A new study reveals that Thailand’s population of endangered Indochinese tigers is increasing at a steady pace
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The sambar deer are nervous. The herd scans the surrounding woodlands, ears alert, noses twitching, eyes alive to the slightest movement. They can’t see it, but they can sense its presence. It’s watching them, but they don’t know from where. Using the dappled light to its advantage, it’s inching closer. Then panic overwhelms the sambar and they take flight and sprint off through the meadows. The tension eases. The tiger stands tall. Like most hunts, this one was a failure.
The largest member of the cat family, many people would also say the tiger is the most beautiful yet also the most formidable of all predators. There are – or rather were – nine sub-species of tiger. Six are still hanging on while three have gone extinct (Caspian, Bali and Javan tigers) within the past century. Not so long ago, though, tigers lived across a huge swathe of Asia, from Iran and Turkey in the west to China in the east and Siberia in the north to Indonesia in the south. Sadly, thanks to hunting, habitat destruction and persecution, tigers now only inhabit seven per cent of their former range, and the total worldwide population of wild tigers stands at an estimated 5,574 (an increase from 2010 when the population stood at just 3200).
The Indochinese tiger, which formally occurred across a large part of Indochina from Myanmar to Vietnam, is one of the more threatened sub-species. Numbering around 250 individuals, the Indochinese tiger is now confined to remote parts of northern Myanmar, where only around 22 of them are thought to survive and the Western Forest Complex (WEFCOM) of Thailand (it’s possibly still present in Laos as well though with no recent sightings many scientists fear it might already be extinct there).
In a rare bit of conservation good news, though, the results of a recent population count have revealed a significant increase in the number of tigers in western Thailand. The study, which covered three reserves within Thailand’s Western Forest Complex, reveals a steady increase in tigers within the selected reserves since camera trap surveys began in 2007. The latest survey, which was conducted in November 2023, captured images of 94 individual tigers, up from 75 individuals the previous year, and from less than 40 in 2007. The study showed that the tiger population grew an average of four per cent per year in the Hua Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary (HKK-YT), which is the largest of the reserves within the Western Forest Complex. Considering the amount of habitat available to tigers within the area, and the high possibility that some tigers were not detected by the camera traps, the study authors estimate that there could be up to 140 tigers within the HKK-YT landscape.
One of the key reasons behind this increase in Thailand’s tiger population is a strengthening of conservation efforts, an increase in ranger patrols in order to combat poaching and a dramatic increase in potential prey, such as sambar and banteng, for the tigers.
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