwest of the site where the shooting occurred. However, she kept her distance from villages and killed a first-year wild boar on 2 January, consuming it completely. On 16 January she killed an adult female boar and spent ten days at the site. While resting and healing for the first ten days after the shooting, her daily movement rate dropped to < 2 kilometers per day, significantly less than she moved during the month prior to the shooting (P < 0.0001). Both kill rate and movement rates dropped in the three months after the shooting, but picked up again during late spring and remained at a normal level when the collar prematurely died in mid June 2011. During 481 days of continuous monitoring, from February 19, 2010 to June 15, 2011, we received 3452 locations out of 3810 attempts, for a 90.6% fix-rate. Using these location data, we have identified and searched 194 potential kill sites and documented 50 kills. After release, Pt99 has survived primarily on wild ungulates and has avoided depredations on domestic animals near settlements. We do not consider the dogs she killed as depredations because they were free-ranging, far from human habitations, and apparently feral. We define success in translocation efforts in a stepwise fashion as: 1) reliance on wild prey; 2) cessation of depredation on domestic animals; 3) survival through the first winter (for northern climates) and first year; 4) establishing a home range; and ultimately, 5) successful reproduction (Goodrich & Miquelle 2005). Based on her activities after release, we consider the translocation process a conditional success - Pt99 consumed wild game and feral dogs, avoided human settlements, survived her first year, and has apparently established a territory, albeit a territory that was more than twice as large (825.7 km 2 ) as the mean for female Amur tigers reported in the protected area complex of Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Zapovednik (390 km 2 ; Goodrich et al. 2010). The cause for this large home range size is unknown, but could be related to the translocation itself or lower prey densities outside of protected areas. Although the causes for her initial depredations are difficult to determine, snow-tracking surveys led us to believe that a paucity of wild prey in her original home range was to blame. By placing this tigress into a forest with healthy prey populations and far from human settlements, we gave her the opportunity to kill wild prey without relying on domestic animals. While her recent attack on a hunter was a conflict situation, it was also clearly provoked by the hunter while Pt99 was feeding on wild prey 12 kilometers from the nearest village. Further, there have not been any additional human-tiger conflicts reported in the area around Orlovka since we translocated Pt99.
Of the five tigers we have translocated, none, including Pt99, displayed homing behavior (Goodrich & Miquelle 2005). However, our previous translocations were of cubs (<1 year) or subadults (1-3 years), whereas Pt99 was an adult, whom we would expect to be more likely to display homing behavior, especially given a translocation distance (121 kilometers) well within the range of dispersal movements for tigers (Goodrich et al. 2005). However, release in mid-winter, with snow depths excee- ding 50 centimeters, may have impeded any immediate homing movements. High tiger poaching rates in Russia probab- ly create vacant territories for translocated animals to settle in, especially in the unpro- tected state forest lands where we normally release tigers. Such conditions may not exist in some areas (Barlow et al. 2010, Loveridge et al. 2010), but high rates of tiger poaching in many countries has resulted in many forested areas devoid of tigers or with densities likely below carrying capacity (e.g. Laos, Sumatra; Johnson et al. 2006, Wibisono & Pusparini 2010). Indeed, translocation (but not of conflict animals) is being used to repopulate Panna and Sariska Reserves in India after tigers were extirpated by poaching (Sankar et al. 2010). With careful planning, translocation of conflict animals could be used to supplement depleted populations (where measures have been taken to reduce poaching and increase prey populations) or facilitate genetic ex- change between isolated populations. However, disease transmission is an important concern for translocation, especially if animals are to be released into small populations. Because of their interactions with domestic animals, conflict animals may have a higher probability of harboring infectious diseases not endemic in wild populations. Further, there is at least anecdotal evidence that infectious disease, especially canine distemper, may result in poor body condition and bold behavior in tigers, and hence cause them to come into conflict with humans (Quigley et al. 2010, authors, unpubl. data). Three recent papers have presented data strongly arguing against translocation in most cases (Massei et al. 2010, Athreya et al. 2011, Fonturbel & Simonetti 2011).
