topic: Tigers

topic: Tigers

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Nepal govt bypasses parliament to allow commercial projects in protected areas
- Nepal’s government has issued a controversial ordinance bypassing parliament to enable foreign investment in various sectors, including protected areas.
- The ordinance coincides with Nepal’s Investment Summit, facilitating projects like cable car routes and hotels within national parks.
- Details of the ordinance remain undisclosed, but it reportedly amends laws governing protected areas, allowing construction in previously restricted zones.
- Critics have expressed concern over the potential long-term consequences, questioning the impact on conservation efforts and local communities.

Nepal’s tigers & prey need better grassland management: Interview with Shyam Thapa
- Researcher Shyam Thapa, who recently completed his Ph.D. in ecology, highlights flaws in traditional grassland management methods, particularly in Bardiya National Park.
- Thapa’s findings suggest the need for improved grassland management to enhance the health and numbers of tiger prey species.
- He emphasizes the importance of tailored management approaches based on grassland functionality.
- Implementing his study’s recommendations could potentially increase herbivore numbers in tiger habitats, reducing human-wildlife conflicts, Thapa says.

A tiger cat gains new species designation, but conservation challenges remain
- Two Latin American tiger cat species were previously recognized by science in 2013: the southern tiger cat (Leopardus guttulus) and northern tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus). Both are considered vulnerable according to the IUCN Red List.
- But a paper published in January 2024 described a third, new tiger cat species; Leopardus pardinoides. Dubbed the clouded tiger cat, the species is found in high-altitude cloud forests in Central and South America. This taxonomic reshuffling has major conservation implications for the group as a whole, said experts.
- In addition to proposing the new species, the authors reassessed the tiger cats’ distribution and current status. New data indicate that the small wildcats are not present in areas where they were previously assumed to be, which has slashed their remaining habitat considerably.
- Experts warn that these little-known wildcat species have long flown under the conservation radar. Urgent action is required to protect them in the long term against a litany of threats, including habitat loss, persecution and disease transmission from domestic animals.

‘The Javan tiger still exists’: DNA find may herald an extinct species’ comeback
- A 2019 sighting by five witnesses indicates that the long-extinct Javan tiger may still be alive, a new study suggests.
- A single strand of hair recovered from that encounter is a close genetic match to hair from a Javan tiger pelt from 1930 kept at a museum, the study shows.
- “Through this research, we have determined that the Javan tiger still exists in the wild,” says Wirdateti, a government researcher and lead author of the study.
- The Javan tiger was believed to have gone extinct in the 1980s but only officially declared as such in 2008, along with the Bali tiger; a third Indonesian subspecies, the Sumatran tiger, is also edging closer to extinction.

Adventure tours with tigers? Nepal’s proposed policy changes raise alarm
- Nepal’s government is proposing zoning changes to allow adventure tourism activities such as canyoning, mountain biking and motorboating inside protected areas.
- The proposed changes are part of a wider push, which includes allowing the operation of hotels and cable cars inside protected areas, to commercialize the country’s globally acclaimed conservation sector.
- Critics argue that the proposed changes could potentially jeopardize hard-won achievements in biodiversity preservation and land restoration.

Nepal mulls policy shift to allow hotels back into tiger strongholds
- Nepal’s Ministry of Forest and Environment is working new regulations to permit hotels to operate within national parks like Chitwan, a draft of the document seen by Mongabay suggests.
- The decision follows the closure of seven hotels in Chitwan National Park in 2009 due to ecological concerns and alleged involvement in poaching, with the last of them shutting down in 2012.
- Despite opposition from conservationists and local communities, the government has shown interest in allowing commercial activities, including large-scale hydropower plants, within national parks, raising concerns about environmental degradation.

Despite investment in conservation, Bengal tigers still struggling in Bangladesh
- As a major tiger habitat country, Bangladesh has been spending a remarkable amount of money to protect the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) for the last two decades; however, the population of the big cat has dropped during this period.
- According to the last survey conducted in 2018, only 114 tigers remain in the Bangladesh portion of the Sundarbans, compared to 440 in 2004.
- In Bangladesh, Sundarbans is the only place where the Bengal tiger lives. Three portions of the mangrove forest are designated as wildlife sanctuaries, but none are specifically dedicated to the tiger.
- Experts blame inefficient and inadequate measures in conservation initiatives as the major reasons for the failure in population increase.

Conservation success leaves Nepal at a loss for dealing with ‘problem tigers’
- Nepal’s success in tiger conservation has come at the cost of rising human-tiger conflict, prompting the government to capture “problem tigers” deemed to pose a threat to human life.
- But the government has no definitive plans for these tigers, of which there are 18 currently in captivity, costing the environment ministry nearly $100,000 a year just to feed.
- Various stakeholders have proposed a range of solutions, from sport hunting that would also generate revenue, to establishing rescue centers, to gifting the tigers to foreign zoos, to even simply culling them.
- The country’s environment minister, criticized for the sport hunting proposal, has spoken out against the prioritization of conservation at the expense of local communities’ increasingly urgent safety concerns.

Dholes latest wild canids likely making comeback in Nepal, study shows
- Dholes and Himalayan wolves were extensively persecuted across rural Nepal for preying on livestock, leading to their decline in the region.
- But recent observations suggest a resurgence of both species, possibly due to the reclaiming of their former territories: Himalayan wolves may have followed yak herders from Tibet, while dholes are believed to be recolonizing areas they had been locally extirpated from.
- Camera trap surveys and literature reviews indicate the recolonization of areas like the Annapurna Conservation Area and the Tinjure–Milke–Jaljale forests by dholes.
- Despite some optimism among conservationists, challenges such as competition with other predators, habitat fragmentation and human-wildlife conflict persist, requiring further studies and monitoring efforts.

UN award for Nepal’s tiger range restoration spurs euphoria amid challenges
- Nepal’s Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) initiative, aimed at restoring ecosystems and creating space for tigers, receives global recognition from the U.N. as one of seven World Restoration Flagships.
- Launched in 2004, the TAL initiative restored 66,800 hectares (165,000 acres) of forest and significantly increased the Bengal tiger population in the region.
- The U.N. recognition opens doors for technical and financial support to restore an additional 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) in both Nepal and India, but overcoming challenges like infrastructure expansion and human-wildlife conflict remains critical for long-term sustainability.

Elite appetite turns Bangladesh from source to consumer of tiger parts
- Previously a source country for live tigers and their parts, Bangladesh has transformed into both a consumer market and a global transit hub for the illegal trade, a new study shows.
- The shift is fueled by local demand from a growing elite, global connections, and cultural fascination with tiger products, and facilitated by improved transport infrastructure networks that have allowed two-way flow of tiger parts through Bangladesh’s airports, seaports and land border crossings.
- Despite some progress in curtailing tiger poaching and smuggling over the past two decades, enforcement remains weak and poaching continues, especially in the Sundarbans mangrove forest.
- Experts say there needs to be broader collaboration among state agencies, international organizations and other countries to combat wildlife trafficking more effectively.

Leopards, Nepal’s other, other big cats, face unprecedented threats
- Common leopards in Nepal face unprecedented threats, often making headlines for attacking people and livestock, leading to instances where local authorities resort to shooting them down.
- Conservationists express concerns about the transmission of canine distemper from feral dogs to wildlife, including leopards and tigers, emphasizing the virus’s proliferation among wildlife populations.
- A study suggests that adopting predator-proofing practices for livestock can mitigate human-leopard conflicts, identifying livestock and human density, along with rugged terrain, as key drivers of leopard attacks.

In 2023, Nepal’s ‘uncelebrated’ wildlife continued wait for attention
- From hispid hares to otters and a critically endangered lizard, Nepal’s lesser-known wild animals live under the shadow of the iconic tiger.
- Officials and conservation stakeholders are yet to come up with concrete plans to save many of these species even as they face the threat of extinction due to habitat loss and fragmentation.
- Other flora and fauna deserve the government’s attention amid these myriad growing threats, researchers told Mongabay in 2023.

For Nepal, 2023 changed course of tiger conservation efforts
- In 2023, Nepali conservation officials and stakeholders shifted their focus from shoring up numbers to human-tiger coexistence and development of corridors to enhance movement of the animal between different habitats.
- Although the problem of poaching has largely been addressed, negative human-tiger interactions and development of infrastructure pose significant challenges in achieving the goals.
- Also in 2023, the country’s environment minister proposed allowing sport hunting to control the tiger population, but that didn’t go down well with the conservationists.

Smallholders and loggers push deeper into Sumatra’s largest park
- Kerinci Seblat National Park on the Indonesian island of Sumatra has lost more than 4% of its primary forest cover over the past 20 years, satellite data from Global Forest Watch show.
- Much of the deforestation is driven by nearby communities logging and farming, in particular potatoes, and possibly also illegal gold mining.
- The park hosts a diversity of wildlife like nowhere else — tigers, elephants, helmeted hornbills and barking deer, among others — but these are now threatened by loss of habitat and poaching.
- Kerinci Seblat was at one point a stronghold of the Sumatran rhino, but this critically endangered species has since gone extinct from the park.

Crime analysis sheds light on tiger poaching in Malaysia
- Conservationists have successfully applied an urban policing strategy to assess and fine-tune their efforts to tackle poaching of tigers in Peninsular Malaysia.
- They reported in a new paper that poaching success by hunters from Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand — the main group of poachers in the country — declined by up to 40% during the study period.
- The conservationists used the EMMIE crime prevention framework (short for effect, mechanisms, moderators, implementation and economic costs) to identify what worked and areas to improve.
- There are fewer than 200 critically endangered Malayan tigers believed to survive in Malaysia, with snaring by poachers among the leading causes of their decline.

Nepal’s tiger conservation gets tech boost with AI-powered deer tracking
- Endangered tigers in Nepal heavily rely on spotted deer as their primary prey, making their conservation crucial.
- Researchers in Nepal are using vertical cameras and AI technology to track and profile individual spotted deer (Axis axis), similar to the methods used for tigers.
- However, the project has faced challenges, including low recapture rates and difficulty in distinguishing individual deer in the wild.

Indonesia’s besieged Tesso Nilo National Park hit hard by yet more deforestation, satellites show
- Sumatra’s Tesso Nilo National Park boasts one of the highest levels of lowland plant diversity known to science and harbors an estimated 3% of the planet’s mammal species.
- But industrial tree plantations, encouraged by the COVID-19 pandemic and boosted by high palm oil prices, are quickly supplanting the park’s remaining habitat.
- Satellite data show the park lost 87% of its primary forest cover between 2002 and 2022, most of which was cleared after the government expanded Tesso Nilo’s boundaries in 2009
- Preliminary data from GFW, along with satellite imagery, indicate 2023 has been another particularly bad year for the park’s remaining habitat, with clearings nearly severing Tesso Nilo’s last large tract of forest by September.

Return of the wolf to Nepal’s Himalayas may threaten snow leopards
- The return of wolves to Nepal’s Himalayan region is putting greater pressure on populations of naur, or blue sheep — and by extension on snow leopards, whose main prey is naur.
- New research shows that naur tend to exhibit greater vigilance in areas where both wolves and snow leopards are present, while lowering their guard somewhat when no wolves are around.
- Conservationists say the growing wolf presence threatens snow leopards through direct competition for food and through stressing out, and weakening, naur populations.
- Snow leopards already face pressure from common leopards and tigers, which are moving further uphill in response to both human threats and a changing climate.

Sundarbans tiger and prey numbers rise amid Bangladesh conservation efforts
- Recent surveys of big cats and prey in the Sundarbans indicate that numbers for both have increased significantly in recent years, thanks to different conservation measures taken by the Bangladesh government.
- According to the last survey conducted in 2018, there were 114 tigers in the Bangladesh portion of the Sundarbans, while the number counted in 2004 was 440.
- An ongoing camera trapping tiger census has found more presence of tigers across the forest than in earlier counts. The final count of the tiger population will be announced on International Tiger Day, July 29, 2024.
- Experts say that an increase in tigers’ prey animals will reduce human-tiger conflict and help increase the tiger population.

Nepali researchers yet again photograph snow leopard, leopard in same place
- Nepali researchers capture images of a snow leopard and a common leopard in the same location in the Gaurishankar Conservation Area, adding to the evidence of habitat overlap between the two species.
- The recently analyzed images were taken by camera traps at an altitude of 4,260 meters (13,976 feet) in January 2023.
- Researchers say that climate change is likely to increase interactions between snow leopards and common leopards, as the latter move northward in search of suitable habitat and prey, encroaching on the territory of the former.
- They also warn that habitat overlap could pose a threat to snow leopards, which are smaller and less agile than common leopards, and call for more long-term data and research to understand the impacts of climate change on both species.

As Bhutan reports big boost in tigers, coexistence strategies become necessary (commentary)
- Bhutan recently reported a 27% increase in its tiger population from the last systematic survey in 2015.
- This second national tiger survey was made possible thanks to data from 1,200 camera trap stations set up across some of the most treacherous Himalayan terrain.
- “Bhutan’s achievement is reason to celebrate [but] the tiger’s turnaround begs an important question: will people in Bhutan and other tiger range countries necessarily be enthusiastic about growth in tiger populations?” a new op-ed asks and then offers strategies to achieve greater coexistence.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Nepal won’t set fresh tiger number goal, to focus on coexistence, connectivity
- Having nearly tripled its tiger population since 2010, Nepal is now shifting its focus to improving habitat connectivity and coexistence with humans.
- The country achieved a remarkable increase in its tiger population, which in 2022 reached 355 individuals.
- The new conservation plan aims to address the challenges of human-tiger conflict, habitat fragmentation, and genetic isolation of tigers.

Critics decry Nepal minister’s ‘terrible idea’ of ‘sport hunting’ tigers
- Nepal’s environment minister has suggested selling licenses to hunt tigers in the country as a means of both controlling the predator’s population and raising money for conservation.
- But conservationists, wildlife experts and local communities have denounced it as a “terrible idea,” saying it would endanger the tigers and their wider ecosystem, as well as violate Indigenous beliefs.
- Researchers warn hunting is ineffective and unnecessary as a means of reducing human-tiger conflict, and that the tiger population may have reached its natural limit in the country anyway.

Tigers cross borders but struggle to move safely within Nepal, study suggests
- Tigers in Nepal are increasingly isolated in protected areas and facing difficulties moving within the country due to human activities and habitat fragmentation.
- Domestic corridors in the Siwalik hills could connect the tiger populations and increase their genetic diversity and viability.
- Conservationists recommend involving community forest user groups and implementing wildlife-friendly infrastructure guidelines to manage and protect the domestic corridors.

Bangladesh tries fences to tackle growing human-tiger conflict in Sundarbans
- About 300 people and 46 tigers have been killed since 2000 in human-tiger conflicts in Bangladesh’s Sundarbans.
- Authorities here have decided to install fencing along the rivers and canals that the big cats use to cross into human settlements.
- Experts point to a successful application of this measure in the Indian Sundarbans, and say the fencing will both keep tigers out of human settlements, and humans and their domestic animals out of tiger habitat.
- The Sundarbans is the only mangrove habitat in the world that supports tigers, but the ecosystem continues to be degraded due to human and natural causes.

Landmark Nepal court ruling ends impunity for wealthy wildlife collectors
- Wildlife collectors in Nepal will have to declare their collections to the government, under a landmark ruling spurred by the perceived injustice of the country’s strict wildlife protection laws.
- The May 30 Supreme Court ruling caps a legal campaign by conservationist Kumar Paudel to hold to account wealthy Nepalis who openly display wildlife parts and trophies, even as members of local communities are persecuted for suspected poaching.
- Under the ruling, the government must issue a public notice calling on private collectors to declare their wildlife collections, and must then seize those made after 1973, the year the wildlife conservation act came into effect.
- Conservationists and human rights advocates have welcomed the ruling, but say “only time will tell if the government will take this court order seriously or not.”

Low-key return for rescued rhino calves to Nepal’s Chitwan National Park
- Two of three rhino calves rescued from the wild have been returned to Nepal’s Chitwan National Park in what officials say was a “low-key and low-cost” release.
- The two female greater one-horned rhinos had been cared for at a facility on the outskirts of the park after being abandoned by their mothers.
- Officials had debated whether to move them to other parks with smaller rhino populations or to gift them to foreign countries as part of Nepal’s “rhino diplomacy.”
- A third rhino calf, rescued last October following a tiger attack, is also expected to be released back into Chitwan once she’s deemed old enough and ready to take care of herself.

