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Bigcats News - Printable Version

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RE: Bigcats News - Tshokwane - 04-05-2016

Quite an interesting perspective... Written and filmed by Vinod Reddy:
Imperil Inside and Ominousness Outside


What a show that was by the dominant tiger who has ruled Bandipur for years. One of the most popular Tigers of India.
But what stuck in between was the misuse of power. It was a show that would been well documented and photographed by all. However in recent times i had heard many things about this officer, and this was a personal experience.

Feel sorry for the people who spend thousands of rupees to get a rare glimpse of a big cat and if possible to take a couple of pictures. All they get to know there is who is the park director. As a director he has to look for ways to better the tourism instead he became a tourist. It was an instance where i could ve captured a very good head on video of the Prince. But all were only able to see another government vehicle following the Tiger and the rest following the government vehicle. This is purely an objectionable act by the person. I felt sad when all vehicle turned back to go and find another tiger instead of wasting time on this where you could hardly see the tiger due to the officers vehicle in between. This is not a one of instance as everytime the tiger is sighted he is there. I have never seen so many wishes for a person to retire.
A small clip to show what i am talking about.
Handheld shot.
(Click on it to play)






RE: Bigcats News - Shardul - 04-06-2016

Gujarat foresters relieved as MP marks Kuno-Palpur for tigers

Ahmedabad: The news that Madhya Pradesh government has decided to develop Kuno-Palpur as a tiger reserve has brought relief to officials of the forest department in Gujarat, who had been fighting a long battle in the apex court over the issue of translocation of lions to Kuno-Palpur. There are 523 lions in Gujarat. It was in April 2013 that the Supreme Court had formed a 12-member committee to oversee the translocation of lions to Kuno from Sasan Gir. The issue is pending with the committee. Meanwhile, comes the gladdening news.

Officials from National Tiger Conservation Authority have also informed their counterparts in Madhya Pradesh that they should in fact develop Kuno-Palpur as a tiger reserve, as it was an important sanctuary for the movement of tigers from Ranthambore to Kuno. The movement of tigers from Ranthambore national park in Rajasthan to Kuno-Palpur wildlife sanctuary has already established a functional natural corridor between the two sanctuaries.

At present, one tiger is already residing in Kuno, while another two are in the periphery of Kuno-Palpur and they are moving towards the Kuno sanctuary.

Sources in Madhya Pradesh government said that recently Prakash Javadekar, the Union Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, had made a statement that it would take 25 years for translocation of lions from Sasan Gir to Kuno Palpur. This statement led the MP government to rethink priorities and decide to have tigers in Kuno-Palpur, rather than lions.

Reacting to the news, officials in Gujarat forest department said that it was impossible to translocate the lions to Kuno in wake of the new guidelines of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. "There are several studies that need to be undertaken before translocating lions to Kuno. The 12-member committee had in its first meeting in 2013 accepted that the translocation will be based on the new guidelines. MP will have to carry out several studies, and also have an area of 700 sq km against the existing 350 sq km area," said an officer.

Sunny Shah, landscape coordinator, WWF India for Rajasthan and north MP, and a person intimately associated with Kuno landscape said, "Kuno is a pristine habitat for big cats, and being close to Ranthambhore, we can create a meta population for the last semi-arid population of tigers. Kuno has achieved its population goal of preys, and now waiting for predators. There are already 2-3 tigers in and around Kuno, and there's opportunity to double the tigers there. We have plans to build it as a tiger reserve."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Gujarat-foresters-relieved-as-MP-marks-Kuno-Palpur-for-tigers/articleshow/51691895.cms

If true, this is awesome!


RE: Bigcats News - sanjay - 04-06-2016

I think it is bad news for Asiatic lions


RE: Bigcats News - Shardul - 04-06-2016

(04-06-2016, 09:01 AM)sanjay Wrote: I think it is bad news for Asiatic lions

That is not necessarily true. The whole purpose of finding a second home for the asiatic lions was to have a back up population in case the original population got wiped out due to disease or calamity. But that has already been taken care of since more than 200 out of the 500 odd lions are now outside of Gir, far from the sanctuary and have formed small sub populations by spreading out naturally.