However, translocation of large cats has been conducted successfully and can be a useful tool for endangered species management in some situations if conducted correctly (Hunter et al. 2007, Trinkel et al. 2008). Three of five translocations of Amur tigers were successful (Goodrich & Miquelle 2005), meaning that translocation can be used to increase survival when tigers would otherwise be removed from the wild. We believe keys to our success are sufficiently long translocation distances, release of tigers in remote areas with suffici- ent prey, and naturally low tiger densities (<1 tiger/100 km 2 , Miquelle et al. 2010). Young tigers (<3 years) are most suitable because translocation mimics natural dispersal pat- terns of animals in this age group (Loveridge et al. 2010). Females should be given priority because of the high value of breeding females to population persistence (Goodrich & Miquelle 2005, Loveridge et al. 2010). Trans- located animals should be released into forests with lower tiger densities such as areas where poaching has recently reduced tiger densities (assuming the threat of poaching has been reduced) to increase the likelihood for establishing a territory. After confirming that the captured animal is responsible for the management situation, all translocated tigers should be equipped with GPS collars with remote data download capabilities that enable researchers to evaluate the success of the translocation, closely monitor movements, and quickly respond to any potential conflicts in the future. The attempted poaching incident that Pt99 survived clearly demonstrates the perils all wild tigers currently face. Goodrich et al. (2008) reported that 75% of radiocollared tiger mortalities were attributed to poachers in the RFE. Recent necropsies conducted on tigers in the RFE suggest that a surprising number of tigers carry bullets from poaching attempts (Kerley & Salkina, pers. comm.). Three of five tigers we translocated are known or suspected to have been killed by poachers, with Pt99 surviving an attempted poaching. Clearly, all conservation efforts, including translocations, will be meaningless if current poaching rates continue.
The tigers are part of a reintroduction project that commenced in 2009. Six founder tigers,
which were reintroduced between 2009 and 2013 (5♀ and 1♂), and 4-second generation tigers
(1♀, 3♂; born between 2010 and 2011). All 6 founder tigers and 6 of their offspring have been
fitted with VHF radio collars by reserve authorities. Details of this equipment are provided by
Sarkar et al. [23]. PTR tiger monitoring teams working in three 8-h shifts followed radio-collared
tigers each day using a handheld VHF antenna between 2009 and 2014. The teams were
tasked with recording the spatial locations of the tigers on an hourly basis. Following the signals
from the transmitters, members from the monitoring team located individual tigers and
homed-in. Tigers spent considerable time near carcasses and, whenever opportunity permitted,
members from the team visually inspected kills after the animals left the carcass, recording
details about the kill. Monitoring teams successfully recorded large bodied animal carcasses,
but most of the carcasses of intermediate and smaller sized prey were either dragged deep into
the thickets or were completely eaten by the tigers. Since we were more interested in livestock
kills, the collected dataset provided sufficient information that was also reliable. The collected
data were manually recorded into books maintained separately for each tiger and, where possible,
photographs were taken. Recorded information on kills included the spatial locations of
the kill, prey species, age group, and sex of prey. A small percentage (3%) of the kills could not be identified to the species level because carcasses were destroyed too much during the kill and
subsequent feeding. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/ http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0174844
characteristics of reintroduced tiger https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10344-016-1026-9
December 26 has special significance for the Panna Tiger Reserve management and staff because on this day in 2009, T3–the male tiger relocated from Pench to repopulate this habitat, was located, tranquilised and brought back by the Panna team 30 days after the big cat started moving in the South direction and travelled almost 442 kilometres through Chhatarpur, Sagar and Damoh districts and was heading towards his original habitat.
Chasing the tiger was a huge challenge for the Panna team since time was a crucial factor as the foresters were aware that the poachers could kill the tiger any moment while it was roaming outside the Protected Area. The Panna team which went searching for the tiger was supported by 70 smaller teams. Four elephants were also deployed in this massive search opeation.
T3 has sired most of the litters produced under the ambitious Panna Reintroduction Project. More than 32 cubs have been born in 14 litters since December 2009 and 6 of these have died. Of these 7 tigers have made the entire Bundelkhand region their territory while a family of 22 tigers resides in the Park area.
T3 has the credit of discovering the Panna Tiger Reserve-Nauradehi corridor during his 30 days of wandering outside the Panna area. Similarly another Panna tiger–Panna-212 created history by discovering the Panna-Bandhavgarh-Sanjay Tiger Reserve corridor pairing with a tigress in the Sanjay Tiger Reserve.