In Sumatra, potato appetite bites into a UNESCO-listed tiger haven
- Farmers transitioning from growing cinnamon to potatoes have encroached into Indonesia’s Kerinci Seblat National Park since the late 1990s.
- The park is a vital stronghold for the Sumatran tiger and more than 300 species of birds.
- Local farmers in a precarious legal position have resisted when confronted by law enforcement and civil society.

India cheetah births spark interest in fast felines in neighboring Nepal
- The cheetah reintroduction program in India has rekindled debate in neighboring Nepal about whether to bring the species there too.
- But while the history of cheetahs is well-documented in India, from where the cats went extinct some 70 years ago, there’s little agreement among experts about whether they ever occurred in Nepal.
- One “radical” proposition is to introduce them to the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, one of the few in Nepal without established populations of tigers or leopards, but this could spawn conflicts with people living nearby.
- Some conservationists say Nepal already has its hands full conserving its three native big cats — tigers, leopards and snow leopards — and doesn’t need to add cheetahs to the mix.

Do tiger-dense habitats also help save carbon stock? It’s complicated
- A new study centered on Nepal’s Chitwan National Park attempts to identify whether there’s a relationship between successful tiger conservation and habitats with high levels of carbon locked away in the vegetation.
- It found that within protected areas, high-density mixed forests had the most carbon stock sequestered in vegetation; however, tiger density was highest in riverine forests.
- This represents a trade-off that conservation planners need to tackle between tiger and carbon conservation.
- Researchers have cautioned against generalizing the findings, saying that more studies and data are needed to better understand the issue.

Human migration to Nepal’s tiger capital adds to conservation challenges
- Chitwan district in central Nepal is home to the eponymous national park that’s come to symbolize the country’s success in growing its tiger population.
- But the district’s human population is also growing, at a rate far higher than the national average, driven by migrants seeking better health services and other urban amenities.
- Conservationists have raised concerns that the growing human presence in the area will pose additional challenges to conservation efforts and put a strain on natural resources such as forests, rivers and land.
- Some warn of an increase in human-tiger conflict, especially involving migrants who don’t share the same traditional knowledge that Indigenous residents have of coexisting alongside the big cats.

For rescued rhino calves in Nepal, return to the wild is a fraught option
- Conservation officials in Nepal are considering what to do with three juvenile rhinos rescued from the wild after being separated from their mothers.
- One option is to return them to the wild in a national park or wildlife reserve with suitable habitat — but with the risk that they could fall prey to tigers. Rhino translocations in Nepal have a poor record — only 38 of 95 rhinos transferred from Chitwan to Bardiya National Park survive, with the rest killed by poachers or farmers.
- That leaves a third option on the table, which is to gift the animals to a foreign country, as part of Nepal’s “rhino diplomacy,” which would leave the young animals facing a lifetime in human company.

Himalayan catfight looms as tigers, leopards venture into snow leopard land
- A warming climate threatens to push Nepal’s three big cat species — tigers, leopards and snow leopards — into closer proximity to each other, with unknown consequences for the survival of each.
- Conventional wisdom says tigers prevail in the country’s southern plains, leopards in the mid-country hill region, and snow leopards in the Himalayas.
- But both tigers and leopards have been observed at elevations above 3,000 meters (9,800 feet), well within snow leopard territory, although conservationists say tigers are less likely to persist at these altitudes over the long term.
- A complicating factor is the role of humans, with human settlements also moving up in altitude in search of more suitable conditions, and putting all four apex species in direct competition.

For tigers in Nepal, highways are a giant roadblock best avoided
- A new study indicates that the presence of roads, and vehicle traffic, in tiger habitats could take a toll on the big cats’ behavior and long-term fitness and survival.
- A tiger fitted with a GPS collar in Nepal’s Parsa National Park was found to avoid crossing roads by day, but to cross more often during the country’s 2021 COVID-19 lockdown.
- This suggests the animals can adapt quickly when traffic volume eases, pointing to measures that can be taken to mitigate road impacts not just on tigers, but on wildlife in general.
- Researchers say the findings should give planners in Nepal something to consider as they look to double the number of lanes on the East-West Highway that runs through both Parsa and Bardiya national parks.

Nepal’s community forest program misses the biodiversity for the trees
- Nepal increased its forest cover from 26% to 45% in two-and-a-half-decades, but the success has translated into a limited win for biodiversity conservation, experts say.
- The reforestation gains came largely from the country’s community forestry program, which encourages communities to grow, manage and harvest their own forest resources.
- As such, the program’s focus has been an economic one, with many of the newly forested areas consisting of pine monocultures that are ideal for providing wood but make for poor wildlife habitat.
- Experts say there needs to be a greater emphasis on wildlife management in the community forestry program to address growing issues such as human-wildlife conflict and the spread of “green deserts” devoid of biodiversity.

In Nepal, conservationists suspect link between canine distemper and human-leopard conflict
- A new study shows for the first time that leopards in Nepal are exposed to canine distemper virus.
- Researchers suggest the virus could make the big cats less fearful of humans and thus more likely enter settlements in search of food.
- Conservationists have long warned of the risk of feral dogs passing on diseases like canine distemper to wildlife in Nepal, including tigers and leopards.
- Other studies show that while initial infections may have come from dogs, multiple strains the virus are now circulating among wildlife, making the latter carriers too.

To restore large carnivore populations, make people wealthier, study finds
- Encouraging sustainable social and economic development is the best way to prevent the extinction of carnivores such as lynx, bears and lions, according to a new study.
- Researchers found that social and economic factors, such as people’s quality of life, were more closely associated with declines of these species than purely environmental features like habitat loss or climate change. As people become wealthier, they are more likely to tolerate large carnivores.
- A key example is western Europe, where populations of grey wolves have increased by 1,800% since the 1960s due to better quality of life for people and slower economic growth on the continent.
- Rapid economic development often comes at the expense of other species, so advanced economies may need to provide financial assistance to help prevent these species from going extinct.

‘Your tiger killed my cattle’: As big cats thrive in Bhutan, farmers struggle
- Surveys suggest Bhutan’s tiger population is increasing, but so too are incidents of tigers preying on livestock.
- While Bhutan’s people have historically been tolerant of tigers and other large predators, and retaliatory killings remain infrequent, research shows financial losses and other risks posed by tigers are a major source of stress for subsistence farmers.
- A government fund to compensate farmers for lost livestock dried up in 2008; new efforts focus on community insurance schemes, protecting livestock and building conservation efforts at the community level.

The tiger in the snow: Cameras capture abundance of life in a Himalayan refuge
- Camera traps have captured tigers roaming at an elevation of 3,165 meters (10,384 feet) in eastern Nepal’s lower Himalayas — the highest they’ve ever been recorded in the country.
- Experts suggest a range of factors for this, including a growing tiger population that’s crowding some of the big cats out of the lowland plains and further uphill.
- Another set of camera trap images were captured in Dadeldhura district in western Nepal, which a previous study identified as a climate refugium, where temperatures remain relatively stable, allowing species to persist during regional and global climate changes.
- Other large mammals have also been recorded on camera trap here, including many that, like tigers, were previously thought to be confined to lower-elevation habitats.

Sumatran tiger arrives at Tacoma captive-breeding program
- A male Sumatran tiger has arrived at a captive-breeding program in Tacoma, Washington state, where it’s hoped more of the critically endangered cats will be born.
- Fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers survive in the wilds of Sumatra today, where forest loss is pushing many of the island’s species, including tigers, into smaller pockets of habitat.
- This article was produced in collaboration with McClatchy News.

For Nepal, 2022 was a roaring Year of the Tiger
- Nepal was home to 121 tigers in 2010, the same year that it and 12 other tiger range countries agreed to double the big cat’s global population by 2022.
- Since then, Nepal has nearly tripled that figure, and is now home to 355 tigers, As the number of tigers has increased, cases of attacks on humans and livestock have also gone up, raising concerns over the price that local communities are paying for tiger conservation success.
- Overemphasis on tigers may also be leading to neglect of other important species that are just as threatened, experts warn. Despite the success, threats remain: government plans to build roads and railways through important habitats could severely affect tiger populations, a study has found.

Who let the dogs out? Feral canines pose a threat to Nepal’s wildlife
- Dogs in Nepal enjoy a special status during the Tihar festival, but for the rest of the year are often overlooked or even abandoned.
- The latter often turn feral and pose a threat to the country’s iconic wildlife — from tigers to snow leopards to dholes — through potential disease transmission and competition for prey.
- Studies show a high prevalence of diseases such as canine distemper and parvovirus among dogs near key protected areas. Conservationists say it’s up to humans to better manage their pets, including vaccinating them routinely, sterilizing them, and not abandoning them.

Wild cats threatened by ‘underrecognized’ risk of spillover disease
- Researchers warn that disease spillover from livestock and domestic animals represents a serious conservation threat to wildlife, including felids in tropical areas around the world. Spillover is most likely to occur on rapidly advancing forest-agricultural frontiers or within fragmented habitats.
- Tracking the spillover and spread of diseases from humans and domestic animals to wildlife is extremely challenging, particularly among wild felid species, which tend to be secretive and solitary, making ongoing observation difficult.
- Possible cases of disease spillover have been documented in wild cats in India, Malaysian Borneo, Thailand, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Russia and Nepal. These are likely the tip of the iceberg, say scientists, who believe much disease among wild species is going undetected, with case numbers and outbreaks unknown.
- Scientists stress the need for greater health monitoring of wildlife to reduce this “invisible threat.” But funding for health testing is often scant, and treatment difficult. One researcher sees disease transmission from domestic animals to wildlife as perhaps the most “underrecognized conservation threat today.”

Thai zoos come under scrutiny again as tourism rebounds from COVID-19
- The welfare of rare and often threatened species in Thailand’s tourism and pet trades has long been a concern for animal rights activists.
- The conditions in which many of the animals are kept became even direr during the COVID-19 pandemic, when border shutdowns meant no visitor revenue to care for the animals.
- NGOs are working to rescue and rehabilitate some of the animals from zoos and private owners, but acknowledge that few, if any, of the animals can ever be released back into the wild.
- They add that rescue and rehabilitation is only part of the solution, and that more focus should go on protecting the natural environment and habitats of these animals over the long term.

‘South Asia needs its own tiger plan’: Q&A with Nepal’s Maheshwar Dhakal
- Maheshwar Dhakal, the newly appointed director-general of Nepal’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, says a regional plan is needed to sustain the Bengal tiger population.
- Following the department’s success in nearly tripling Nepal’s tiger population since 2010, Dhakal says other government agencies can also contribute by promoting ecotourism ad boosting local livelihoods.
- He also emphasizes the importance of transboundary conservation action, noting that the punishment for tiger poaching in India, where tigers from Nepal often stray into, is much more lenient than in Nepal.

Southeast Asia’s big cats like their prey rare — as in really elusive
- A new study demonstrates that ungulates like serow are important prey for tigers and clouded leopards living in dense evergreen forests in mainland Southeast Asia.
- Numbers of these big cats are dwindling in the region due to direct killing to supply the illegal wildlife trade and the snaring crisis, which both kills the cats and severely depletes their prey populations.
- The findings go against the popular belief that clouded leopards, which spend a portion of their lives in the tree canopy, prefer to prey on primates, other arboreal species and small deer.
- Carnivore experts say the new insights will help to inform efforts to restore prey populations in the region — a key part of boosting flagging big cat numbers.

In Nepal, endangered tiger kills critically endangered gharial. What does it mean?
- A tiger entered the Kasara gharial breeding center in Chitwan National Park and killed three critically endangered gharials.
- The incident raised concerns that as the tiger population in Nepal increases, the animals could turn to the crocodiles for easy food.
- Conservationists, however, say that is unlikely as tigers have other animals to feed upon.

Nepal was supposed to double its tiger population since 2010. It tripled it
- There are officially 355 wild tigers in Nepal, according to the latest census, nearly triple the figure of 121 from 2010.
- Nepal is one of 13 tiger range countries that pledged in 2010, the last Year of the Tiger in the Chinese zodiac, to double the global tiger population by 2022, the current Year of the Tiger.
- The massive conservation success is expected to make Nepal the only one of the tiger range countries to even come close to doubling its population of the big cat.
- But Nepal’s success has also raised concerns that its tiger population may fast be approaching the limit of what the country’s protected areas can host, with implications for an increase in human-tiger conflicts.

For World Tiger Day, bold new commitments are needed to expand tiger ranges (commentary)
- July 29 marks World Tiger Day for 2022, an important year for tiger conservation.
- A coalition of conservation organizations today issued a statement calling for bold action in advance of meeting next month to identify new tiger conservation commitments for the next 12 years.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Can a country have too many tigers? Nepal is about to find out
- Nepal is expected to announce a much-anticipated doubling of its tiger population to 250 of the big cats from 12 years ago, on International Tiger Day (July 29).
- But critics say the country’s singular focus on increasing the tiger population has overlooked the impacts on communities living near national parks and wildlife reserves, who have suffered an increase in human-tiger encounters.
- They say the country has exceeded the population of tigers that it can comfortably accommodate, even as the government says it has room for up to 400 of the big cats.
- Officials say there are various options to address a tiger surplus, including housing “problem tigers” in zoos, gifting the animals to foreign governments as a form of diplomacy, and, as a last resort, culling the cats.

Tigers may avoid extinction, but we must aim higher (commentary)
- “I was extremely skeptical that the world could achieve the grandly ambitious goal set at the 2010 Global Tiger Summit of doubling tiger numbers, or reaching 6,000 individuals, by 2022,” the author of a new op-ed states.
- But because of the overly ambitious goal set in 2010, the world is cautiously celebrating a win for the species, with the IUCN recently estimating the species’ numbers have increased by 40% during that time, from 3,200 in 2015 to 4,500 this year.
- When tiger range states and scientists gather for the second Global Tiger Summit this year, they must take stock of this unusual success and work to give tigers space, protect said spaces from poaching, and scale-up efforts.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Authorities and Yobin communities clash as deforestation spikes in Indian national park
- Namdapha National Park is India’s third-largest national park and is home to thousands of species, including tigers, clouded leopards and an endemic species of flying squirrel that has only been observed once by scientists.
- Satellite data show deforestation has increased in the park over the last two decades.
- Members of an Indigenous group called the Yobin have been living in portions of the park for generations, but park authorities consider Yobin settlements to be “encroachments” and the main driver of deforestation and poaching in Namdapha National Park
- In the last few months, authorities have destroyed at least eight Yobin settlements inside the park.

As Nepal’s tigers thrive, Indigenous knowledge may be key in preventing attacks
- As Nepal looks to be on track to double its tiger population this year from a 2010 baseline, its conservation success has had a high cost on forest-dependent communities.
- Incidents of human-tiger conflict have increased in line with the growing populations of both the big cats and people, as more people venture into national parks and their buffer zones in search of firewood and food.
- Some conservationists make the case that grassland management and other techniques long practiced Indigenous communities to avoid tiger attacks have been lost with the establishment of these parks where human activity is banned.
- They suggest current conservation management makes attacks more likely, and call for conservation officials to share information on tiger movements with local communities to minimize the likelihood of encounters.

Satellites show deforestation surging in Indonesia’s Tesso Nilo National Park
- Tesso Nilo National Park is a refuge for Sumatran wildlife, including critically endangered tigers and elephants.
- But the park lost 67% of its primary forest between 2010 and 2021, with the deforestation rate in 2021 nearly triple that of 2020 and the highest it has been since 2016. Satellite imagery shows further clearing of primary forest in 2022.
- Much of the deforestation of Tesso Nilo is due to the illegal development of large-scale plantations to grow oil palm and other tree crops.
- In early 2022, park officials distributed a circular to surrounding communities that reiterated the ban on plantation agriculture in the park, but conservationists say more concerted enforcement action is necessary to curb deforestation.

