Tigers Taking To Their Old Lives in Jungles Of Sumatra

Ismira Lutfia, Jakarta Globe 1 Feb 10;

More than a week after two Sumatran tigers were released back into the jungle, they are reported to be roaming within a four-kilometer radius from their release point in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park in West Lampung.

Conservationist Tony Sumampau, who heads the tiger-rescue center at the park’s Tambling Wildlife Nature Conservation, told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday that the global positioning systems attached to their collars showed that both tigers — named Panti and Buyung — have traveled about two kilometers and are roaming between Sleman Lake and the coastal area close to the conservation base camp.

“They must have found that the area is abundant with deer, one of their favored prey,” Tony said, adding that conservation staff had found a deer carcass believed to have been eaten by one of the tigers.

“The tigers, however, are not roaming the jungle together, but they are within about a kilometer of each other,” Tony said.

When being released on Jan. 22, Panti was reluctant to leave her cage, which was opened by Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan. It was a few minutes before she stuck her head out, and then slowly emerged.

As if aware she was the spectacle of the day, Panti did not run straight into the jungle, but stood, roared, took a look around and then lingered around Buyung’s cage, which had not yet been opened. Then she suddenly turned and ran, disappearing in the bushes.

Unlike Panti, Buyung leaped straight out when his cage was opened and took off into the jungle on Panti’s trail.

Buyung and Panti, whose name is a shortened version of her species’ Latin name, Panthera tigris, have come a long way since they were captured by villagers in South Aceh in 2008.

They were then kept in cages for some time at the Aceh nature conservancy center before businessman Tommy Winata agreed to finance their costly rehabilitation process.

Buyung and Panti spent about 18 months in the two-hectare rescue center with two other tigers, honing their instincts and undergoing monthly check-ups before they were declared fit enough to survive in the jungle once again.

“Panti had a tumor in her mouth but that has been fixed now,” Tony said, adding that Buyung had been underweight for his size and age.

The two other tigers, Salma and Ucok, are not yet ready for a return to the jungle.

Salma is believed to be a man-eater so “she needs further rehabilitation so she doesn’t return to those ways,” Tony said, while Ucok, a male, has had a broken claw.

Kurnia Rauf, the head of the national park, told the Jakarta Globe that the protected jungle should be able to accommodate more tigers, saying an estimated 45 Sumatran tigers were living there now.

“[The park] fits the classification of having the right prey density per kilometer square to support a larger tiger population,” Kurnia said.

Other tigers living in the park must have sensed that they were about to have company. According to Taman Safari Indonesia staff, a tiger was seen at midnight near Buyung and Panti’s cages. The sighting of the tiger was supported by fresh prints the next morning on the beach about a kilometer from the cages.

The paw prints could have been from Agam or Pangeran, two tigers released from the rescue center in July 2008.

The day before their release, Panti and Buyung were sedated by a team of vets so two 7,000 euro ($9,706) GPS collars could be placed around their necks, allowing them to be tracked through the jungle for 200 days. They were then transported in cages by truck to the release point, about seven kilometers from the rescue center.

The GPS will also help the conservationists know whether the tigers interfere with the traditional human settlement at the Pangekahan enclave within the national park, where about 157 families live as they have for many generations.

“If they see a tiger entering their village, they’ve been asked to notify the forest officials,” Zulkifli said.