For those associated with the Panna Tiger Reintroduction Project from its inception, T3 is a real hero. He symbolises the threat any tiger would face once it leaves the Protected Area. Once T3 left the park area in November 2009, the Panna Tiger Reserve management and the State wildlife wing gave the clear message to the National Tiger Conservation Authority that there is zero security for the endangered tigers in the buffer areas or the corridors connecting the Protected Areas. Inquiries at that time had revealed that the forest team that was trying to track the tiger while it was moving outside the park area had lost its line of sight perhaps due to obstructions and a rocky terrain and had no idea about its where abouts for seven days from November 29 onwards. The only saving grace was the fact that a villager had spotted the tiger in the forest of Nayakheda at Pipartola-Gopalpura on December 2. It was on December 7, 2009 that the tiger was relocated in the Patrikota forest on the border of Chhattarpur and Sagar districts.
This tiger was first tranquilized on November 6 at Pench and was brought to Panna Tiger Reserve, where it was left in an enclosure at Badagarhi inside the Park area. Due to technical and logistical reasons, the Tiger was brought to Panna without radio-callar. The Tiger was watched for 7 days and a team of expert veterinarians, including Parag Mishra (Wildlife Institute of India), A.B Shrivastav (Jabalpur Veterinary College), Sandeep Agrawal (Kanha Tiger Reserve), Akhilesh Mishra (Pench Tiger Reserve), Sanjeev Gupta (Panna Tiger Reserve), led by the State Chief Conservator of Wildlife, Dharmendra Shukla had decided to tranquilize the tiger for the second time on November 13. The next day, the tiger was left free in the Tiger Reserve. He remained there till November 25 and started traveling southwards.
The tiger traveled more than 400 kms, which is the first example of its kind. He crossed even the town of Garhakota, which was 250 kms from the Badagarhi enclosure inside the Park area. There was no dearth of anxiety among the Panna Tiger Reserve managers and others involved in tracking the tiger at this stage, as they were afraid that the tiger could be poisoned and killed by villagers or poachers. There was also the threat of local shikaris (local villagers engaged in hunting the herbivores). The forest team could keep track of the tiger, which was radio-collared, till November 29. The forest team, led by V.S Parihar, DFO Panna Tiger Reserve, had even succeeded in driving it back almost 30 kms towards the Tiger Reserve. Soon however the tiger gave the slip and began moving in the southern direction. At this juncture, the forest team was confronted with the big question. Whether to tranquilize the tiger once again? The issue was “will it survive in the path it was moving.” There was also the risk of tranquilizing the tiger for the third time within a short period. The team on the spot, which included the member secretary National Tiger Conservation Authority, Rajesh Gopal, State PCCF Wildlife, R.S. Negi, Chief Conservator of forest, J.S. Chauhan, Panna Tiger Reserve Director, Srinivas Murthy and Dr. Ramesh (Wildlife Institute of India), finally decided to tranquilize the tiger once more. Tranquilizing the tiger in poor visibility and more particularly near the Bewas River in the midst of rock cliffs was a big challenge. On December 19, an attempt was made to tranquilize the tiger but it slipped away and hid in a sugar cane field in the Madaiyya village of Sagar district and at night crossed over to the Noradehi forest. From here the tiger moved over to the Taradehi forest where it was tranquilized on December 25 and was brought back and left in the Panna Tiger Reserve at 4 am on December 26. https://newsroom24x7.com/2015/01/04/t3-the-real-hero-of-panna-tiger-reserve/
In the searing summer of May 2005, in the heart of the central Indian forest of Kanha Tiger Reserve, two female cubs all of 30 days, were orphaned when their mother was killed by a male tiger. The cubs were picked up and hand-reared by the forest department. At 18 months, they were released into a bigger enclosure.
Around the time that these cubs were exploring their limited freedom, about 350 km away, Panna Tiger Reserve’s tiger population was being decimated. In March 2011, one of the two siblings nearing six years of age, christened T4, was released into the wild world of Panna.T4 picked up skills to make wild kills and was soon hunting on her own. She delivered her first litter of two cubs in November 2011, a first in the world, wherein an orphaned tigress, brought up in captivity not only re-wilded but also delivered in the wild. T4 went on to deliver a second litter which she abandoned, and then a third litter in July 2013, giving birth to three cubs.