Indonesian official charged, but not jailed, for trading in Sumatran tiger parts
- A local politician previously convicted of corruption has been charged in Indonesia for allegedly selling Sumatran tiger parts.
- Ahmadi, 41, the former head of Bener Meriah district in Aceh province, was arrested on May 24 with two alleged accomplices — but he wasn’t detained, pending an investigation.
- Critics say the authorities’ refusal to jail him is emblematic of a core problem in Indonesian wildlife conservation, which is the impunity that powerful politicians and officials enjoy when keeping and trading in protected species.
- Aceh province, at the northern tip of Sumatra, is believed to hold about 200 of the world’s remaining 400 Sumatran tigers — the last tiger endemic to Indonesia following the extinction in the last century of the Bali and Javan subspecies.

Year of the Tiger: Illegal trade thrives amid efforts to save wild tigers
- As the world celebrates the Year of the Tiger in 2022, humans continue to threaten the cat’s long-term survival in the wild: killing, buying and selling tigers and their prey, and encroaching into their last shreds of habitat. That’s why they are Earth’s most endangered big cat.
- Undercover video footage has revealed an enlarged tiger farm run by an organized criminal organization in Laos. It’s one of many captive-breeding facilities implicated in the black market trade — blatantly violating an international treaty on trade in endangered species.
- Under a 2007 CITES decision, tigers should be bred only for conservation purposes. Evidence shows that this decision is being disregarded by some Asian nations, including China, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. But CITES has done little to enforce it, which could be done through sanctions, say critics.
- With the world’s second Global Tiger Summit and important international meetings on biodiversity and endangered species looming, it’s a crucial year for tigers. In the wild, some populations are increasing, some stable, and others shrinking: Bengal tigers in India are faring best, while Malayan tigers hover on extinction’s edge.

Nepal’s key habitat could lose 39% of its tigers in 20 years, study says
- Nearly two-fifths of adult tigers in Nepal’s Chitwan National Park could be killed over the next 20 years as a result of vehicle strikes on the roads near the park, a new study says.
- The projection is based on tiger movement data going back to the 1970s, and shows that the addition of a proposed railway line would result in an additional 30 tiger deaths.
- Chitwan is home to 133 tigers, and the large number of projected losses would be devastating to the population, which is already increasingly cut off from its range in neighboring India as a result of human-made obstacles, including roads.
- The study authors say this worst-case scenario should be a wake-up call to authorities to plan infrastructure projects with wildlife mobility as a key concern.

Tiger-centric conservation efforts push other predators to the fringes
- Nepal and India have made huge strides in boosting their tiger populations over the past decade, but these conservation actions may have come at the expense of other predators, research shows.
- In Nepal, species such as leopards and sloth bears have been pushed to the fringes of conservation areas that have been optimized for tigers, leading to increased human-wildlife conflict.
- The current approach of burning tall grasses and rooting out tree shoots to give deer and antelope fresh grass, and tigers fresh prey, isn’t even working in the tigers’ favor, one study shows.
- Conservationists say there needs to be a habitat management approach that accommodates a wider range of both prey and predator species.

As tiger numbers in Nepal and India grow, their freedom to roam shrinks
- Nepal is one of the few countries on track to double its tiger population this year from a 2010 baseline.
- But a growing sense of “animal nationalism” threatens to mar this success, with local media playing up the tigers’ travels across the border into India.
- The big cats, which don’t recognize political boundaries, have always roamed a wide range in this region, yet even this behavior is under threat as key corridors are restricted or cut off entirely by infrastructure projects by both countries.
- Conservationists have called for keeping nationalism out of planning and implementation of conservation efforts, for the sake of this iconic species.

Tiger politics and tiger conservation: Where the stakeholders are going wrong (commentary)
- With so many countries, organizations and industries involved, tiger conservation has strayed far from the initial goals and into politics over the decades.
- At the next Global Tiger Summit, scheduled for Sep. 5, the key concerns the participants need to address include past mistakes and lessons learned, besides reviewing new projects, funding, and management plans.
- All Tiger Range Countries and stakeholders need to collaborate with transparency and equal involvement from all parties, with an unbiased organization having full mandate, knowledge, capacity, ambition, network and the means to lead tiger conservation at the forefront.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Road project threatens to derail Nepal’s conservation gains, study says
- A new study rates the risk that existing and planned roads pose to tigers, wolves and other apex predators around the world.
- In the case of Nepal, the study also identifies sloth bears, wild dogs and clouded leopards as among the animals most at risk.
- The new Postal Highway being built in the nation’s south could impact eight major protected areas in Nepal and five transboundary protected areas in India.
- The threats posed by roads to wildlife include vehicle collisions, habitat fragmentation, and increased poaching pressure.

Tiger and bear rescue spotlights captive wildlife tourism woes in Thailand
- After two years of closed borders and little tourism revenue, many captive wildlife facilities around the world are struggling.
- Phuket Zoo in Thailand recently closed down permanently, but rehoming its 11 tigers and two bears has proved a challenge.
- A local nonprofit, Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, has stepped in to undertake the largest single rescue of tigers in the country’s history, and has so far transferred one female tiger to its rescue center.
- Animal welfare experts say the situation highlights the perils of overreliance on tourism and are calling on the government to place better controls on breeding animals in captivity.

Will the U.S. Congress act to regulate big cats kept in captivity? (commentary)
- Americans may think that the illegal trade in tiger parts is half a world away but in reality, the U.S. is a large part of this lucrative global market.
- Recent research indicated the amount of tiger parts entering the U.S is likely much larger than previously reported, and raises questions about the demand for tiger parts within the U.S. plus the role of captive U.S. ‘pet’ tigers in the trade.
- The Big Cat Public Safety Act being debated in the Congress revises restrictions regarding the possession and exhibition of big cats in the country and should be supported, the authors argue: “It’s just a matter of time until the next pet tiger escapes and causes serious harm or death.”
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

New study highlights hidden scale of U.S. illegal tiger trade
- A new study highlights the previously underestimated role of the U.S. in the illegal tiger trade: According to newly compiled seizure data, tiger trafficking in the U.S. from 2003 to 2012 corresponded to almost half of the global tiger trade reported for that period in prior studies.
- By analyzing hundreds of U.S. tiger trafficking incidents, the researchers uncovered noteworthy routes from China and Vietnam into the country, with the vast majority of seizures involving traditional medicines.
- They also found significant legal trade in captive-bred tigers into the country, mainly for use in roadside zoos and circuses; experts say the patchwork of U.S. federal, state and local laws that govern the roughly 5,000 captive tigers in the country is insufficient to safeguard them from the illegal trade.
- Experts are calling on U.S. legislators to pass the Big Cat Public Safety Act, a bill that would improve the welfare and protection of tigers in captivity and therefore strengthen the country’s integrity on international tiger conservation matters.

Malaysian officials deny deforestation drives deadly human-wildlife conflict
- Following a tiger mauling that killed an Indigenous Temiar man in Malaysia’s Kelantan state, officials, conservationists and Indigenous advocacy groups have been in a heated debate over the causes of human-wildlife conflict in the state.
- Indigenous communities and academics point to deforestation for logging, agriculture and infrastructure projects as the root cause of tiger attacks.
- State officials deny there is any link between deforestation and increasing contact between people and wildlife; one official even claimed that deforestation is good for tigers.

For the Year of the Tiger, a shared vision for the future of the iconic cat (commentary)
- As the Year of the Tiger begins on February 1, a coalition of six top NGOs is committing to a cooperative approach to save the iconic big cat.
- In the past 12 years, tigers increased significantly in some areas but disappeared from others: a close assessment of these trends is key in advance of the next Global Tiger summit in September 2022.
- The authors from IUCN, FFI, WCS, WWF, Traffic and Panthera argue that ambition must increase but also that funders must support collaborative efforts instead of the status quo/competitive model of funding conservation.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

The Years of the Tiger: The demand for tigers and the price they pay (commentary)
- Trade in tiger parts as medicine has been historically significant in China for many decades, and the traction and beliefs have only increased with the wealth of the nation.
- Having initiated tiger farms in their own country, and influencing other countries to open farms, China has long been making promises to phase out the farms following CITES’ regulations.
- As the Year of the Tiger approaches, many brands and businesses have started marketing campaigns with themes featuring the charismatic animal, but are yet to comprehend the price that tigers pay for their popularity.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

‘Huge blow’ for tiger conservation as two of the big cats killed in Thailand
- Authorities in Thailand have arrested five suspects for killing two Indochinese tigers in a protected area in the country’s west; the suspects said the tigers had been killing and eating their cattle.
- Authorities seized the two tiger carcasses, which had been stripped of their skins and meat, raising suspicions among experts that financial motives, namely selling the tiger parts in the illegal market, may have driven the killing.
- Indochinese tigers have been declared extinct in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in recent years, and while several breeding populations persist in Thailand’s protected area networks, they number no more than 200 individuals.
- The killing on Jan. 8 comes days before officials from Thailand and other tiger range countries are due to meet to discuss progress toward an ambitious goal set in 2010 to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022.

Tiger farms doing little to end wild poaching, Vietnam consumer study shows
- More than 8,000 tigers are kept in captivity in China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam in commercial facilities ranging from residential basements to licensed venues operating under the guise of tourism, and battery-farm operations holding hundreds of tigers.
- Evidence shows that captive tigers and their body parts enter the legal and illegal trade, where they perpetuate the demand for tiger-based traditional medicines and decorative curios, primarily in China and Vietnam.
- A new study that investigates the motivations of consumers of “tiger bone glue” in Vietnam reveals that consumers prefer products from wild tigers and would carry on purchasing illegal wild products even if a legal farmed trade existed.
- The findings back up calls from conservationists and wildlife trade experts to phase out tiger farming entirely since it doesn’t alleviate pressure on wild tigers, and only encourages the consumption of tiger parts.

Tigers, jaguars under threat from tropical hydropower projects: Study
- A new study reveals that more than one-fifth of the world’s tigers and one in 200 jaguars have been affected by habitat loss linked to hydropower projects.
- Land flooded for hydroelectric reservoirs has resulted in the substantial loss of habitat for both top predators, and future hydropower projects planned within the species’ ranges fail to consider the big cats’ long-term survival, the study says.
- Scientists struggle to track the fate of tigers and jaguars displaced by hydropower reservoirs, but their chances of survival are very low, according to the study’s authors.
- The researchers recommend that policymakers minimize the impacts of future hydropower projects by avoiding landscapes deemed high priority for conservation.

The catfight within tiger conservation: Why all stakeholders need to start working together (commentary)
- After 12 years of tiger conservation efforts across borders, the Global Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP) ends in 2022 with most tiger range countries coming in with failed attempts at saving their tigers.
- Tiger conservation can be successful only if the six stakeholder groups involved in it — Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), governments, NGOs, financiers, forums, and media — came together with shared goals.
- The next Global Tiger Initiative summit at Vladivostok in 2022 will be the ideal moment to repair the flaws of the previous GTI and create true cooperation with all the stakeholders, with full support of all tiger range countries.
- The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

In Nepal, doubling down on tiger conservation looks to pay off
- Nepal is the only one of 13 tiger range countries that’s on track to meet a 2022 pledge to double its wild tiger population from a 2010 baseline.
- Key to the growing tiger population is the combination of a tough anti-poaching approach and close engagement with communities living near tiger habitats.
- Those measures have had a knock-on effect in also boosting the populations of other iconic species, including rhinos and elephants, but have at the same time fueled human-wildlife conflicts.
- Programs at the community level aim to mitigate these conflicts by fencing off national parks from adjacent villages and compensating villagers for the loss of animals or crops; reducing communities’ reliance on firewood collected from inside parks; and promoting tiger tourism to drive community development.

Starving and injured Sumatran tiger dies in captivity, Indonesian officials report
- A severely injured and emaciated Sumatran tiger has died in captivity after being captured from the wild, Indonesian conservation authorities reported.
- The adult female tiger was caught following a series of deadly tiger attacks on villagers living near Kerinci Seblat National Park.
- Conservation authorities speculate an outbreak of African swine fever that has affected the area’s population of wild boars likely forced the tigers to roam farther from the forests and into human settlements in search of food.
- Fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers remain in the wild, with the big cat’s population plunging in line with widespread destruction of its forest habitat, primarily due to logging and expanding oil palm and pulpwood plantations.

What’s stopping some countries from keeping up with tiger conservation promises? (commentary)
- The last Global Tiger Initiative summit (GTI) was held in 2010, where tiger range countries discussed the fall in tiger populations and future plans for tiger conservation.
- Since then, while India, Nepal, and Bhutan have made visible efforts to save their tigers, some other countries saw a decline in tiger numbers and acted with a lack of transparency and accountability.
- During the next tiger summit in 2022, all tiger range countries need to take charge of conservation issues instead of hiding the truth to avoid humiliation. Conservation efforts must entail transparency, accountability, and the creation of a supervising authority.
- The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Fate of Malaysian forests stripped of protection points to conservation stakes
- In the seven years since Jemaluang and Tenggaroh were struck from Malaysia’s list of permanent forest reserves, the two forests in Johor state have experienced large-scale deforestation.
- The clearance is reportedly happening on land privately owned by the sultan of Johor, the head of the state, calling into question the effectiveness of the Central Forest Spine (CFS) Master Plan, a nationwide conservation initiative the two reserves had originally been part of.
- The CFS Master Plan is currently being revised, with experts seeing the review as a chance to change what has been a largely toothless program, beset by conflicts of interest between federal and state authorities.
- As the revision nears completion, Jemaluang and Tenggaroh highlight how much has been lost, but also what’s at stake for Malaysia’s forests, wildlife and residents.

Indonesia investigates alleged abuse of Sumatran tigers at city zoo
- Indonesian conservation authorities have launched an investigation into alleged abuse of Sumatran tigers at a municipal zoo in North Sumatra province.
- The zoo’s tigers appear emaciated, with their bones protruding, raising concerns that they’re being underfed.
- The zoo management has denied the allegation, saying one of its tigers was ill while the others were healthy and properly fed.
- Zoos in Indonesia are notorious for their negligence, mismanagement and corruption, with animals dying of malnutrition or ill treatment, or sold off into the illegal wildlife trade.

As tigers dwindle, Indonesia takes aim at poaching ring
- Indonesian officials recently confiscated three tiger skins from a man in Sumatra.
- They believe the perpetrator is connected to a larger ring of wildlife traffickers.

The cat is back: Wild Amur tigers rebound in China, thanks to govt policies
- Camera trap footage taken between 2013 and 2018 revealed that about 55 endangered Amur tigers are now living in northeastern China.
- Experts say the tigers’ reemergence in the region is largely due to Chinese national policies favoring environmental stewardship, including the Natural Forest Protection Project and the establishment of several reserves.
- According to a recent paper, northeastern China could actually support about 310 tigers, including 119 breeding females, if further efforts are taken to minimize human pressures and ecological corridors are established between tiger habitats.
- While tiger numbers are growing in China, the species continues to face threats of poaching, habitat loss and fragmentation, and human-wildlife conflict.

Small cats should be a conservation priority, says Panthera’s new board chair Jonathan Ayers
- Most people are familiar with the world’s “big cats”: Lions, tigers, leopards, jaguar, puma, and cheetah. But far fewer people know about the much larger number of small cat species, which range from the ancestors of domesticated house cats to the flat-headed cat to the ocelot.
- Small cats’ lack of visibility has meant that haven’t received big cats’ level of conservation funding. But small cat conservation efforts may have just gotten a significant boost with Panthera — the world’s largest organization devoted exclusively to wild cat conservation — announcing Jonathan Ayers as its new Chair of its Board of Directors.
- Ayers — the former Chairman, President and CEO of IDEXX Laboratories, a publicly-traded company that develops veterinary products and technologies — in March pledged $20 million to Panthera. A significant portion of that commitment is for small cat conservation.
- Ayers pledged the funds after a cycling accident in June 2019 left him a quadriplegic. Ayers says the experience, which prompted him to step down as CEO of IDEXX, gave him a purpose: saving wild cats through conservation efforts. Ayers spoke about his background, his love of cats, and conservation broadly during a recent conservation with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

2 Sumatran tigers recovering from COVID-19 at Jakarta zoo
- Two Sumatran tigers tested positive for COVID-19 at a Jakarta zoo in mid-July.
- The animals are now recovering in isolation, Jakarta’s governor announced on Sunday.
- Zoo staff are trying to determine how the tigers contracted the disease.

