Camera traps yield first-time film of tigress and cubs

WWF 7 Jan 10;

Jakarta, Indonesia – Camera traps deep in the Sumatran jungle have captured first-time images of a rare female tiger and her cubs, giving researchers unique insight into the elusive tiger’s behaviour.

After a month in operation, specially designed video cameras installed by WWF-Indonesia’s researchers seeking to record tigers in the Sumatran jungle caught the mother tiger and her cubs on film as they stopped to sniff and check out the camera trap.

There are as few as 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild and they are under relentless pressure from poaching and clearing of their habitat. After five years of studying tigers using wildlife-activated camera traps set up in the forest, these are the first images of a tiger with offspring.

“We are very concerned though, because the territory of this tigress and its cubs is being rapidly cleared by two global paper companies, palm oil plantations, encroachers, and illegal loggers. Will the cubs survive to adulthood in this environment?” said Karmila Parakkasi, the leader of WWF-Indonesia’s Sumatran tiger research team.

The discovery comes as WWF prepares to launch a campaign on 14 Feb. 2010, to coincide with the start of the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese calendar.

The year-long, Tx2: Double or Nothing campaign aims to raise the bar for tiger conservation by securing high-level political commitment at a Heads of State Tiger Summit in September in Vladivostok, Russia to be hosted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and supported by WWF and other partners of the Global Tiger Initiative, including the World Bank.

“We want to change the course of tiger conservation,” said Mike Baltzer, leader of WWF’s global Tiger Initiative. “It’s not just about saving the tiger from extinction, but about doubling their number by 2022.”

With wild tiger numbers as low as 3,200, and a systematic attempt underway to wipe them out of the forests in Asia, more must be done to ensure this charismatic species and flagship for Asia's biological diversity, culture and economy is not lost forever.

In addition to the tigress and cubs’ footage, the video camera also captured images of a male Sumatran tiger and its prey, wild boar and deer, as well as many other species such as tapirs, macaques, porcupines and civets.

Infrared-triggered camera traps, which are activated upon sensing body heat in their path, have become an important tool to identify which areas of the forest are used by tigers, and to identify individual animals to monitor the population. WWF has operated dozens of cameras throughout the central Sumatran province of Riau.

Parakkasi and her team first captured still images of the tigress and its cub in July 2009 through still camera traps. The photos were, however, not very clear.

“We were not so sure how many cubs there were,” she said.

Video camera traps were then installed in September at the same location to clarify the initial findings.

WWF’s tiger research team set up four of the video camera traps in known tiger routes in a forested “wildlife corridor” that allows animals to move between two protected areas in central Sumatra – Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve in Riau and Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in both Riau and Jambi provinces.

“When these cubs are old enough to leave their mother, which will be soon, they will have to find their own territory,” said Ian Kosasih, WWF-Indonesia’s Forest Programme Director. “Where will they go? As tiger habitat shrunk with so much of the surrounding area having been cleared, the tigers will have a very hard time avoiding encounters with people. That will then be very dangerous for everyone involved.”

“With this clear scientific evidence of tiger presence, WWF calls for formal establishment of the area between Rimbang Baling and Bukit Tigapuluh forests as a protected wildlife corridor,” Kosasih said.

WWF is also urging the paper companies operating in the area – Sinar Mas/APP and APRIL – as well as palm oil plantations to help protect all high conservation value forests under their control that are the habitat of tigers and other endangered species.

Tiger Video Sparks Calls for Protection
Jakarta Globe 7 Jan 10;

Footage of a female Sumatran tiger and her two cubs captured by a video camera hidden deep in the forests of central Sumatra supports demands that such areas be given better protection and management to ensure the preservation of wildlife habitats, according to environmental campaigners.

“The footage shows us the tigers’ living patterns and the size of their roaming areas, which we can use to recommend areas that need protection and their best management practice,” Desmarita Murni, spokeswoman for conservation organization WWF Indonesia, told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday. “It would be difficult if we did not have this evidence.”

An infrared-triggered video camera, which is activated by movement, captured the tigers on film when the mother showed up to check out the camera, followed by her two cubs, which are estimated to be about one year old.

“We determined that the last cub to appear on camera is a male cub, though we cannot yet identify the other cub’s gender,” said Karmila Parakkasi, the head of WWF Indonesia’s Sumatran tiger research team.

“Seeing this footage within one month of setting up the new video cameras was a real boost for our team in the field,” Karmila said in a press release. “We are very concerned though, because the territory of this tigress and its cubs is being rapidly cleared by two global paper companies, palm oil plantations, encroachers and illegal loggers. Will the cubs survive to adulthood in this environment?”

Desmarita said the footage of the tigress was captured in October, while other footage of a male tiger as well as many other species, including tapirs, macaques, porcupines and civets, was captured in November.

The camera was installed in a “wildlife corridor” between two protected areas in central Sumatra — the Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve in Riau and Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, which straddles Riau and Jambi.

Much of the forest in the corridor is being cleared by paper companies and palm oil plantations or is slated for clearing, putting the tigers’ future in doubt.

There are as few as 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild and they are under relentless pressure from poaching and habitat destruction. After five years of studying tigers using motion-activated camera traps, these are the first images of a tiger with cubs.

The discovery comes as WWF prepares to launch a yearlong campaign at the start of the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese calendar to raise the bar for tiger conservation by securing high-level political commitments at a summit in Russia in September.

Rare Wild Tiger and Cubs Captured on Video
livescience.com Yahoo News 7 Jan 10;

A female tiger and her cubs gave scientists quite a show as the elusive animals sniffed and checked out a video-camera trap in the Sumatran jungle.

After five years of studying tigers using wildlife-activated camera traps set up in the forest, these are the first images of the rare tiger with cubs. The video will provide a window into the elusive tiger's behavior, say scientists with the WWF (formerly called the World Wildlife Fund).

As few as 400 Sumatran tigers remain in the wild, and even these individuals are under relentless pressure from poaching and clearing of their habitat, officials say.

"We are very concerned though, because the territory of this tigress and its cubs is being rapidly cleared by two global paper companies, palm oil plantations, encroachers, and illegal loggers," said Karmila Parakkasi, the leader of WWF-Indonesia's Sumatran tiger research team.

Parakkasi and her team first captured still images of the tigress and its cub in July 2009 through still camera traps. The photos were, however, not very clear, and the research team was not sure how many cubs there were. And so they set up four of the video camera traps in known tiger routes in a forested wildlife corridor that allows animals to move between two protected areas in central Sumatra - Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve in Riau and Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in both Riau and Jambi provinces.

The video comes as WWF prepares to launch a campaign for tiger conservation on Feb. 14 to coincide with the start of the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese calendar.

"We want to change the course of tiger conservation," said Mike Baltzer, leader of WWF's global Tiger Initiative. "It's not just about saving the tiger from extinction, but about doubling their number by 2022." Hence, the campaign is called "Tx2: Double or Nothing."

WWF scientists are worried about the cubs' future. "When these cubs are old enough to leave their mother, which will be soon, they will have to find their own territory," said Ian Kosasih, WWF-Indonesia'' Forest Program Director. "Where will they go? As tiger habitat shrunk with so much of the surrounding area having been cleared, the tigers will have a very hard time avoiding encounters with people. That will then be very dangerous for everyone involved."

Kosasih says with this new evidence of Sumatran tigers, WWF is calling for a formal establishment of a protected area between Rimbang Baling and Bukit Tigapuluh forests. WWF is also urging the paper companies operating in the area as well as palm oil plantations to help protect all high conservation value forests under their control that provide habitat for tigers and other endangered species.