Another factor to be taken into account is the conservation record of Gujarat. Trust me, this is my home state (Gir is 7 hrs from my place) and people here love the lions and take pride in having them, they are a big part of our culture here. We were taught about the Asiatic lions when we were in the 1st grade. Plus, the people here are naturally tolerant of wildlife. The maldharis of Gir have had a huge role in saving these animals. They have been very tolerant of the lions, even though their buffaloes have been a staple of the lions diet. How many times have you heard of lions being poisoned in Gujarat, compare that to the number of tigers poisoned or poached in MP? See what happened in Panna. MP should take care of their tigers first, then think about lions.  People come to MP to see tigers. That is what they are known for and that is what drives their tourism industry. If people want to see lions, they'll go to Africa.

In any case, Kuno is adjacent to ranthambhore and near madhav NP, both hold tiger populations. So where will the lions disperse out? Kuno isn't big enough to hold a self sustaining lion population. And what about the tigers coming from Ranthambhore to Kuno, and those few already in Kuno?


RE: Bigcats News - Pckts - 04-06-2016

Nishant Chandrarao

"Welcome to Ranthambore Theme Park... now you can chase tigers all day long...we already have routes which are open in monsoon and we are also planning night safari. So when our favourite tigers loose the fear of human beings they will either head outside park or kill people or cattle...then we will have our experts declare " the tiger has lost fear of people " and then the best part we will tranquilise it and send it to zoo...our mission is to fill all the zoos with tigers from our theme park so that there are " Guaranteed Sightings " all year around."

*This image is copyright of its original author

The State Government has finally permitted full-day safari in Ranthambore National Park. As reported, the foreign tourists can now avail full-day safari for Rs. 40000 whereas; the half day safari will cost Rs. 20000. On the other hand, the interested Indian tourists can avail the full-day safari for Rs. 30000 and half day safari will be for Rs. 15000.

It is to be noted that the full-day safari is for 12 hours, whereas in half-day safari 6 hours are permitted. Please note, Ranthambore National Park, which is located in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan is one of the most popular wildlife reserves in India. The park is also known for its decent tiger population and camera friendly tigress Machli.
https://www.tourmyindia.com/blog/full-day-safari-in-ranthambore/


RE: Bigcats News - Pckts - 04-06-2016

Satellite data shows new hope for endangered tiger populations

Satellite data is proving a useful tool for protecting tiger habitat and could not only help double wild tiger populations by 2022 but also lay the groundwork for helping other vulnerable species, too.

http://m.csmonitor.com/Environment/2016/0403/Satellite-data-shows-new-hope-for-endangered-tiger-populations
Tigers could be on course for doubling their numbers in the wild, according to a new study.
The research, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, used satellite imagery to measure the decline from 2001-2014 of tiger habitat in the 13 countries that host wild tigers, finding that the loss was far less than anticipated.
Because of the vast tracts of land involved, and the myriad jurisdictions, a significant challenge has been in monitoring the situation, but the researchers involved in this latest study hope they have found a solution not only for tigers, but one that can be replicated to the benefit of other species, too.

*This image is copyright of its original author
Recommended:14 animals declared extinct in the 21st century
"After St. Petersburg, a group of scientists asked whether this idea of doubling the wild tiger population was even possible," says lead author Anup Joshi of the University of Minnesota, in a telephone interview with The Christian Science Monitor.
At the 2010 International Tiger Conservation Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, nations and conservation groups agreed to take steps to double the world tiger population.
They identified 76 tiger conservation landscapes, including 29 crucial ones, which would need monitoring at least every two years.
But the question was how this monitoring would take place. Certainly, there have been efforts to comply, but it has been something of a piecemeal approach, with no study considering the entirety of the tiger landscapes at one time – until now.
"The best way to do this, to cover these huge areas, is by remote sensing – satellite data," Dr. Joshi tells the Monitor. "Bear in mind, most of these countries are developing, with limited resources."
But with the explosion of computer power, cloud storage and mobile technology in recent years, undertaking such complex analysis is no longer only within the purview of a privileged minority.