Southeast Asia losing tigers as deadline looms to double population by 2022
- In 2010, government ministers from the 13 countries that still had wild tiger populations committed to implementing measures to double the number of the big cats by 2022.
- In Southeast Asia, it is highly unlikely that this goal will be met, with many countries in the region actually seeing their tiger populations go extinct or decline since the pledge was made.
- Population declines are driven by habitat loss due to logging, plantation expansion and extractive industries; illegal trade in tiger products; poaching and snaring.
- Conservation groups are calling on governments in Asia to phase out tiger “farms” that feed the trade in tiger parts, and to renew their commitments to boosting tiger numbers.

A buffer zone for Thailand, last great hope for wildlife in Southeast Asia (commentary)
- Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam form a kind of buffer zone around Thailand against the onslaught of the illegal wildlife trade that has engulfed Southeast Asia’s forests.
- If animals like the Indochinese tiger are to be saved from extinction, Thailand may be its only hope.
- Conservationists and donors should set their sights on Thailand: if there is to be a regional recovery of wildlife, Thailand is where it will start.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Wildlife trafficking, like everything else, has gone online during COVID-19
- Regional and national reports show a decline in illegal wildlife trade activities in Southeast Asia in 2020, with operations down by more than 50% across the most-traded animals.
- Despite the decrease, experts say traders have shifted from face-to-face interactions and increased their presence on online platforms.
- Authorities also reported confiscating caches of stockpiled animal parts, indicating that the trade continues amid the pandemic. Traders may be waiting for looser border controls to carry on with business, experts say.
- While these trends suggest that the trade will bounce back in a post-COVID-19 era, experts suggest strengthening enforcement collaboration, improving wildlife laws, and increasing awareness of the health risks posed by illegally poached wildlife.

Southeast Asian wild pigs confront deadly African swine fever epidemic
- A recent study in the journal Conservation Letters warns that African swine fever, responsible for millions of pig deaths in mainland Asia since 2018, now endangers 11 wild pig species living in Southeast Asia.
- These pig species generally have low populations naturally, and their numbers have dwindled further due to hunting and loss of habitat.
- The authors of the study contend that losing these species could hurt local economies and food security.
- Southeast Asia’s wild pigs are also important ecosystem engineers that till the soil and encourage plant life, and they are prey for critically endangered predators such as the Sumatran tiger and the Javan leopard.

For border-crossing Thai tigers, the forest on the other side isn’t as green
- Straddling the Myanmar-Thai border, the Dawna Tenasserim Landscape (DTL) is the intersection of four different biogeographic zones and consequently supports rich species diversity.
- The ecosystem is particularly important for the survival of Southeast Asia’s big cats, including the Indochinese tiger.
- Large, wide-ranging species like tigers require connected networks of forests to move and disperse through; the species cannot thrive in isolated pockets of protected forest.
- Efforts to protect tigers in the DTL highlight the need for cross-border efforts to maintain ecosystem connectivity.

Smallholder agriculture cuts into key Sumatran tiger habitat
- Satellite data show several surges in deforestation in Kerinci Seblat National Park in 2020.
- Kerinci Seblat provides vital habitat for critically endangered Sumatran tigers, as well as many other species.
- The primary driver of this deforestation appears to be the expansion of small farms.
- Initiatives in the area are attempting to reduce smallholder expansion by encouraging the adoption of more sustainable farming practices.

Indonesia’s plantation program on collision course with wildlife, Indigenous groups
- Indonesia’s food estate program threatens to overlap onto habitats of key species like orangutans and tigers in Sumatra, according to a government map.
- Environmental activists warn this could exacerbate human-wildlife conflicts, and have criticized the lack of an environmental assessment before the start of the program.
- Also at threat are forests that Indigenous communities rely on for their livelihoods, with the government again failing to involve them in the planning process.
- The government claims it mapped the food estate areas in a way to minimize disturbances to known wildlife habitats.

Vaccinations may be vital for saving Amur tigers from virus outbreaks (commentary)
- In this commentary, authors Dale Miquelle and Martin Gilbert, argue it is incumbent upon science-based conservation agencies to consider vaccinating high-risk tiger populations where epidemiological research indicates that it is necessary to mitigate extinction risks.
- The authors state this approach is increasingly important because “more species are relegated to small islands of habitat that support fewer individuals. An outbreak could be the “straw that breaks the camel’s back,” driving these small populations to extinction locally.”
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Podcast: Tiger on the highway
- The wildlife rich island of Sumatra is experiencing a road building boom, causing some of its iconic creatures to be seen by construction workers: a photo of a Sumatran tiger crossing a highway work-site went viral this summer, for example.
- Less than 400 of these critically endangered animals exist, and they need space despite their diminutive stature: up to 250 square kilometers for each one’s territory.
- To discuss the conservation impact of – and alternatives to – such infrastructure projects, Mongabay’s podcast interviewed Hariyo “Beebach” Wibisono, a research fellow at the San Diego Zoo Global & director of SINTAS Indonesia, plus Bill Laurance, a distinguished professor at James Cook University.
- This podcast is the latest in the Mongabay Explores series, taking a deep dive into the fascinating wildlife and complicated conservation issues of this giant Indonesian island.

11 workers killed in landslide at illegal coal mining site in Indonesia
- Eleven workers were killed by a landslide at an illegal coal mining site in Muara Enim district in Indonesia’s South Sumatra province.
- South Sumatra has Indonesia’s largest known coal resources, which have drawn both legal and illegal miners.
- Illegal mining continues to be a problem in the province. The local government shut down eight such sites in 2019, some of which were in the same district as the site of the accident.
- The area’s large coal reserves prompted the Indonesian government, in cooperation with China, to build a power plant near the site of the accident.

In mangrove restoration, custom solutions beat one-size-fits-all approach
- The loss of mangrove forests worldwide is slowing, except in Asia, where there’s been a massive increase in deforestation over the past 30 years.
- Previous mangrove restoration projects have proved unsustainable over the long term due to a focus on planting “in the wrong place, the wrong species, the wrong density.”
- A new approach, called community-based ecological mangrove restoration (CBEMR), accounts for an area’s altered hydrology and encourages natural restoration, resulting in better survival rates, faster growth, and a more diverse, resilient forest.
- Proponents say restoration projects must be supported by robust legal frameworks that protect mangroves across national jurisdictions if they are to be successful over the long term.

Podcast: Mongabay explores Sumatra, a land like no other
- Sumatra is the only place in the world where tigers, elephants, rhinos and orangutans all live together in the same expanse of rainforest. Its plant life is also extremely diverse.
- For a new edition of the Mongabay Explores podcast series, we will explore the island’s incredible biological richness and environmental challenges.
- On this first episode, host Mike DiGirolamo speaks with Sumatran winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize Rudi Putra and biologist Greg McCann, who provide a fascinating look at the incredible biodiversity of this, the world’s sixth largest island.
- A new episode will air approximately every two weeks, subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast via your podcast provider of choice to hear them all.

Don’t cross this tiger mom: Close encounter in Russia’s Far East
- A researcher working for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Russia had a close encounter with an Amur tiger and her cub in the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve in mid-September.
- Amur tigers are considered to be endangered species, with fewer than 600 believed to be living in China and Russia.
- The biggest threat to Amur tigers is poaching, although conservationists say that recent changes in Russian law have made is easier to convict hunters and traffickers.

‘Meaningless certification’: Study makes the case against ‘sustainable’ palm oil
- Three-quarters of oil palm concessions in Indonesia and Malaysian Borneo certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil occupy land that was forest and/or wildlife habitat as recently as 30 years ago, a new study shows.
- While not the initial drivers of deforestation in those areas, these plantations shouldn’t be certified sustainable if that history is accounted for, the study authors say.
- “The fact that someone else did deforestation just a few years before does not absolve the palm oil plantation’s owner and definitely does not justify a sustainability label by a certification scheme,” says co-author Roberto Cazzolla Gatti.
- He adds the RSPO’s failure to account for past deforestation means that “every logged area ‘today’ could be certified as a sustainable plantation ‘tomorrow,’ in an infinite loop of meaningless certification.”

On World Tiger Day, let’s recommit to the goal of doubling wild tiger populations by 2022 (commentary)
- A goal to double the number of wild tigers by 2022 remains one of the most ambitious conservation targets for a single species ever adopted, and deserves renewed attention for International Tiger Day on July 29.
- However, a recent survey of people charged with managing 40 protected areas in tiger range countries reveals that funding for half of them has been cut since the global pandemic began.
- Investing in ‘tiger protected areas’ is an investment in ecosystems that millions of people also depend on, and should not be cut if the world wants to achieve the goal of doubling the animals’ populations.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

What makes a Sumatran tiger different? Candid Animal Cam heads to Southeast Asia
- Every Tuesday, Mongabay brings you a new episode of Candid Animal Cam, our show featuring animals caught on camera traps around the world and hosted by Romi Castagnino, our writer and conservation scientist.

Tigers caught on camera lounging in a Jacuzzi-sized watering hole
- Camera traps in Thailand’s Western Forest Complex captured an array of animals, including tigers, a banteng, elephants, sambar and muntjac deer, a wild boar, a long-tailed macaque, a crab-eating mongoose, a crested serpent eagle, a blue magpie, and a jungle fowl.
- The Western Forest Complex, or WEFCOM, is Thailand’s largest block of intact forest, and home to at least 150 species of mammals, 490 birds, 90 reptiles, 40 amphibians, and 108 fish, many of which are threatened and endangered species.
- Poaching and habitat encroachment have placed many species living in WEFCOM under duress, but populations are slowly recovering in response to increased conservation efforts.

Indonesia struggles to restore peatlands as fires strangle national parks
- More than a million hectares across Indonesia burned in 2019, according to the government’s numbers. The fires released an estimated 708 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in the atmosphere, costing the country more than $5 billion in economic losses that year, according to the World Bank.
- Sumatra was particularly affected, with fires consuming large swaths of primary forest in protected areas like Berbak-Sembilang National Park, which is home to endangered wildlife like Sumatran tigers and elephants, and false gharials.
- Illegal logging and the expansion of plantations in the region area over the past decades has rapidly transformed the park and the surrounding area, draining peat swamps and turning them into degraded, easily flammable patches of land. Following Indonesia’s peatland destruction-fueled fire crisis of 2015 President Joko Widodo established the Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG) in Jakarta in 2016. The agency planned to restore over 2.6 million hectares of degraded peatlands, including those in concession areas and in protected areas like Berbak-Sembilang.
- However, BRG president Nazir Foed acknowledged that restoration “progress has not been optimal.” Critics say the effort has been stymied by a lack of collaboration between stakeholders and a lack of consensus on what even constitutes a restored peatland.

Tigers threatened by a vast network of planned roads across Asia
- Tiger habitats are under threat from nearly 24,000 kilometers (15,000 miles) of new roads to be built by 2050.
- The explosion of new roads is driven in part by global development strategies such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
- Road construction contributes to three major threats to tigers: degradation of habitat, prey depletion, and poaching.
- Tigers are endangered, with fewer than 4,000 individuals still remaining in the wild.

Photos of wild tiger cubs in Thailand rekindles hope for species
- A new scientific survey provides evidence of breeding tiger populations in eastern Thailand’s Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai forest complex, one of the last stands of the Indochinese population.
- The outcome is the result of a decade-long program to protect tigers in this area.
- Researchers deployed an unconventional survey design for this study, investigating the reliability of previous methods of estimating wildlife populations.

First known case of tiger contracting COVID-19 at Bronx Zoo
- A Malayan tiger housed at Bronx Zoo in New York City has tested positive for COVID-19.
- Four tigers and three African lions showed symptoms of the disease, which they likely contracted from an asymptomatic caretaker, who had COVID-19.
- There are a handful of cases of pets getting infected from their owners who had the disease but there is no evidence of these animals transmitting the virus to humans.
- The rapid spread of the virus has sparked concerns about humans infecting other wildlife populations, especially great apes that are susceptible to human diseases because they share more than 95% of genetic material with humans.

Tiger on the highway: Sighting in Sumatra causes a stir, but is no surprise
- A picture of a tiger near an under-construction highway in Sumatra’s Riau province has gone viral on the messaging application WhatsApp.
- The toll road is part of a longer highway project running the length of Sumatra that conservationists have warned to poses threat to the island’s dwindling forests and endangered wildlife species such as tigers.
- Wildlife experts are calling on authorities to improve protection for the endangered animals, particularly those that live near the highway project.

Coronavirus outbreak may spur Southeast Asian action on wildlife trafficking
- Illegal wildlife trafficking remains a perennial problem in Southeast Asia, but with the ongoing spread of the new coronavirus, there’s added impetus for governments in the region to clamp down on the illicit trade.
- The coronavirus disease, or COVID-19, has infected more than 90,000 people worldwide and killed more than 3,000, according to the World Health Organization.
- Initial findings, though not conclusive, have linked the virus to pangolins, the most trafficked mammal on Earth and one of the mainstays of the illegal wildlife trade in Southeast Asia that feeds the Chinese market.
- Despite having a regional cooperation framework designed to curb wildlife trafficking, Southeast Asian governments have yet to agree on and finance a sustainability plan to strengthen efforts against the illegal trade.

For tiger moms, the work-life balance struggle is real, study finds
- For the first time ever, scientists were able to document the behavior of a GPS-collared Amur tiger in the wild for the four months before and four months after the birth of her cubs.
- The study, published in the journal Mammal Research, reveals that the new tiger mom made time for her cubs by abandoning defense of her territory, traveling more rapidly from kills, making fewer but larger kills, and resting less.
- The Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), sometimes referred to as the Siberian tiger, is currently listed as an endangered species on the IUCN Red List.
- Poaching is now the biggest threat to the wild Amur tigers, as tiger parts continue to be in high demand throughout Asia for use as ornaments, in traditional medicine, and as a status symbol.

Habitat loss drives deadly conflict in Indonesia’s tiger country
- In separate incidents in November and December, tigers killed five people in Indonesia’s South Sumatra province.
- The recent increase in human-tiger conflict has surprised many people in the area, who say they have long had a harmonious relationship with the animals.
- Conservationists say a key driver of human-tiger conflicts is habitat degradation due development projects like roads, housing, plantations and mining.

Time is running out for Southeast Asia
- Several species and subspecies have gone extinct in the last 100 years. Others remain missing.
- Most of Southeast Asia’s large-bodied animals are now threatened with extinction.
- Deforestation and the wildlife trade have even left smaller-bodied species decimated as well.
- Southeast Asia has to decide if preserving its irreplaceable and unique wildlife is a priority – or the losses will continue to mount.

‘Timebomb’: Fires devastate tiger and elephant habitat in Sumatra
- Another heavy fire season in Indonesia has taken a toll on the country’s remaining forest. In Sembilang National Park, on the island of Sumatra, fires raged into primary forest that provides vital habitat for critically endangered Sumatran tigers and elephants.
- Satellite data and imagery indicate the fires may have had a big impact on tigers in the park. In total, around 30 percent of tiger habitat in Sembilang burned between August and September. The fires also encroached into the park’s elephant habitat.
- Fires have also reportedly ravaged elephant habitat in Padang Sugihan Sebokor Wildlife Reserve, which lies southeast of Sembilang and serves as a corridor for wild elephants in South Sumatra. One report estimates that half of the reserve has suffered fire damage.
- Researchers say slash-and-burn clearing techniques likely started most of fires in the area, which were then exacerbated by drier-than-usual conditions and underground peat stores left unprotected by policy rollbacks.s

How Laos lost its tigers
- A new camera trap study finds that tigers vanished from Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area by 2014, their last stand in Laos.
- Leopards were killed off 10 years prior, making these big cats also extinct in Laos.
- Scientists believe it’s most likely that the last tigers and leopards of Laos succumbed to snares, which are proliferating in astounding numbers across Southeast Asian protected areas.
- The Indochinese tiger now only survives in Thailand and Myanmar, and may be on the edge of extinction.

