- Title: Thai sanctuary sees recovering tiger population
- Date: 16th September 2016
- Summary: UTHAI THANI, THAILAND (SEPTEMBER 13, 2016) (REUTERS) OFFICIAL WORKING IN FRONT OF COMPUTER TIGERS PHOTOS ON COMPUTER
- Embargoed: 1st October 2016 11:05
- Keywords: CITES Bengal tigers conservation Thailand
- Location: UTHAI THANI, KANCHANABURI, BANGKOK/THAILAND
- City: UTHAI THANI, KANCHANABURI, BANGKOK/THAILAND
- Country: Thailand
- Topics: Environment
- Reuters ID: LVA0074ZTDPON
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
At the Huay Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, one of Thailand's most protected forest in the west of the country, a team of researchers are busy processing photos and videos of wild tigers captured by camera traps.
The more frequently recorded images of the big cats are evidence that the population of the Indochinese tigers at the sanctuary is increasing, despite slowly.
Somphot Duangchanrasiri, who has been leading a tiger population recovery program in the forest complex since 2004, said in the beginning, his team obtained visuals that indicated an estimate of about 40 to 50 Indochinese tigers were living in the whole area. But now the population appears to have increased to between 50 and 60, making the sanctuary the only Southeast Asian location where the animals have been confirmed to be increasing in number.
"The very interesting thing is that the survival rate of the tigers in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary is quite high. There is a high breeding rate every year. We found that tigers in Huai Kha Khaeng have offspring spreading," he said.
Somphot's team is equipped with around 100 camera traps and rotate them among 200 spots around the 2,575 square kilometre sanctuary every five months.
Poaching was considered the main cause of tiger population loss at the Sanctuary.
Somphot said the size of the tiger population dropped to around 30 - 40 between 2010 and 2011. And his team found that poisonous baits had been used to entrap tigers. Three tigers were killed by those baits.
Since then the reserve increased the number of rangers and intensified their anti-poaching patrol efforts.
The protective efforts have paid off, but the situation for tigers in Thailand is not completely rosy.
"Nowadays, we are still facing the tiger poaching problem. People are still buying and selling their skins and organs," said Somphot.
The entire wild population of the Indochinese tiger subspecies was estimated at just 350 animals in 2010, with around 200 in Thailand, according to data collected at the International Tiger Forum, held in Russia in November, 2010.
The subspecies can also be found in Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam. It may or may not still exist in China.
Steve Galster, executive director of Freeland, a Bangkok-based group fighting human and wildlife trafficking, said the sanctuary's success set an example for other countries to follow.
"And that gives us hope for moving into the next period where we would like to share that success story with the other countries. Because what they're up against in that particular area is just as bad, if not worse, than another countries," said Galster.
Thai officials hoped Huai Kha Khaeng's tiger population can be used as a "source" and dispersed to wider areas.
"We are seeing a better tendency (of the increasing number of tigers) and we have the idea of relocating tigers in one of the forests to several other forest areas in which tigers do not exist anymore," Adisorn Noochdumrong, deputy chief of department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.
Thailand has long been a hub for the illicit trafficking of wildlife and forest products, including ivory. Exotic birds, mammals and reptiles, some of them endangered species, can often be found on sale in markets.
Tiger parts are often used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Thai wildlife authorities found scores of dead cubs while rescuing animals from the popular Tiger Temple in June this year.
The temple in Kanchanaburi province, west of the capital, Bangkok, has been a major tourist attraction for more than two decades, with visitors paying 600 baht ($17) admission to pose for photographs with the tigers.
Wildlife activists have accused the temple of illegally breeding the tigers while some visitors on online forums complained that the tigers appeared sedated.
Despite the raid on the infamous tiger temple, Thailand's tiger tourism business is booming and the captive tiger population is growing fast. Thailand offers an array of wildlife tourist attractions, from tiger "selfies" to elephant rides and orangutan boxing.
A July report by World Animal Protection shows that the number of captive tigers in Thailand's tiger entertainment industry jumped 33 percent, from 623 tigers in 2010 to 830 tigers in 2015-2016. Eight new venues also opened during the period.
The tiger trade is already limited under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Governments with tiger populations pledged in 2010 to double wild tiger numbers by 2022.
CITES, an agreement among 183 governments to ensure trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival, will meet from September 24 till October 5 in South Africa.
Barely 3,900 tigers are estimated to be roaming wild, compared with about 100,000 a century ago, conservationists say. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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