T4’s sightings with her cubs were quite common. I got to see T4 more than once, lolling away in glory with her then nine-month old babies as she rested in the shade of vegetation by a stream. The cubs couldn’t restrain their curiosity and would peek out from behind their mother. In September 2014, while her cubs were merely 14 months old, the magnificent T4 passed away. The reason was ascribed to natural causes, possibly an illness. A trailblazing life had come to an end. While the fate of her cubs worried conservationists and wildlife enthusiasts, one female cub, P433 (P: Panna born, 4: progeny of T4, 3: 3rd litter of T4, 3: third cub in the litter) was tranquilised and collared and then, left to fend for herself along with her two male siblings. The cubs showed as much enterprise as their mother, and as of today, all three inhabit a territory in and around Panna.
While T4 was the high achiever, her sibling, rechristened T5, was charting her own course. T5 was released in Panna in November 2011 at the age of over six-and-half years. Despite her long years in what was merely a large enclosure, she was quite an agile and powerful animal. Her first kill was a wild pig, which, even for a well-established wild tiger, can be difficult.
In her lifetime, T5 remained discreet and elusive. In my conversations with local guides, few ever saw her and nobody seems to have ever captured her on camera. She remained an enigma, a bit of an under-performer and shy, but every bit as free a spirit as her sister.
Both, T4 and T5 died before their time, but they led rare lives — starting from being orphaned at the age of 30 days, to living a life of captivity for over six years before being part of the most daring re-wilding experiment that many believed was bound to fail, to actually leading a fully wild life; breeding, littering and even successfully raising their young to adulthood. This was unheard of in the annals of tiger conservation and credit has to go to the Panna team.
T4 and T5 demonstrated the fantastic potential of forests like the Panna Tiger Reserve, that recovered from zero tigers in 2009 to over 30 tigers as of today. They offered us the chance to correct our past mistakes and to atone for our sins. Most of all, they indicated the importance of taking care of our wildlife and protected zones. The Panna Tiger Reserve provides important ecosystem services, including water to the perennial Ken river, but is threatened by the proposed Ken-Betwa river-link project which will cause direct and indirect damage to about 200 sq km of the reserve. Equally worrying is the proposed 1,000 hectare Rio Tinto diamond mine.
Today, the progeny of T4 and T5 continue to put up a spirited resistance to this unequal fight. It’s almost as if the wild spirit of their mothers lingers on in the deep gorges, vertical rock faces, gentle streams and dark gullies, watching over us and chiding us to never let Panna slip away again.
Kaziranga had highest tiger density (12.72 per 100 sq km) followed by Corbett in Uttarakhand (11) and Bandipur in Karnataka (10.28) in the 2014 census of the big cat population. But the latest round of tiger estimation carried out in January to March 2017 could displace Kaziranga from the top slot.
The census has revealed Kaziranga has an estimated 102 tigers – the range is 96-117 – within a core area of 484 sq km, one more than last time in 2014.
Preliminary reports say the 500 sq km Manas National Park and the 79 sq km Orang recorded the presence of 30 and 28 tigers, which is an increase of 16 and four tigers respectively over the last census.
“Kaziranga had the highest tiger density (12.72 per 100 sq km) in India last time. The park should be able to maintain the record,” Kaziranga’s field director Rohini Saikia told HT.But Sunnydeo Choudhary, the field director of Orang, said the national park would be able to vie for the habitat with the world’s highest density of tigers.
“Going by preliminary estimates, Orang’s tiger density is 35.44 tigers per 100 sq km. Once that is confirmed by NTCA (National Tiger Conservation Authority) and the Wildlife Institute of India, Orang will have a different kind of global distinction,” he said.
Officials in Manas, which straddles India and Bhutan, said the tiger population estimated could be less than the actual number. One of the reasons is the tigers move in and out of Bhutan. “We believe the actual figure would be more, as tigers have a tendency of hiding their cubs that often escape camera traps,” Manas’s field director HK Sarma said.
(Manas) Tigers have made a roaring comeback in the Manas landscape which straddles both Assam's Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD) and Bhutan.
The second survey to monitor big cats across the Transboundary Manas Conservation Area (TraMCA), which covers Manas National Park (MNP) on the Indian side and the Royal Manas National Park (RMNP) in Bhutan, has thrown up 21 tigers — a heartwarming increase of 50 per cent over the first survey in 2011-12 that had counted just 14 big cats in the Manas landscape.