On the front line of climate change in India’s Sundarbans
- The sea level has risen by an average of 3 centimeters a year over the past two decades in the Sundarbans, the vast mangrove delta at the mouth of the Bay of Bengal, leading to one of the fastest rates of coastal erosion in the world.
- Residents of the dozens of islands in the Indian part of the Sundarbans have seen their homes swallowed up by the sea and their farmland poisoned by saltwater, forcing many to relocate.
- The fast-encroaching sea, driven by climate change, has also eaten away at the hunting grounds of the Sundarbans’ famous Bengal tigers, pushing them to target the villagers’ livestock — and, increasingly, the villagers themselves.
- At the same time, villagers unable to farm and experiencing dwindling fish catches are venturing deeper into tiger territory to look for crabs and collect honey, putting them at even greater risk of being attacked by the big cats.

A tiger refuge in Sumatra gets a reprieve from road building
- Sumatra’s Kerinci Seblat National Park is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra (TRHS), which has been inscribed on UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger since 2011.
- UNESCO has noted particular concern about a spate of road projects planned for Kerinci Seblat and other protected areas within the TRHS.
- According to park officials, Indonesia’s forestry ministry has refused permits for all new roads within the park; the sole project to receive permission is the upgrade of an existing road.
- The park still faces immense pressure from encroachment for agriculture, logging, mining and poaching.

Indigenous communities, nat’l parks suffer as Malaysia razes its reserves
- Forest loss appears to be accelerating in peninsular Malaysia in 2019. Much of this deforestation is happening in “permanent forest reserves,” which are supposed to be under official protection. However, Malaysian state governments have the authority to spontaneously degazette forest reserves for development. Sources say this has created a free-for-all, with loggers rushing to clear forest and sell timber.
- Satellite imagery shows logging happening right up to the border of Taman Negara National Park, which lacks the buffer zone typical around national parks in other countries. Researchers say this is likely to have detrimental impacts on the parks’ wildlife.
- Sources on the ground say deforestation is also affecting forest-dependent indigenous communities. Residents of one such community say mining – which often follows on the heels of logging in Malaysia – is also harming them.
- Earlier this year, 15 Batek residents of the village of Kuala Koh died and more than 100 others were hospitalized due to mysterious illnesses. The government claims the deaths were caused by a measles outbreak, but outside experts say extremely high and unhealthy levels of manganese in their drinking water due to nearby mining may also be to blame. Advocates say the loss of their forests make indigenous communities more vulnerable to disease and illness, referring to the deforestation of their homes as “structural genocide.”

Big cat trade driven by demand for traditional Asian medicine, according to report
- Bones, blood, and other body parts of big cats are made into products such as balms, capsules, gels, and wines that practitioners of traditional Asian medicine believe to be able to cure ailments ranging from arthritis to meningitis, though in fact they’ve been found to have no provable health benefits.
- Even before farmed big cats are killed to feed the demand for traditional Asian medicine, however, they’re treated more like products than living, breathing creatures, according to a report released last month by the London-based NGO World Animal Protection.
- China and South Africa are the world’s biggest breeders of captive cats. China alone is estimated to have between 5,000 and 6,000 tigers in captive breeding facilities, while South African facilities are holding between 6,000 and 8,000 lions and another 300 tigers.

Conservation groups concerned as WHO recognizes traditional Chinese medicine
- The World Health Organization (WHO) will include traditional Chinese medicine in the revision of its influential International Classification of Diseases for the first time.
- The move concerns wildlife scientists and conservationists who say the WHO’s formal backing of traditional Chinese medicine could legitimize the hunting of wild animals for their parts, which are used in some remedies and treatments.
- The WHO has responded by saying that the inclusion of the practice in the volume doesn’t imply that the organization condones the contravention of international law aimed at protecting species like rhinos and tigers.

’Unprecedented’ loss of biodiversity threatens humanity, report finds
- The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services released a summary of far-reaching research on the threats to biodiversity on May 6.
- The findings are dire, indicating that around 1 million species of plants and animals face extinction.
- The full 1,500-page report, to be released later this year, raises concerns about the impacts of collapsing biodiversity on human well-being.

Scientists urge overhaul of the world’s parks to protect biodiversity
- A team of scientists argues that we should evaluate the effectiveness of protected areas based on the outcomes for biodiversity, not simple the area of land or ocean they protect.
- In a paper published April 11 in the journal Science, they outline the weaknesses of Aichi Biodiversity Target 11, which set goals of protecting 17 percent of the earth’s surface and 10 percent of its oceans by 2020.
- They propose monitoring the outcomes of protected areas that measure changes in biodiversity in comparison to agreed-upon “reference” levels and then using those figures to determine how well they are performing.

Nepal court blocks road construction in rhino stronghold of Chitwan Park
- Chitwan National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is home to the second-largest population of greater one-horned rhinos, as well as Bengal tigers and hundreds of other species.
- Plans to construct road and rail links through the park alarmed conservationists and landed Nepal with a formal warning from UNESCO.
- On Feb. 13, Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered the government not to build new roads inside Chitwan without approval from UNESCO, the park management and other stakeholders.

Sumatran tiger killed at London Zoo by potential mate
- Melati, a 10-year-old female Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), was killed Feb. 8 at ZSL London Zoo when she was introduced to a 7-year-old male called Asim.
- Asim had been transferred from Denmark as part of the European Endangered Species Programme, a captive-breeding program.
- The two tigers had been kept in separate but adjacent paddocks for 10 days before zookeepers opened the door between them on the morning of Feb. 8.
- Scientists believe that fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers live on their namesake Indonesian island.

Urbanization in Asia provides a window of hope for tigers, study finds
- The transition to cities by Asia’s human population is likely to affect the continent’s remaining tiger populations, according to a new study.
- Depending on policy decisions around migration, urbanization, education and economics, the trend toward urbanization could provide more space for tiger numbers to rebound.
- A team of researchers modeled five different “socioeconomic pathways” for the continent, showing that a focus on sustainable living could result in fewer than 40 million people living within the tiger’s range by the end of the century.
- But that number could also balloon to more than 106 million people if countries veer away from international cooperation and poor management of urbanization.

In the belly of the beast: journalist delves into wildlife trafficking
- Rachel Nuwer, who has written for Mongabay, Smithsonian, the New York Times and other publications, published a new book in September, “Poached,” which delves deeply into the global wildlife trafficking epidemic.
- Her book looks into the origins of the wildlife trade, its mechanisms, markets, and solutions. It covers charismatic mammals (elephants, rhinos and tigers), as well as the non-charismatic (pangolins and snakes).
- In this exclusive Mongabay Q&A, the author shares some of her most harrowing moments on the trail of global wildlife traffickers. The scariest thing of all: how accepting people can often be to the slaughter of millions of wild animals, and to the extermination of species, so as to be served a rare meat or a bogus cure.
- Still, Nuwer finds hope in the courageous individuals who fight the trade.

The Bangladeshi tribe that’s guarding turtles, co-authoring research papers
- A team of indigenous parabiologists in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts, documenting their forest’s wildlife, have uncovered a surprisingly wide range of species.
- The parabiologists belong to the Mro ethnic group and work with the Creative Conservation Alliance co-founded by Shahriar Caesar Rahman and colleagues. They set up camera traps, monitor hunting and consumption of turtles and other wild animals in villages; act as protectors of hornbill nests; and serve as community leaders.
- The Mro parabiologists have become so crucial to the researchers’ work that they are regularly listed as formal co-authors of scientific papers.
- The Mro-CCA partnership has earned Rahman several laurels, including, most recently, the 2018 Whitley Award, dubbed the “green Oscars.”

New dam set to spoil Sumatran wonderland (commentary)
- Amid the tropical rainforest in the Hadabuan Hills Ecosystem, where Siamang and Agile gibbons cry out and where Rhinoceros hornbills and Black hornbills growl and cackle above the forest canopy, survey work by a Korean hydroelectric company has just wrapped up, and construction is slated to begin in 2020 on a dam called Siborpa Hydroelectric Power Plant.
- The Hadabuan Hills isn’t a national park or a wildlife sanctuary; about half of it is considered a hutan desa, or village forest. It is essentially a cluster of steep mountains that were too difficult to cultivate quickly and easily, and were thus spared wholesale conversion to oil palm plantations due to the challenging topography.
- So far we have confirmed the presence of tigers, clouded leopards, marbled cats, golden cats, Malayan tapirs, sun bears, leaf monkeys, the fast-disappearing Sumatran Laughingthrush, and a plethora of other wildlife. If this place isn’t a national treasure, we don’t know what is. To see it badly scarred by a hydroelectric dam of questionable use and value would be deeply disturbing.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

China restores ban on rhino and tiger parts, for now
- In an announcement on Oct. 29, the Chinese government said it would permit the controlled use of rhino horn and tiger bone, obtained from farmed rhinos and tigers, for medical purposes.
- China has since walked back the decision, postponing the implementation of the new regulations temporarily.
- Even with the ban restored for now, activists are concerned that the message about the acceptability of animal parts in traditional Chinese medicine lacks clarity, and say they hope the ban will be reinstated permanently.

Roads divide opinions along with forests, study finds
- A team of researchers found that support for new road construction was split among indigenous communities living in Malaysia.
- In general, people living in communities near an existing highway were more likely to support roads than those living in villages farther away from the highway.
- The authors write that the findings lend support to the need for comprehensive social impact assessments before and during the construction of new roads.

China legalizes use of tiger bone and rhino horn for traditional medicine
- China has legalized the “controlled” use of rhino horn and tiger bone for medical use and cultural purposes, the government said in an announcement.
- China banned the trade in tiger bone and rhino horn in 1993, and removed both products from the list of medical ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine’s pharmacopoeia and curriculum. The latest decision reverses that 25-year ban.
- Conservationists worry that legalization of the trade could provide cover for illegal activities, threatening the already imperiled global populations of the endangered animals.

Genome-wide study confirms there are six tiger subspecies
- According to a study published in the journal Current Biology today, uncertainty about how many tiger subspecies there are in the world has frustrated efforts at conserving what’s left of the global tiger population.
- A research team led by Yue-Chen Liu of China’s Peking University analyzed the complete genomes of 32 tiger specimens, selected to be representative of all six potential subspecies, to confirm that tigers do indeed fall into six genetically distinct groups.
- The researchers also used their genome-wide survey to look for evidence that different groups of tigers have adapted to the distinct environments in their geographic regions through the process of natural selection. They say that their genomic research shows very little gene flow has occurred between tiger populations, but also that, despite the big cat’s low genetic diversity, each subspecies has a unique evolutionary history.

Indonesia’s Aceh sees harshest penalty yet for a wildlife crime
- Two men who tried to sell a tiger pelt received four-year sentences in Indonesia’s Aceh province earlier this month.
- Sentences for wildlife traffickers have typically been low. Activists are pushing to revise the law to increase the maximum five-year penalty for wildlife crimes, but courts have tended to impose even lower sentences.
- Just a few hundred Sumatran tigers remain in the wild. The big cat is one of a number of rare species sought after by poachers in Indonesia.

Audio: How an African bat might help us prevent future Ebola outbreaks
- On this episode, we look at research into an African bat that might be the key to controlling future Ebola outbreaks.
- Our guest is Sarah Olson, an Associate Director of Wildlife Health for the Wildlife Conservation Society. With Ebola very much in the news lately due to a recent outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Olson is here to tell us how research into hammer-headed fruit bats might help us figure out how Ebola is transmitted from animals to humans — and potentially control or prevent future outbreaks of the viral disease.
- The bats don’t contract the disease, but there is evidence that they carry the virus. Olson is part of a study in the Republic of the Congo that seeks to understand how the Ebola virus is transmitted from carriers like hammer-headed fruit bats to other wildlife and humans.

New survey results show Nepal is on track to double its tiger population by 2022
- Data gathered from camera trap surveys conducted across most of Nepal’s tiger habitats between 2017 and 2018 show that there are now 235 of the big cats who call the South Asian country home.
- That represents a 19 percent increase over the 198 tigers found during a nationwide study completed in 2014. Nepal’s first census, in 2009, found 121 tigers.
- These numbers put Nepal firmly on the path to becoming the first nation to double its tiger population since the Tx2 goal — which seeks a doubling of the global tiger population by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger on the Asian lunar calendar — was adopted by the world’s 13 tiger range countries at the St. Petersburg Tiger Summit in 2010.

Indonesia’s Teater Potlot takes on the plight of the Sumatran tiger
- A seventh-century Srivijaya king, Srijayanasa, believed progress should bring merit to man and creature alike.
- “Puyang,” a play by a South Sumatra theater group, explores the undoing of this pact through the eyes of a mythical tiger.
- Today, there are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers believed to be living in the wild, as plantation and mining interests raze their forest homes.

Conservation groups herald protection of tiger habitat in Malaysia
- The state government of Terengganu has set aside more than 100 square kilometers (39 square miles) for critically endangered Malayan tigers and other wildlife in Peninsular Malaysia.
- The state’s chief minister said the newly created Lawit-Cenana State Park’s high density of threatened species made the area a priority for protection.
- The park is home to 291 species of birds and 18 species of mammals, including elephants, tapirs and pangolins.

DNA database helps Nepal’s officials monitor tigers, punish poachers
- Nepal’s Centre for Molecular Dynamics has developed a DNA reference database containing genetic and geographic information on 120 of the country’s estimated 200 wild tigers.
- Law enforcement officials used the database to identify the species, sex, and estimated geographic origin of confiscated animal parts suspected to be tigers, pinpointing most of them to individual national parks.
- Such databases have the potential to support not only forensics, but also disease research and monitoring population dynamics, particularly if countries can share genetic data.

Alan Rabinowitz, big cat evangelist and voice of the wild, dies at 64
- Alan Rabinowitz, a U.S. zoologist dubbed the “Indiana Jones of wildlife protection” by Time Magazine, died of cancer on Aug. 5 at the age of 64. He leaves behind a legacy of more than three decades of unceasing efforts to protect big cats and other wildlife at risk of extinction.
- Rabinowitz was instrumental in the creation the world’s first jaguar sanctuary, the Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Preserve in Belize, as well the creation of protected areas in Thailand and Myanmar, and the discovery of new species.
- In 2006, Rabinowitz co-founded Panthera, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation the world’s 40 wild cat species and the vast landscapes that hold them, along with his close friend Thomas S. Kaplan, a U.S. entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Tiger, clouded leopard skins among illegal wildlife parts seized in Malaysia
- Malaysian authorities have seized wildlife parts worth 500,000 ringgit ($124,000) during a raid in the town of Kuala Lipis, outside Taman Negara, the country’s oldest national park.
- Officials also arrested six Vietnamese nationals — four men and two women — alleged to be part of a larger tiger-poaching gang.
- The confiscated animal parts include two entire tiger pelts suspected to have come from critically endangered Malayan tigers. Each of those pelts is estimated to be worth 200,000 Ringgit ($50,000) on the black market.

Animals are becoming night owls to avoid humans
- By analyzing 76 studies and activity patterns of 62 mammal species, including bears, deer, coyotes and tigers, researchers have found that large mammals are 1.36 times more active at night in areas with high human presence compared to areas with low human presence.
- These results seemed to be consistent across species and continents.
- Animals seem to be becoming more nocturnal not only to avoid direct threats like hunting, but to avoid even recreational human activities like hiking and mountain biking.

‘Rarest’ ape’s path to survival blocked by roads, dams and agriculture
- According to a new study, the Tapanuli orangutan, one of only seven species of non-human great ape alive today, faces serious threats to its survival as infrastructure development and agriculture threaten more than one-quarter of its habitat.
- In November, a team of scientists reported that a new species of orangutan living on the Indonesian island of Sumatra was distinct from Sumatran and Bornean orangutans.
- They believe that fewer than 800 Tapanuli orangutans survive.
- Conservationists and scientists warn that a proposed 510-megawatt hydroelectric dam could push the new species closer to extinction.

‘Rarest’ ape’s path to survival blocked by roads, dams and agriculture
- According to a new study, the Tapanuli orangutan, one of only seven species of non-human great ape alive today, faces serious threats to its survival as infrastructure development and agriculture threaten more than one-quarter of its habitat.
- In November, a team of scientists reported that a new species of orangutan living on the Indonesian island of Sumatra was distinct from Sumatran and Bornean orangutans.
- They believe that fewer than 800 Tapanuli orangutans survive.
- Conservationists and scientists warn that a proposed 510-megawatt hydroelectric dam could push the new species closer to extinction.