The researchers determined to both take advantage of this for their own work, and lay the groundwork for popular participation going forward.
They used a resource that combines freely available information from NASA satellites and the processing power of Google Earth to provide constantly updated analysis of the world’s forests: Global Forest Watch.
"From our perspective, it is remarkable and unexpected that only 7.7 percent of the [tiger] range was lost to conversion over the study period," write Joshi et al.
Predicted habitat loss had been much higher for two main reasons: First, the 13 countries involved are some of the "fastest-growing economies in the world"; second, many of the 29 highest-priority Tiger Conservation Landscapes are surrounded by areas "supporting the highest rural population densities on Earth."
"This shows that the efforts of the governments and the park authorities are real," says Joshi. "If they weren’t, there would have been much more loss. But while this is undoubtedly good news, we did still lose areas, so we need to keep working."
Global Forest Watch will form part of that drive, helping to make the process of monitoring as transparent as possible. Already, it has added a tiger layer to its interactive mapping, allowing anyone with Internet access to monitor the state of the tiger conservation landscapes.
Users can sign up for alerts about a given region, which will inform them of any significant change in forest cover. And, going forward, Joshi and his colleagues hope that such systems will become even more interactive, allowing people on the ground to submit updates as well, supplementing the satellite data.
And yet forest cover (habitat) represents just one of the factors affecting tiger populations, which currently total a mere 3,500 wild individuals, the others being prey abundance and the threat of poaching.
But even in the face of poaching – the biggest threat to tigers, according to Joshi – there is hope. The professor mentions an anti-poaching community group in Nepal, by way of example, which voluntarily reports poaching activities to the authorities.
"If there’s commitment, it can be done," says Joshi. "The targets can be reached."


RE: Bigcats News - Pckts - 04-08-2016

Tigress found dead in Uma river, buffer of Tadoba today morning

*This image is copyright of its original author


*This image is copyright of its original author




RE: Bigcats News - Pckts - 04-08-2016

Tigers declared extinct in Cambodia
Conservationists say Indochine tigers are ‘functionally extinct’ as they launch action plan for reintroduction

         
*This image is copyright of its original author

Chhith Sam Ath, Cambodian director of WWF, unveils the plan to reintroduce tigers into the dry forests of the country, where they have become virtually extinct due to poaching. Photograph: Heng Sinith/AP
AFP
Wednesday 6 April 2016 05.38 EDT Last modified on Wednesday 6 April 2016 13.59 EDT

Tigers are “functionally extinct” in Cambodia, conservationists conceded for the first time on Wednesday, as they launched a bold action plan to reintroduce the big cats to the kingdom’s forests.
Cambodia’s dry forests used to be home to scores of Indochinese tigers but the WWF said intensive poaching of both tigers and their prey had devastated the numbers of the big cats.
The last tiger was seen on camera trap in the eastern Mondulkiri province in 2007, it said.
“Today, there are no longer any breeding populations of tigers left in Cambodia, and they are therefore considered functionally extinct,” the conservation group said in a statement.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Forests still large enough to double the world's tiger population, study finds

Read more
In an effort to revive the population, the Cambodian government last month approved a plan to reintroduce the creatures into the Mondulkiri protected forest in the far of east the country.
The plan will see a chunk of suitable habitat carved out and protected against poachers by strong law enforcement, officials said, and action to protect the tigers’ prey.
“We want two male tigers and five to six females tigers for the start,” Keo Omaliss, director of the department of wildlife and biodiversity at the Forestry Administration, told reporters. “This is a huge task.”
The government needs $20 to $50m for the project, he said, adding talks had begun with countries including India, Thailand and Malaysia providing a small number of wild tigers to be introduced.
Conservation groups applauded the plan.

“It’s [the tiger] been hunted to extinction because of weak law enforcement and the government is now reacting,” said Suwanna Gauntlett, of the Wildlife Alliance.
Deforestation and poaching have devastated tiger numbers across Asia, with recent estimates from the International Union for Conservation of Nature putting the global population at just 2,154.
Countries with tiger populations - Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam - in 2010 launched a plan to double their numbers by 2022.
Officials from the 13 countries are set to meet from 12-14 April in Delhi to discuss the goals.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/06/tigers-declared-extinct-in-cambodia?CMP=share_btn_fb