The latest tiger monitoring, carried out by the MNP, RMNP, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), WWF-India and conservation group Aaaranyak last year, covered an area of 560 sq km across the two protected areas. The findings were released by Assam's principal chief conservator of forest, D Mathur, during a two-day TraMCA meeting which concluded here on Wednesday.
"The findings showed an increase in the tiger population," chief of WWF-India's Assam Landscapes, Anupam Sarmah, said. TraMCA, floated in 2008, is a joint initiative of India and Bhutan for trans-boundary biodiversity conservation. The latest report said 11 tigers were found in RMNP and 14 in MNP. However, as four tigers were spotted on both sides, the total count stands at 21.
"Пищевой рацион амурского тигра (Panthera tigris altaica) изучался в 1992–2012 гг. в Тернейском, Красноармейском и Дальнегорском районах Приморского края (Сихотэ-Алинский заповедник, его окрестности и бассейн р. Большая Уссурка). Работа проводилось в рамках про-
граммы Сихотэ-Алинского заповедника и Общества сохранения диких животных.
Сбор данных для расчета доли отдельных компонентов (видов животных) в питании тигра
проводился двумя способами. Первый заключался в сборе информации по жертвам, которые
обнаруживались при посещении мест пребывания радиомеченых и GPS-меченых тигров, а так-
же при случайных находках останков трапез хищников. Каждая жертва независимо от ее размера
принималась при анализе за равную единицу. При втором способе производился сбор экскрементов тигра, которые промывались и разбирались на отдельные компоненты. Видовая принадлежность компонентов определялась по видоспецифичным особенностям волос (форма, цвет,
рисунок кутикулы, структура диска сердцевины, полученная щелочным термогидролизом) и
других остатков жертв (когти, копыта), обнаруженных в экскрементах. Для анализа использова-
лось процентное содержание объема компонентов разных видов-жертв в каждом образце экскрементов. Всего были обследованы 692 жертвы и 421 проба экскрементов тигра.
Анализ по жертвам выявил в рационе тигра 18 видов животных: изюбрь – 45,4 %, кабан –
26,3 %, косуля – 9,1 %, пятнистый олень – 7,8 %, барсук – 2,5 %, собака – 1,9 %, бурый медведь –
1,2 %, гималайский медведь – 1 %, корова – 1 %, ларга – 1 %, енотовидная собака – 0,9 %, горал –
0,6 %, тигр – 0,4 %, лошадь – 0,3 %, кабарга – 0,3 %, лось – 0,1 %, лисица – 0,1 %, неясыть – 0,1 %.
В экскрементах тигра обнаружены остатки следующих животных: кабан – 42,4 %, изюбрь – 16,2
%, косуля – 16,1 %, гималайский и бурый медведи – 10,4 %, пятнистый олень – 4,9 %, барсук – 3,2
%, енотовидная собака – 1,4 %, кабарга – 1,2 %, горал – 1 %, тигр – 0,7 %, собака – 0,7 %, оленьи
(до вида не определено) – 0,7 %, мелкие хищные млекопитающие – 0,5 %, лось – 0,2 %, рысь – 0,2
%, лисица – 0,2 %, длиннохвостая неясыть – 0,04 %, заяц-беляк – 0,01 %. Результаты, полученные
посредством двух методов, значительно различаются по содержанию некоторых видов. Так,
доля в рационе тигра кабана, косули и мелких хищных млекопитающих оказалась выше, а изюбря
ниже при анализе экскрементов по сравнению с жертвами. Это может объясняться тем, что
более крупные жертвы радиомеченых тигров обнаруживались чаще, поскольку хищники на них
проводили больше времени.
Чтобы определить значение в рационе тигра относительно крупных жертв, являющихся
основой его питания, из анализа были исключены мелкие виды животных. В результате значение
разных видов крупных жертв для тигра выглядит следующим образом (приведены % в рационе
по жертвам и в скобках по экскрементам): изюбрь – 48,1 % (17,2 %), кабан – 27,7 % (45,1 %),
косуля – 9,6 % (17,1 %), пятнистый олень – 8,3 % (5,2 %), бурый и гималайский медведи – 2,3 %
(11,1 %), корова – 1,1 % (0 %), нерпа – 1,1 % (0 %), горал – 0,6 % (1 %), тигр – 0,5 % (0,8 %), лошадь –
0,3 % (0 %), кабарга – 0,3 % (1,3 %), лось – 0,2 % (0,3 %), рысь – 0 % (0,3 %), оленьи (до вида не
определено) – 0 % (0,8 %).