Sumatran tiger blamed for killing two people is captured alive after marathon hunt
- Authorities in Indonesia have captured alive a critically endangered Sumatran tiger blamed for the deaths of two people in an oil palm plantation.
- The tiger has been moved to a wildlife rehabilitation center, where it will undergo medical tests ahead of being released back into the wild.
- The capture averts a repeat of a near-identical case in March, in which villagers killed and mutilated a tiger blamed for attacking two members of a hunting party.
- The whole incident, which an official described as the longest ever search-and-rescue operation for a Sumatran tiger, has highlighted the importance of protecting wildlife habitats, which often are lost to plantations or human settlements, driving the animals into conflict with people.

Indonesian conservation bill is weak on wildlife crime, critics say
- Lawmakers in Indonesia have submitted for review to President Joko Widodo’s administration a bill that would overhaul the country’s 28-year-old conservation law.
- While environmental advocates have long pushed for updates to the law, the new draft has alarmed many with its various provisions that critics say represent a regression from the existing legislation.
- Problem articles include a “self-defense” clause that would waive criminal charges for killing protected wildlife; a more nebulous definition of wildlife crime that some fear could make it harder to crack down on traffickers; and the opening up of conservation areas to geothermal exploration and other “strategic development” projects.
- The ball is now in the court of the government, which is required to review the bill before sending it back to parliament for final passage. However, a minister says the government will “hold off” on its review, and suggests the existing conservation law is sufficient.

Indonesia races to catch tiger alive as villagers threaten to ‘kill the beast’
- A conservation agency in Indonesia’s Sumatra Island has deployed two teams to capture alive a wild tiger that has reportedly killed two people at an oil palm plantation.
- The incidents prompted villagers living near the plantation to threaten to kill the tiger themselves if it was not caught.
- Authorities are keen to take the animal alive, following the killing of a tiger earlier this month under similar circumstances.

Villagers cite self-defense in tiger killing, but missing body parts point to the illegal wildlife trade
- Villagers in Indonesia have killed a critically endangered Sumatran tiger, after labeling it a menace to the village.
- Conservation authorities, though, have found strong indications that the animal may have been killed for its body parts, which are highly prized in the illegal wildlife trade.
- Habitat loss and poaching have already driven two other species of tiger in Indonesia to extinction, and conservationists warn the Sumatran tiger is being pushed along the same same path.
- Warning: The article contains some disturbing images.

Ecotourism payments for more wildlife sightings linked to conservation benefits in Laos
- A four-year research project in a national protected area in Laos established a connection between higher payments for more wildlife sightings and improved protections for wildlife.
- Over the course of the study, sightings of common wildlife rose by more than 60 percent.
- Payments were funded by the entry fees paid by tourists.
- They were placed in village development funds, which would then finance projects like school construction and healthcare.

Epic battle between tiger and sloth bear caught on film
- Footage of a fight between a male tiger and a mother sloth bear in an India wildlife reserve has gone viral on Facebook.
- The video, shot this week in Tadoba National Park, was captured by Akshay Kumar, the chief naturalist at Bamboo Forest Safari Lodge in Maharashtra.
- The video starts with the tiger chasing off a sloth bear that was headed with her cub toward a water body.
- The bear then charges the tiger and the fight ensues.

Tropical forest fragmentation nearing ‘critical point,’ study finds
- In addition to having severe repercussions for animals like jaguars and tigers that require vast tracts of connected habitat, forest fragmentation has a big carbon footprint.
- A new physics-based study finds fragmentation of tropical forests may be reaching a threshold past which fragmentation will shoot up sharply. At this threshold, even a relatively small amount of deforestation could lead to dramatic fragmentation – and significant habitat loss and greenhouse gas emissions.
- The team calculated that at current deforestation rates, the number of fragments will increase 33-fold in Central and South America by 2050, and their average size will drop from 17 hectares to 0.25 hectares.

‘Photo Ark’ a quest to document global biodiversity: Q&A with photographer Joel Sartore and director Chun-Wei Yi
- The film “RARE: Creatures of the Photo Ark” follows National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore as he travels the world snapping pictures of thousands of different animal species.
- In the last 12 years, Sartore has photographed nearly 8,000 species.
- “RARE: Creatures of the Photo Ark” was named Best Conservation Film at the New York WILD Film Festival.

Films celebrate big cats on World Wildlife Day
- Big cats is the theme of the global celebration of this year’s World Wildlife Day on March 3.
- A big cats film festival hosted by CITES and Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival at the UN headquarters in New York City will screen 16 films selected as finalists.
- Big cats are key apex predators that keep ecosystems healthy, and eight species are being celebrated for the event: the clouded leopard, jaguar, cheetah, leopard, lion, snow leopard, tiger and puma.

Sumatra’s ‘tiger descendants’ cling to their customs as coal mines encroach
- Sekalak village in southern Sumatra lies in one of the last remaining strongholds of the Sumatran tiger, a critically endangered species that the locals revere as both an ancestral spirit and the guardian of the forest.
- This respect for the tiger has sustained a generations-long pledge to protect the local environment, including the wildlife and water resources.
- However, the presence of a coal-mining operation in the area poses a threat to both the tigers and the villagers’ way of life: the mining road gives poachers greater access to once-secluded tiger habitat, and the mining waste is polluting the river on which the villagers depend.

Indonesian ex-soldier among three jailed for illegal trade in Sumatran rhino, tiger parts
- A court in Indonesia has jailed three men for the illegal trade in endangered Sumatran rhino and tiger parts.
- An ex-Army captain and a middleman were sentenced to two years for trying to trade in a rhino horn, while a similar sentence was handed down to a man convicted of trapping and killing a tiger and trying to sell it
- While both the Sumatran rhino and Sumatran tiger are deemed critically endangered, or just a step away from being extinct in the wild, conservationists say enforcement of local laws meant to protect them remains lax.

Roads, dams and railways: Ten infrastructure stories from Southeast Asia in 2017
- Southeast Asia is one of the epicenters of a global “tsunami” of infrastructure development.
- As the countries in the region work to elevate their economic standing, concerns from scientists and NGOs highlight the potential pitfalls in the form of environmental degradation and destruction that roads, dams and other infrastructure can bring in tow.
- Mongabay had reporters covering the region in 2017. Here are 10 of their stories.

Saving Sumatran orchids from deforestation, one plant at a time
- Conversion of forest for agriculture is an ever-present threat in Sumatra, even in protected areas like Kerinci Seblat National Park. Palm oil, acacia, rubber and other plantation crops pressure the park from the outside, while poaching endangers the fauna within.
- Scientists estimate there are between 25,000 and 30,000 species of orchid in the world, with many yet to be discovered. Around 1,000 species are listed as threatened by the IUCN. Sumatra is one of the world’s orchid hot spots.
- Conservationist Pungky Nanda Pratama is trying to save at-risk orchids by transplanting them from threatened areas in and around Kerinci Seblat to a nursery where he is aiming propagate them and re-plant them in nearby protected areas.
- Pratama is also hoping to start an educational center where people can learn about Sumatra’s native plants.

Deforestation in Sumatra carves up tiger habitats into ever smaller patches
- Twelve years of deforestation in Sumatra have broken the habitats of its native big cat into smaller fragments, a new study says.
- Only two of the remaining tiger forest landscapes in Sumatra are believed to have populations that are viable for the long term, both of which are under threat from planned road projects.
- The researchers are calling for a complete halt to the destruction of tiger-occupied forests in Sumatra and the poaching of the nearly extinct predator.

The tenacity of tigers: how the biggest cat varies across its range (photos)
- This photo essay comes via Mongabay’s partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Wild View blog.
- Once a month we’ll publish a contribution from Wild View that highlights an animal species.
- This month Jonathan C. Slaght writes about tigers.
- All photos by Julie Larsen Maher, WCS’s staff photographer.

Top 10 most widely traded animals in the Golden Triangle identified in new report
- Recent surveys by WWF and TRAFFIC have identified 10 of the most widely trafficked animals in the Golden Triangle.
- These top 10 animals are: the tiger, elephant, pangolin, bear, rhinoceros, serow, helmeted hornbill, gaur, leopard, and turtles.
- The wildlife markets in the Golden Triangle cater mostly to tourists from China and Vietnam, the report noted.

Is Cambodia’s plan to reintroduce tigers doomed to fail?
- As recently as 1999, Cambodia was home to one of the world’s largest tiger populations. Today the Indochinese tiger is considered functionally extinct in the country.
- Cambodia is now looking to emulate the profitable success of India’s tiger reserves by reintroducing the big cats to its own forests
- Experts say poaching, rampant corruption and weak law enforcement could spell disaster for the endangered animals.

Photo of ‘resurrected’ extinct Indonesian tiger is actually leopard, scientists say
- A recent photograph of a big cat by park rangers in Java sparked suggestions that it could be the Javan tiger, which was officially declared extinct in 2003.
- Scientists, however, have concluded that the animal in the picture is a Javan leopard.
- The sighting of the critically endangered leopard subspecies has renewed calls to protect it from also going extinct.

Is Bangladesh’s expanded sanctuary a brave step or a paper tiger?
- The government’s decision increases the proportion of the Bangladesh Sundarbans that is off-limits to people from 23 to 52 percent, although pollution from a proposed coal power plant nearby would be an ongoing risk.
- Locals living near the forest have minimized the number of tigers killed in conflict with humans by forming response teams that ward tigers away from villages.
- Policy tailored to addressing the myriad reasons for tiger killing would have even more success in reversing the decline of the Bengal tiger, research suggests.

Biodiversity of Indian Sunderbans recorded in one compendium for first time
- Zoological Survey of India has, for the first time, published a detailed record of the animal and protozoa species of the Sunderban of West Bengal.
- Sunderbans forests, locally known as Badabon, are one of the richest biodiversity hotspots in India. This UNESCO World Heritage site is known for its mangroves, coastal forests that serve as a biological buffer between the land and sea.
- This unique ecosystem is famous for the royal Bengal tiger, Gangetic dolphin, and estuarine crocodile.

Indonesia abuzz over possible finding of extinct tiger
- Park rangers in Java photographed a big cat that resembled the Javan tiger which was officially declared extinct in 2003.
- The finding prompted authorities and NGO in Indonesia to deploy an investigation team to gather more evidence.
- Meanwhile, some experts argued that the animal was most likely the Javan leopard.

The tiger population in Nepal’s Parsa National Park is recovering rapidly
- According to Babu Ram Lamichhane, a wildlife research officer with Nepalese non-profit National Trust for Nature Conservation and lead author of a study published this month in the journal Oryx, Nepal’s Parsa National Park (known as Parsa Wildlife Reserve until June of this year) was an area where tigers no longer roamed despite having the potential to harbor the species.
- That appears to be changing, however: Lamichhane led a team of researchers who documented a threefold increase in Parsa’s tiger population in just three years.
- Parsa’s tiger population recovery is due mainly to conservation measures undertaken since 2009, including village relocations, enhanced security (such as additional guard posts), the formation of community-based anti-poaching units, and other community engagement efforts.

Five promising stories for Global Tiger Day
- Since the last Global Tiger Day in 2016, researchers have discovered tiger populations in unexpected areas, such as forested corridors along riverbanks and in areas that recently served as theaters of war.
- Several countries have worked to protect the tigers that live within their borders, including the creation of a massive national park and taking steps to end tiger farming.
- Camera trap surveys continue to prove invaluable to wildlife researchers in tracking down tigers and other species that can range over huge areas.

Audio: DJ remixes the sounds of birds, lemurs, and more to inspire conservation
- Our first guest is Ben Mirin, aka DJ Ecotone, an explorer, wildlife DJ, educator, and television presenter who creates music from the sounds of nature to help inspire conservation efforts.
- In this very special Field Notes segment, Mirin discusses his craft and some of the challenges of capturing wildlife sounds in the field — including why it can be so difficult to record dolphins when all they want to do is take a bow ride on your boat.
- We also speak with Cleve Hicks, author of a children’s book called A Rhino to the Rescue: A Tale of Conservation and Adventure, not only to express his love of nature but to help raise awareness of the poaching crisis decimating Africa’s rhino population.
- All that plus the top news on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast!

A dangerous path: New highway could jeopardize tigers in India
- Conservationists have witnessed several unsettling deaths of tigers in Corbett National Park recently, one of India’s most important tiger parks.
- The state government of Uttarakhand, however, is moving forward on a plan to upgrade a road through the park into a full, public highway leading to alarm among tiger conservationists.
- Officials are currently discussing turning portions of the highway into a flyover, allowing wildlife to pass underneath, but even this would only mitigate the impact.

Nepal burns more than 4,000 confiscated wildlife parts
- These illegally trafficked items were burned in Chitwan National Park in front of nearly 300 people.
- The wildlife parts, which were part of the burn, have been collected over the last 20 years.
- Officials hope that this burning will act as a deterrent to wildlife traffickers.

Illegal trade threatens nearly half the world’s natural heritage sites: WWF
- Poaching, illegal logging and illegal fishing of rare species protected under CITES occurs in 45 percent of the natural World Heritage sites, a new WWF report says.
- Illegal harvesting degrades the unique values that gave the heritage sites the status in the first place, the report says.
- Current approaches to preventing illegal harvesting of CITES listed species in World Heritage sites is not working, the report concludes.

Indonesian tiger smugglers escape with light sentences in Sumatra
- The two men were each sentenced to eight months imprisonment in Jambi province.
- Conservationists said the prosecutor should have demanded a harsher punishment.
- The maximum sentence under the 1990 Conservation Law is five years behind bars, and activists are pushing for that to be revised upward, too.
- Last year several tiger part smugglers were sentenced to three years imprisonment and fined 50 million rupiah.

‘We can save life on Earth’: study reveals how to stop mass extinction
- Researchers analyzed 846 regional ecosystem types in 14 biomes in respect to the “Nature Needs Half” scientific concept that states proper functioning of an ecosystem requires at least half of it to be there.
- They found 12 percent of ecoregions had half their land areas protected while 24 percent had protected areas and native vegetation that together covered less than 20 percent.
- The study indicates the tropical dry forest biome is the most endangered. Closely behind it are two others: the tropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, and the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. All are highly biodiverse, providing habitat for many species.
- The researchers say while many ecosystems have been highly degraded, achieving 50 percent protection is still possible – if current conservation goals are scaled up.

Al Gore and Bangladesh PM spar over coal plants in the Sundarbans
- Bangladesh is building two large power plants just upstream from the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- According to government officials, the power plants are intended to bolster Bangladesh’s meager energy reserves.
- The project has attracted criticism from concerned citizens in Bangladesh and around the world, as well as scientists and UNESCO, who say the plants will jeopardize human and ecological health.
- At the January 2017 session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Al Gore and Sheikh Hasina disagreed about the project’s potential environmental consequences.

Survey of previously inaccessible region of Myanmar reveals many endangered species
- 17 of the 31 species are threatened, including tigers, Asian elephants, Phayre’s langurs, and dholes.
- The camera traps also detected images of the indochinese leopard across all survey sites, suggesting that Karen State could be supporting one of the most significant leopard populations remaining in South-east Asia.
- A major concern in the region is poaching of high value species like tiger and elephant for the international illegal wildlife trade, the researchers say.

World’s second breeding population of Indochinese tigers discovered in Thailand’s forests
- The world’s second known breeding population of Indochinese tigers (Panthera tigris corbetti) confirmed in Eastern Thailand’s Dong-Phayayen Khao Yai Forest Complex – a UNESCO World Heritage site.
- Remarkable discovery now makes Thailand home to two breeding populations of this tiger subspecies, a significant step toward ensuring their long-term survival in the wild.
- Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) and conservation groups Freeland and Panthera have conducted a scientific survey on the tiger population using the ‘photographic capture-recapture’ method, indicating a density of 0.63 tigers per 100 square kilometers.
- While conservationists welcome these exciting new findings, they warn of the continued decline of tigers elsewhere in Thailand and across their global range.