RE: Bigcats News - Pckts - 04-08-2016

Nat Geo Big Cats Grantee, Paola Bouley is on call as a first responder for lions in Gorongosa National Park, where one in three lions there is either killed or maimed in poachers' snares. Bouley and her team aim to bring about a robust recovery of the lion population. ‪#‎BigCats‬
https://www.facebook.com/causeanuproar/videos/1095188867170489/


RE: Bigcats News - Roflcopters - 04-09-2016

(04-08-2016, 09:46 PM)Pckts Wrote: Tigers declared extinct in Cambodia
Conservationists say Indochine tigers are ‘functionally extinct’ as they launch action plan for reintroduction

         
*This image is copyright of its original author

Chhith Sam Ath, Cambodian director of WWF, unveils the plan to reintroduce tigers into the dry forests of the country, where they have become virtually extinct due to poaching. Photograph: Heng Sinith/AP
AFP
Wednesday 6 April 2016 05.38 EDT Last modified on Wednesday 6 April 2016 13.59 EDT

Tigers are “functionally extinct” in Cambodia, conservationists conceded for the first time on Wednesday, as they launched a bold action plan to reintroduce the big cats to the kingdom’s forests.
Cambodia’s dry forests used to be home to scores of Indochinese tigers but the WWF said intensive poaching of both tigers and their prey had devastated the numbers of the big cats.
The last tiger was seen on camera trap in the eastern Mondulkiri province in 2007, it said.
“Today, there are no longer any breeding populations of tigers left in Cambodia, and they are therefore considered functionally extinct,” the conservation group said in a statement.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Forests still large enough to double the world's tiger population, study finds

Read more
In an effort to revive the population, the Cambodian government last month approved a plan to reintroduce the creatures into the Mondulkiri protected forest in the far of east the country.
The plan will see a chunk of suitable habitat carved out and protected against poachers by strong law enforcement, officials said, and action to protect the tigers’ prey.
“We want two male tigers and five to six females tigers for the start,” Keo Omaliss, director of the department of wildlife and biodiversity at the Forestry Administration, told reporters. “This is a huge task.”
The government needs $20 to $50m for the project, he said, adding talks had begun with countries including India, Thailand and Malaysia providing a small number of wild tigers to be introduced.
Conservation groups applauded the plan.

“It’s [the tiger] been hunted to extinction because of weak law enforcement and the government is now reacting,” said Suwanna Gauntlett, of the Wildlife Alliance.
Deforestation and poaching have devastated tiger numbers across Asia, with recent estimates from the International Union for Conservation of Nature putting the global population at just 2,154.
Countries with tiger populations - Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam - in 2010 launched a plan to double their numbers by 2022.
Officials from the 13 countries are set to meet from 12-14 April in Delhi to discuss the goals.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/06/tigers-declared-extinct-in-cambodia?CMP=share_btn_fb

Sounds like another cash grab to me and they are in no position to be making all these demands *two males and 5-6 females* for reintroduction?

The past record of these forests isnt too bright either and lack of protection would only result in a major failure and those on the front of the operation would still get the $$$.


RE: Bigcats News - Pckts - 04-09-2016

Probably right, but at least having th conversation is better than no plan at all.  I'm trying to see the positive in it.


RE: Bigcats News - sanjay - 04-09-2016

One more tiger found dead, Reported by Ranveer Singh Gautam,
Still the death reason is unknown. Below is some images

Tigress which lost life near sindewahi range of Tadoba

*This image is copyright of its original author



*This image is copyright of its original author



RE: Bigcats News - Polar - 04-11-2016

This 'unknown reasons' excuse is lately in use excessively, especially with the government branch that is used in aiding and securing these animals' senses of security. It's like if these events were planned. Just a thought.

That tigress carcass looks partially inflated and decomposed by the water. Any info on how long that tigress was dead?


RE: Bigcats News - strana - 04-11-2016

Another bad news : according to Economic Times, Madhya Pradesh have lost its 17th in a year, and this time the famous "Blue eyed " from Bandhavgarh.
Forest officials are silent over the matter but it looks like the tiger died due to drug overdose while being tranquilised by the park management.
Absolutely incredible...what a year  !!!!


RE: Bigcats News - Pckts - 04-11-2016

The Tadoba tigress died from a territorial fight.