В результате проведенных исследований выявлен 21 вид животных, поедаемых амурским
тигром в Среднем Сихотэ-Алине. Наибольшее значение в рационе хищника имеют кабан, изюбрь,
косуля, пятнистый олень (вдоль морского побережья) и два вида медведей."
ПИЩЕВОЙ РАЦИОН АМУРСКОГО ТИГРА В СРЕДНЕМ СИХОТЭ-АЛИНЕ
И.В. Серёдкин, Д.Г. Микелл, А.С. Мухачева , Ю.К. Петруненко, Д.М. Гудрич.
«Мы долгое время не рассказывали о жизни Владика, в первую очередь, заботясь о его безопасности. Может сказано громко, но сейчас, когда он преодолел знаковый рубеж, у нас появилась возможность убрать завесу тайны. В ходе своего длительного путешествия Владик регулярно добывал копытных животных, кроме того, не обходил стороной и гималайских медведей – три подтвержденных нами случая! Поволноваться нас он заставил один раз, когда приблизился к селу Ясное вблизи аэропорта. Но тигр сделал правильный выбор и в этот раз нашёл верную дорогу, обойдя Владивосток. Совместной группе даже удалось его увидеть, найдя тигра по радиосигналу ошейника. Ну а затем он перешёл трудно преодолимый барьер в виде транссибирской магистрали и автомобильной дороги Владивосток – Хабаровск и оказался на территории юго-запада. Тем самым он подтвердил доказанную еще в средине ХХ века связь двух участков ареала тигра на Сихотэ-Алине и юго-западе Приморья. Владик выглядит здоровым и упитанным зверем, проявил нормальную реакцию на автомобиль и людей. Куда всё же движется хищник пока загадка, но время покажет» - комментирует генеральный директор Центра «Амурский тигр» Сергей Арамилев. http://amur-tiger.ru/ru/press_center/news/915/http://www.ifaw.org/russia/
"Тигр Владик закончил свое прямолинейное движение на юго-западе Приморского края, сделав там почетный круг по бассейну реки Кедровки и, развернувшись на 180 градусов, пошел обратно в центральную часть Сихотэ-Алиня."
"С осенней поездки из ЕАО вернулась рабочая группа по мониторингу выпущенных тигров. Цель поездки: проверка кластеров (мест предполагаемых охот) у тигрицы Филиппы и проверка фотоловушек на участке тигров Бори и Светлой.
Тигрица Филиппа уже практически полгода живет в дикой природе. Она не только подтвердила свои отличные охотничьи навыки, но и удивила разнообразием своего рациона и своим стабильным расписанием: успешная охота у тигрицы каждые шесть – восемь дней. За полгода в рационе тигрицы присутствовали: гималайский медведь, волк, косуля, кабан и изюбрь! Останки более мелкой добычи находить не всегда получается. Из всего разнообразия доступных «объектов питания» остаётся только лось, которого она еще не «попробовала» съесть….Но у юной Филиппы все впереди, ей всего два с половиной года!
Фотографии, полученные из заказника «Журавлиный», где живёт полосатое семейство тигра Бориса, чувствует себя прекрасно: хорошо знакомые маркировочные столбы стабильно посещаются, копытные отмечаются. На фотоловушках больше всего фиксируется тигр Борис, а Светлая по-прежнему очень осторожничает и появляется не по все территории заявленного участка. Скорее всего, это связано с ее материнством. На фотографиях тигрица зафиксировалась первый раз без ошейника, теперь мы ее будем различать исключительно по полоскам.
Мониторинг осуществляется сотрудниками МРОО «Центр тигр», АНО «Амурский тигр» и Управлением охотничьего надзора ЕАО."
"Через неделю после выпуска Филиппы в природу сотрудники Управления по охране и использованию объектов животного мира правительства Еврейской автономной области сообщили, что тигрица уже провела успешную охоту на молодого гималайского медведя.
Подобного опыта (охоты на других хищников) в условиях вольера у тигрицы не было. Это очень ценная информация, подтверждающая высокую адаптивность молодых животных, прошедших курс реабилитации."