Controversial policy could spur tiger trade in China
- In China, around 6,000 captive tigers are raised on “farms,” often under inhumane conditions, and their pelts sold for hefty sums in a poorly regulated market upheld through legal loopholes by the Chinese government. Breeding tigers on these farms is legal, but sale of their parts is not — something that may be about to change.
- The State Forestry Administration, tasked with protecting wildlife and overseeing China’s tiger farms, is now deciding whether to commercialize tigers by adding them to a list of legally farmed wildlife, paving the way for tiger parts to be sold to supply a growing Chinese luxury market.
- Long used in Chinese medicine, tiger products are now a status purchase for China’s wealthiest and most powerful. Collectors stockpile tiger bone wine; tiger skins are regularly gifted to seal business deals. Some wealthy Chinese hold “visual feasts” where guests watch a tiger be killed and cooked — then eat it.
- Breeding tigers for trade in their parts contravenes a 2007 decision by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), a treaty signed by 183 nations, including China. There is pressure in China and abroad to shut down tiger farms, even as Chinese business interests lobby to expand a lucrative industry.

Meet one of the filmmakers behind Planet Earth 2
- Planet Earth II, produced by the BBC, involved 40 different countries and more than 2,000 days of shooting.
- The six-part series showcased some of the rarest footage of wildlife from remote islands and deserts to high mountain ranges, forests, grasslands and bustling cities.
- Mongabay interviewed one of the filmmakers involved, Sandesh Kadur, to understand what it takes to film captivating sequences of animals in the wild and within cities.

Police clash with protesters marching against power plant in Bangladesh
- The protesters were showing their disapproval of a new coal-fired power plant currently under construction.
- Injuries were reported, with estimates varying from five to 50.
- Critics of the project say it poses threats to the nearby Sundarbans mangrove – the largest mangrove forest in the world – as well as to the health of thousands of local residents.
- The Bangladeshi government is supporting the project and insists it poses no danger.

Increased use of snares in Southeast Asia driving extinction crisis, scientists warn
- The authors of an article published in Science last week say that unsustainable hunting methods both inside and outside of protected areas, mainly the use of homemade wire snares that kill or maim any animal entrapped by them, is pushing numerous large mammals to the brink of extinction.
- Because the snares are indiscriminate in what they catch, they frequently result in the capture of nontarget species, as well as females and young animals.
- Hundreds of thousands of snares are removed from protected forests in Southeast Asia every year, the authors of the Science article write, but law enforcement and snare removal teams can’t keep up with the pace that they’re being set by poachers.

Scientists ‘impressed and delighted’ by animals found in remnant forests
- A new study finds promising conservation value in forest corridors along rivers in Sumatra’s plantation-dominated landscape.
- But government regulations require areas of forest that border rivers — called “riparian” forests – be left standing to safeguard water quality for downstream communities.
- In the first study of its kind conducted in the tropics, researchers set camera traps in riparian forests through tree plantations near Tesso Nilo National Park. They found a significant mammal presence, including tapirs, tigers, bears, pangolins, and elephants.
- The researchers say their findings indicate Sumatra’s forest remnants could help keep wildlife populations afloat in areas with lots of habitat loss. However, they caution that these corridors are threatened by lax regulation enforcement, and can only work in tandem with larger forested areas.

Poaching gang of wealthy software engineers, coffee planters arrested in India
- The poaching incident came into light around New Year’s Eve.
- A local conservation activist group WildCat-C and the Forest Department together nabbed 14 men involved in the killing of two Sambar deer, a large deer categorized as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
- Conservationist says that such poaching incidents involve “trigger-happy” people who hunt opportunistically, mainly for wild meat.

Protests against Bangladesh power plant begin in Dhaka and Cambridge
- On November 24, activists in Bangladesh began a ‘March towards Dhaka’, demanding the cancellation of the proposed coal-fired Rampal power plant, slated to be built very close to the Sundarbans.
- Members of Bangladesh’s National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources, Power and Ports will reach Dhaka on Saturday where they are expected to hold a grand rally at the Central Shaheed Minar.
- In solidarity with the protests in Bangladesh, students from Cambridge University in the U.K. will also hold a rally tomorrow.

Tigers face ‘unprecedented’ threat from transport projects: WWF
- Some 11,000 kilometers (~6,800 miles) of roads and railway projects are already planned through tiger landscapes, in addition to canals, oil and gas pipelines and power lines.
- Without wider ecological implications in mind, linear infrastructure projects can result in habitat fragments that are too small for the wide-ranging tiger populations, the report says.
- Roads and railways can also facilitate access to previously inaccessible tiger habitats, leading to increased human-tiger conflict, poaching and death from vehicular collisions.

Was Borneo once a land of tigers?
- The scientific consensus is that while tigers did inhabit the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali, and still live in Sumatra, they never lived in Borneo.
- Indigenous peoples in Borneo say otherwise. So-called ‘tiger fangs,’ for example, often feature in traditional Dayak ceremonies.
- Some researchers wonder if the question of whether tigers lived in Borneo has gotten short shrift from experts who should be paying more attention to local communities.

UNESCO urges Bangladesh to cancel or relocate Sundarbans coal plant
- The Rampal power plant, slated to be built very close to the Sundarbans in Bangladesh, has been heavily criticized for its potential environmental risks.
- A UNESCO mission visited the site of the Rampal power plant, locations of several of the most recent ship accidents in the region, and met with several experts, and identified four major concerns related to the plant’s construction.
- The report concludes that the Rampal project will damage the Sundarbans and should be “cancelled and relocated to a more suitable location.”

Hunted to the brink: Mammals in crisis
- A study pulling together information on threatened land mammals found that hunting for meat and medicine is driving 301 toward extinction.
- The authors raise concerns about food security for humans and ecosystem collapse if we don’t prevent this crisis for mammals.
- Proposed solutions include shoring up international markets for bushmeat and animal body parts, investments in laws and enforcement to protect wildlife, and increased education about the scale of the problem.

Russia’s Far East: then and now
- Mongabay interviewed Jonathan Slaght, a biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, who recently published an annotated translation of the observations of Russian military surveyor Vladimir Arsenyev.
- Arsenyev first started exploring the eastern province of Primorye shortly after the vast region became a Russian territory, documenting in great detail the animals and people that inhabited the area.
- Since that time, Primorye’s forests have been extensively logged and its wildlife hunted. But Russia has made some gains in terms of conservation, with tiger numbers rebounding after hunting nearly wiped them out by the 1940s.
- Slaght is currently working with logging companies to close logging roads and make Primorye’s forests less accessible for timber extraction and poaching.

No decline in tiger trafficking: new report
- A minimum of 110 tigers are being seized annually by enforcement agencies, a new report by TRAFFIC found.
- Analysis of the trafficking data revealed that both the number of reported tiger seizures as well as the minimum number of tigers being traded appears to be increasing every year.
- At least 297 of the 1755 tigers seized during the 16-year period reportedly originated from a captive facility such as a tiger farm, zoo or a tourist facility.

Lao PDR commits to shut its commercial tiger farms
- Lao PDR’s Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, H.E. Mr Sommad Pholsena, announced last Friday that the country will shut its commercial tiger farms.
- Lao PDR, with its weak laws and law enforcement and its strategic location close to China, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, has emerged as a key transit hub for the trade of many threatened species including the tiger.
- While the country’s decision has been welcomed, conservationists caution that it will take more than words to actually shut down all of Lao PDR’s tiger farms.

China considers a huge national park for Amur tigers and leopards
- Endangered Amur tigers and Amur leopards are staging a modest recovery in China’s remote northeastern provinces. Over thirty tigers and some 42 leopards now roam the region’s forests.
- The big cats’ habitat remains threatened by human encroachment and experts say the amount of forest currently protected is insufficient to support their growing populations.
- The government of Jilin Province, where most of the big cats live, has proposed a massive new national park focused on the two species that would connect three existing protected areas.
- The park remains under consideration by the central government.

Grim reality behind tiger selfie tourism: speed breeding, cruelty
- Around 830 tigers are estimated to occur in captivity in Thailand’s tiger entertainment venues, the WAP team found, up from 623 tigers in 2010.
- Tourists are encouraged to get close to tigers at tiger entertainment venues and take selfies with tiger cubs separated from their mothers just two to three weeks after birth, the report claims.
- These young cubs are “mishandled hundreds of times a day”, leading to stress and injury.

International Tiger Day: How are tigers faring now?
- Once ranging widely across Asia, the awe-inspiring tiger has now vanished from more than 93 percent of its former range.
- Only about 3,200 wild tigers remain and the species is currently listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
- Mongabay takes a look at how the six surviving tiger subspecies are faring in a human-dominated world.

Indonesia declares national park in top palm oil-producing province
- The establishment of the Zamrud National Park was announced as part of World Environment Day on Friday.
- Zamrud is the third national park in Riau province.
- Other national parks in Riau, especially Tesso Nilo, have suffered extensive forest loss as a result of encroachment.
- More than 40% of Riau’s forests have been cleared for industrial concessions since 2001, according to the World Resources Institute.

Amazon, eBay involved in illegal wildlife trade: Indian government
- The list, collated by India’s Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), includes popular websites such as Amazon, eBay, OLX, Snapdeal, Quikr, Alibaba, Petsmart and Rediff.
- A meeting with the representatives from online trade portals was conducted on May 19 to sensitize them on issues regarding illegal wildlife trade, India’s environment minister said.
- The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau has hired Cyber Crime Specialists to monitor online advertisements of wildlife items.

Judges up the ante for tiger traffickers in Indonesia
- Wildlife criminals in Indonesia usually receive light sentences, if they are convicted at all.
- A four-year prison term recently handed down in Sumatra is the toughest yet for selling tiger parts.
- Conservationists implored judges to continue to impose harsher sentences.

From endangered species to commodities: report reveals scale of wildlife crime
- The report was produced by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime using data on thousands of species and seizures from more than 120 countries.
- It found that trafficking is faciliated by widespread corruption at many levels of government and society, and that crimes are generally not restricted to certain countries.
- To better fight wildlife crime, officials urge a stepping-up of enforcement and monitoring, as well as increased transnational cooperation.

e-Eye of the tiger: Complex surveillance system extends watch over India’s wildlife sanctuaries
- e-Eye is a large-scale intelligent technology capable of 24/7 all-weather, live-feed wildlife surveillance in vulnerable areas and sanctuary perimeters, collecting and interpreting wildlife crime data to alert law enforcement before violations occur.
- The anti-poaching apparatus secures protected areas by helping monitor hard-to-access regions, detect intruders, manage patrols and keep rangers accountable. It also helps reserve managers study wildlife.
- Its developers and users hope to expand it to other domestic and international reserves to protect more tigers and other threatened species, such as elephants.

More remains seized, deeper issues revealed at Thailand ‘Tiger Temple’
- The remains were found in a car leaving Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua. Three monks and two temple devotees have been charged.
- The seizure falls on the heels of the discovery of 40 dead tiger cubs in a temple freezer. Federal officials have filed a criminal complaint against the temple, with temple officials facing up to four years in prison and fines if found guilty of smuggling the animals.
- The temple housed more than a hundred tigers, as well as other wildlife, purportedly used as a tourist attraction.
- Conservationists suspect the temple was involved in trafficking the remains. This, they say, is driving up the demand for black market tiger parts, which are increasingly seen as status symbols in Asia and putting wild tigers at higher risk of poaching.

Cambodia declares new national park, plans to reintroduce tigers
- The move grants protection to more than a million acres of rainforest, and joins a group of protected areas totaling 4.5 million acres.
- The Cardamom Mountains are home to many threatened species, including Asian elephants and Siamese crocodiles.
- Tigers have been absent in Cambodia since 2007. The government, together with an NGO working in the region, is preparing to reintroduce them to Southern Cardamom National Park.

Controversial tiger temple in Thailand gets zoo license
- Last Tuesday, Thailand’s Department of National Parks granted the controversial tiger temple a license to operate a zoo, angering several activists and conservationists.
- The license, effective until 18 April 2021, will allow the Tiger Temple Co to use wild animals, including tigers, for show.
- Activists say that instead of penalizing the temple for its crimes, the department has granted them a license so that they can continue uncontrolled breeding of more tigers.

Have tiger numbers really increased?
- On 10 April 2016, WWF and the Global Tiger Forum announced that the world’s tiger population had finally increased “after several decades of constant decline”.
- But tiger experts Ullas Karanth and Dale Miquelle of Wildlife Conservation Society, John Goodrich of Panthera, and Arjun Gopalaswamy of the University of Oxford have called WWF’s report, and its implications, “scientifically unconvincing”.
- Governments at the 3rd Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation also agreed to double tiger populations by 2022, which the experts say is totally unrealistic.

Indian conservation geneticist wins Field Museum’s top conservation award
- The Field Museum in Chicago has awarded the 2016 Parker/Gentry award to Uma Ramakrishnan, an Indian conservation geneticist who has worked extensively on the population genetics, evolutionary history and conservation of tigers and other mammals in India.
- Ramakrishnan is the first Indian to receive the award.
- Ramakrishnan’s team has developed genetic tools to help count tigers, understand connectivity between tiger populations and trace origins of black market tiger parts.

Another tiger perishes at Indonesia’s ‘Death Zoo’
- Allegations of mistreatment and corruption have plagued the Surabaya Zoo. A cascade of animals have perished at the facility.
- Some are calling for the zoo to be closed. An online petition to that effect has more than 800,000 signatures.
- Others believe it should stay open, with improved management.

Enough habitat left to double wild tiger numbers by 2022, study finds
- In response to dwindling tiger numbers, countries put forth a goal of identifiying and protecting enough remaining habitat to double the tiger population by 2022.
- Although around 7 percent of forest cover was lost throughout tiger habitat, researchers say they expected that number to be higher given the large human populations and economic growth in many parts of tiger range. Their findings support the feasibility of the 2022 goal.
- But threats persist, particularly in areas with high levels of industrial agriculture such as palm oil plantations that can usurp tiger habitat. Poaching and the loss of prey animals are also big drivers of tiger decline.

Tech for Tigers: keeping tabs on forest habitat to conserve an iconic cat
- Tigers need large areas to survive but if well protected, populations can rebound quickly. Nepal and India experienced 61% and 31% increases, respectively, in their tiger populations recently thanks to better habitat protection and anti-poaching efforts.
- The global tiger population now stands at fewer than 3,500; the goal is to double by 2022
- Scientists found less than 8 percent (79,600 km2) of global tiger habitat was lost between 2001 and 2014, enough habitat to have supported about 400 tigers.
- First major study to use high and medium-resolution satellite data from Global Forest Watch to examine impact of forest loss on tiger populations.

Tiger skins, bones recovered from poachers in Aceh
- Only a few hundred Sumatran tigers still exist.
- One of the men who was caught last week was arrested for the same crime in 2014, but he only served a year in prison.
- The government has promised to revise the 1990 Conservation Law this year to allow for harsher sentencing.

Another catastrophe: Ship carrying 1,235 metric tons of coal sinks in Sundarbans
- On Saturday, “MV Sea Horse-1”, a cargo vessel carrying 1,235 metric tons of coal, sank in the Shela River in Sundarbans.
- The incident occurred near Tambulbunia, a critical habitat for the threatened Irrawaddy dolphin and the endangered Gangetic dolphin, researcher said.
- Following Saturday’s incident, the government has suspended other ships from plying the Shela River.

Getting SMART about Wildlife Crime
- SMART technology has helped wildlife rangers and managers in various countries improve their efficiency by tracking and analyzing signs of noteworthy or illegal activities observed during patrols.
- Using this data, SMART lets managers assess current threats, locate crime hotspots, focus limited resources and adapt enforcement approaches, making frontline conservation more effective.
- It empowers rangers, managers and law enforcement to improve governance and help conserve threatened species such as saolas, okapis, elephants, dolphins and tigers.

Thailand’s efforts to protect wild tigers starting to pay off, but recovery slower than expected
- The government of Thailand adopted an intensive patrolling system in 2005 in order to protect the country’s largest source population of wild tigers, in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary.
- Over the next 8 years, researchers with Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) monitored the tiger population closely using a method called “photographic capture-recapture.”
- The researchers believe that because it takes longer for prey populations to recover, and because targeted poaching of breeding animals inside the reserves continues to be a problem, populations may not recover as quickly as conservationists expect.

Indonesia’s peat peninsula being drained into oblivion, study finds
- The practices of agribusiness are causing the Kampar Peninsula to sink below flooding levels, according to a new report by the consultancy Deltares.
- 43.4% of the peatlands on the carbon-rich peninsula have been drained and converted to acacia plantations, mainly by APRIL, and also by Asia Pulp & Paper.
- APRIL disputes the notion that its practices aren’t sustainable, arguing that it has worked hard to protect the remaining forest there.

Bangladesh sticks with coal power plant project despite major backlash
- Regular power outages are prompting Bangaladesh to build two new coal-fired power plants. The Rampal plant is the furthest along and is scheduled to become operational by 2021.
- The plants are planned to be built near the Sundarbans, the world’s largest single tract of mangrove forest, home to tigers, freshwater dolphins, and hundreds of other wildlife species.
- Critics ranging from local communities and scientists to banks and UNESCO are critical of the plants’ proposed location near the Sundarbans, which they say will harm the region’s wildlife and human communities.

Men who sold 8 Sumatran tigers arrested in Indonesia
- Police had been tracking the men’s activities for years but needed more evidence to build a solid case.
- Finally they were able to catch the men trying to sell tiger parts in a sting operation.
- Only a few hundred Sumatran tigers remain in the wild.

Video: Rare Amur tigress with 3 cubs caught on camera
- Camera trap, set up by the Wildlife Conservation Society, captured footage of rare Amur tigress trailed by her three cubs.
- This video provides a glimmer of hope for these endangered big cats.
- WCS is also working with logging companies in the region to block logging roads around the reserve to protect the tiger populations.

Camera trap pictures help nab tiger poacher
- Thailand police confiscated tiger skin and body parts at a police checkpoint in Mae Sot District in Western Thailand.
- By comparing camera trap photos with those of the confiscated tiger skin, WCS experts have identified the dead tiger: a female last photographed alive in Huai Kha Khaend Wildlife Sanctuary.
- Thailand police have arrested the alleged poacher, who now awaits trial.

Putting our heads together for tigers
- Populations of wild tigers have dwindled to 3,200 individuals.
- Researchers and conservationists need new tools to better monitor tigers in the wild.
- The winner of the Think for Tigers challenge will be invited to spend 10 days at a tiger habitat field site.

Tiger Awareness Week hits college campuses: building student pride for an endangered apex predator
- The Tigers for Tigers coalition hosts Tiger Awareness Week each November at tiger-mascot colleges throughout the United States.
- The organization uses college students’ spirit and pride in their schools’ mascots to raise awareness of the conservation issues facing wild tigers.
- Raising awareness is a critical first step to influencing policy.

India steps up efforts to combat wildlife trade
- This summer India’s team of wildlife-contraband-sniffing dogs grew to 25.
- Other measures to combat the country’s significant black-market trade in wildlife include a new emphasis on training law enforcement officers to fight the illegal trade and forestry personnel to guard against poaching.
- While the efforts do not appear to be part of a larger initiative to combat wildlife crime, experts say they indicate that the country is beefing up its wildlife-crime-fighting capacity.

Illegal timber trade destroying Myanmar’s forests uncovered in new report
- Chinese demand for rosewood driving illegal timber trade worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
- Chinese loggers primarily cut and move the logs into Yunnan province through Kachin State, where ethnic groups have been at war with the Myanmar government for years.
- Forest loss has accelerated in Myanmar in recent years, doubling since 2009.

Big reserve expansion gives tigers a boost in Nepal
- The expansion will add a further 2,500 square kilometers of prime habitat for the big cats, which conservationists hope will increase the protected region’s tiger capacity to more than 40 adults.
- The new addition, called Bara Forest, was previously operating under a medium level of protection, which conservationists contend was not enough to protect tigers from human disturbance.
- By bringing Bara Forest into the high-level protection fold, conservationists hope to promote greater habitat connectivity in one of the tigers’ last strongholds in Nepal.

Call of the Wild Tiger: using acoustics software to identify individual tigers by their calls
- Wildlife acoustics help field researchers estimate population size and presence of a range of animal species.
- The Prusten Project uses automated recording units to identify tigers, which may help in estimating population sizes in dense forest landscapes and pinpointing core management zones.
- Understanding population dynamics of wild tigers can help direct the flow of resources (e.g. funds and rangers) to specific core areas to combat poaching attempts and to protect these areas from negative human impacts.

Industrial concessions causing massive deforestation in Cambodia
- By the end of 2013, 14 percent of Cambodia’s land had been allocated for commercial agriculture.
- Some of these ag concessions act as entry points for timber extraction, according to the report’s authors.
- Lack of legal clarity and enforcement has meant that the timber industry has remained largely unregulated in Cambodia.

After long battle, big swath of Sumatran rainforest wins protection

In what conservationists are hailing as a major breakthrough in efforts to protect Sumatra’s fast-dwindling lowland rainforests, the Indonesian government on Wednesday finally approved an ecosystem restoration license for more than 44,000 hectares (110,000 acres) of forest bordering Bukit Tigapuluh, a national park renowned for its rich wildlife. After a long-running tug-of-war between plantation companies […]
Timber company says it will destroy logging roads to protect tigers
- The Russian Far East is home to the Siberian tiger, which is endangered due to habitat loss and poaching.
- A major logging company, local conservation officials, and international NGO announced plans to dismantle logging roads in Terney County in Primorsky Krai.
- Proponents say the move will help reduce poaching of the area’s Siberian tigers.

How do Sumatra’s wild cats coexist?

At least six species of wild cats live, and seem to do so harmoniously, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is critically endangered and several of the other cat species on the island are threatened, according to the IUCN. But with the exception of the Sumatran tiger, little is […]
Happy Global Tiger Day (Photos)

As recently as 100 years ago, there were as many as 100,000 wild tigers living in Asia. According to Panthera, today, fewer than 3,200 remain. Historically, the tiger ranged from the Caspian Sea to the Russian Far North to the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. Now, they occupy just 7% of this historical range, […]
New Tiger Count in Bangladesh Serves as a Reality Check

When a census of tigers in Bangladesh’s Sundarbans was taken in 2004, environmentalists were living in a fantasy world, thinking that there were 440 of these big cats still roaming the forests. A recent survey published on Monday, July 27, shattered the illusion by concluding that there are now only around 100 tigers residing in […]
Push to revise conservation law as Indonesians post wildlife crimes to Facebook

Warning: Some images in this story contain graphic content. Residents of the Indonesian village of Sibide pose with a dead Sumatran tiger, a critically endangered species. Pictures of the photo session sparked a public outcry when they were posted to Facebook in February. Photo: Backpacker Nusantara The Indonesian government has promised to crack down on […]
Big reserve expansion gives tigers a boost in India

A wild Bengal tiger in India. Photo by Morgan Erickson-Davis. A hundred years ago, there were thirteen times as many tigers in the world as there are today, ranging from Turkey across the Eurasian continent to the eastern coast of Russia. The 13 countries that contain the world’s last tigers today – a mere, 2,500 […]
Social-media firestorm defends popular man-eating tiger in India, raising conservation questions

A tiger identified as Ustad prowls Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in 2012. Photo credit: Allan Hopkins. On May 8, when 56-year-old forest guard Rampal Saini set out to patrol an area of India’s famous Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, no one had any idea it would be his last day alive. Saini was attacked and killed by a […]
What do China, Kenya and India have in common? Wildlife trafficking

A white rhino in Kruger National Park in South Africa. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. When it comes to trafficking rhino, elephant, and tiger parts the biggest players are China, Kenya, India, Vietnam, South Africa and Thailand, according to a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Examining news media […]
Happy tigers: Siberian population continues to grow

Captive Siberian tiger at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Bronx Zoo. Photo by: Julie Larsen Maher/WCS. The Siberian tiger population continues to rebound, according to the latest numbers from the subspecies’ stronghold in Russia. Ten years ago, conservationists estimated 423-502 Amur tigers in Siberia. But last month, the Russian government and WWF said numbers had […]
Tigers expanding? Conservationists discover big cats in Thai park

Tigers have been documented in Thailand’s Chaloem Ratanakosin National Park for the first time. Photo by: ZSL and Thailand’s Department of National Parks. For the first time conservationists have confirmed Indochinese tigers (Panthera tigris corbetti) in Thailand’s Chaloem Ratanakosin National Park. In January, camera traps used by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Thailand’s […]
Proposed border checkpoint and road threaten critical Cambodian forest and wildlife

Forest in Mondulkiri Province, Cambodia. Photo by Dtfman. A proposed border checkpoint at Kbal Damrei, on Cambodia’s border with Vietnam, together with a new road leading up to it, may harm Cambodia’s Mondulkiri Protected Forest, according to a recent press release by WWF-Cambodia. The proposed border crossing is slated to be developed within Mondulkiri Protected […]
Sumatran tiger found dead in a pig trap

Officers from Indonesia’s Natural Resources Conservation Agency carry a dead tiger in West Sumatra. Two of the critically endangered creatures have turned up dead in the province this year. Photo: BKSDA West Sumatra Authorities in the Indonesian province of West Sumatra buried the rotting carcass of a female tiger that died after being ensnared by […]
Wilmar, Musim Mas supplier caught clearing elephant habitat for palm oil in Aceh

A Sumatran elephant of the sort that lives in the Leuser Ecosystem. Photo: Rhett A. Butler A new report provides evidence that a supplier of palm oil giants Wilmar and Musim Mas is bulldozing valuable forests in Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem in violation of the companies’ zero-deforestation policies. As of April 30, when the report’s author, […]
Tiger family photo surprises scientists

An Amur tiger father leading a mother and three cubs in Russia. Photo by: WCS, Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve, and Udegeiskaya Legenda National Park. In a frigid Russian forest, a camera trap snapped 21 family photos over two minutes. This wasn’t a usual family, though, this was a tiger family, more specifically an Amur tiger (Panthera […]
Photos: Amur leopard population hits at least 65

Camera trap of Amur leopard. The Amur leopard evolved its thick coat to keep warm in the cold, long winters. Photo by: WWF. Most of the world’s big predators are in decline, but there are some happy stories out there. This week, WWF announced that the Amur leopard population has grown to a total of […]
Sting operation nets tiger poachers

Picture of the tiger bust. Photo by Dian Risdianto / TNKS A sting operation by Indonesian officials snared a group of tiger hunters operating in Kerinci Seblat National Park in Jambi Province, Sumatra. After an extended investigation, undercover officers caught three local residents as they attempted to sell a tiger skin and bones in the […]
China tries out logging ban in northeastern province

China’s Heilongjiang province, which borders Russia to its north and east, contains 18.5 million hectares of state forest – more natural forest than any other province in the country. However, since the mid-twentieth century, Heilongjiang has had over 600 million cubic meters of timber extracted from its woodlands. Now, China is trying out a complete […]
Sundarbans still reeling from effects of December oil spill

Emergency research finds devastating impacts of oil spill in the world’s largest mangrove forest A crocodile wades into oil-tainted waters in the Sundarbans. Photo by: Arati Kumar-Rao. Last month, an estimated 350,000 liters of fuel oil spilled into the Sundarbans delta on the Bay of Bengal. An oil tanker that had collided with a cargo […]
India’s tiger population up by more than 500 animals in four years

Disappearing oasis: northeastern India losing forests as people move in

This article is the first in a two-part series that examines deforestation trends and drivers in Assam, India. Read the second part here. Northeastern India is a distinct entity in many ways. The region is connected to the rest of the country by a narrow strip of Indian land, with a width of just 21 […]
Man plants forest, becomes film star

This is the second in a series of two articles telling the story of Molai, a forest in the Indian state of Assam that was planted by Jadav Payeng over 35 years. Read the first part here. Jadav “Molai” Payeng is a 51-year-old man who lives in India’s north-eastern state of Assam in the village […]
One man plants forest larger than Central Park

This is the first in a series of two articles telling the story of Molai, a forest in the Indian state of Assam that was planted by Jadav Payeng over 35 years. Read the second part here. In the northeastern Indian state of Assam, a 51-year-old man lives with his family in a small hut […]
Tiger traffickers busted in Indonesia

Confiscated tiger parts and suspects. Photo by the WCS Wildlife Crimes Unit. Two online merchants of tiger parts have been arrested in Indonesia. The bust was the result of a coordinated effort between local and national authorities, and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) which supports ‘Wildlife Crimes Units’ operating throughout the country. The arrests are […]
Tigers vs. diamonds: India’s protected areas rampantly downgraded to make room for people, industry

This is the second part of a four-part series examining trends in Protected Area Downgrading, Downsizing, and Degazettement (PADDD). Read the first and third parts for a more comprehensive look at the issue. In India’s central state of Madhya Pradesh lie 500 square kilometers (200 square miles) of protected land demarcated as the Panna Tiger […]
Armed conflict decimates tigers, rhinos, and swamp deer in Indian park

Endangered species have it bad enough, but in conflict zones, things get worse The human cost of war is horrendous. However, while most attention is focused on the suffering caused to people—and rightly so—an understudied element is the impact on wildlife conservation. This is worrying given that many of the world’s conflict zones are situated […]
Malayan tiger population plunges to just 250-340 individuals

Malayan tiger. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Malaysia is on the edge of losing its tigers, and the world is one step nearer to losing another tiger subspecies: the Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni). Camera trap surveys from 2010-2013 have estimated that only 250-340 Malayan tigers remain, potentially a halving of the previous estimate of […]
An uncertain future: world’s last wild Siberian tigers threatened by illegal logging, global warming, disease (PART II)

This is the second part of series examining the impact of forest loss on Siberian tigers. Part I discussed overall forest loss in the region and its major drivers. The very fact that there are Siberian tigers in the world today is something of a miracle. In the 1940s, just 20 animals remained in the […]
Logging of Russian Far East damaging tiger habitat, few intact forests protected (Part I)

This is the first part of series examining the impact of forest loss on Siberian tigers. Part II discusses in more detail what their shrinking habitat and low numbers may mean for their future. The destruction of Russian forests to supply timber to international markets is becoming one of the biggest threats to the world’s […]
Where have all the big animals gone? Indian park devoid of many species, further threatened by forest loss

Researchers working with local communities in effort to stymie environmental damage Namdapha National Park, the third largest in India at 200,000 hectares, is located in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. Its extensive dipterocarp forests are the northernmost lowland tropical rainforests in the world. Temperate broad-leaved forests cloak the higher elevations, and beyond the treeline […]
Poachers target elephants, tigers in Sumatran park

Decomposing carcass of an adult orangutan in the forest of Southwest Aceh. Photos by Leuser Conservation Forum. The Leuser Ecosystem in Aceh, Indonesia is gaining the attention of international animal traffickers, according to the Leuser Conservation Forum (FKL). From the beginning of 2013, FKL patrols have dismantled 282 makeshift traps targeting high value threatened species, […]
No restrictions: Japan’s demand for illegal wood driving rampant deforestation in Siberia

Tiger habitat under threat Illegal logging is taking a huge toll on forests around the world. Accurate estimates are hard to come by since governments tend to underestimate volumes harvested in effort to save face, but a report issued by the World Bank in 2012 pegged the losses in assets and revenue due to illegal […]
Deforestation drives tigers into contact, conflict with humans

Sumatran tiger in an Indonesian village. Conflicts between tigers and humans will continue to increase unless the destruction and loss of Sumatra’s forests is halted, warns Dr. Erni Suyanti Musabine, a wildlife conservation veterinarian with Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry. According to Yanti, the critically endangered Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) traditionally lived deep in the […]
Chinese fishermen get the ultimate phone video: a swimming tiger

Two Chinese fishermen got the catch of their lives…on mobile phone this week. While fishing in the Ussuri River, which acts as a border between Russia and China, the fishermen were approached by a swimming Siberian tiger. These tigers, also known as Amur tigers, are down to around 350-500 animals. At first the brothers thought […]
Bears, cats, and mystery mammals: camera traps in ‘paper park’ prove it’s worth protecting

Camera traps catch endangered species in remote park in Cambodia A rare Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) dashes past a camera trap in Virachey National Park. This species is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Photo by: Habitat ID. Can a single photograph change the fate of a park? A new conservation group, […]

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