There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
(09-22-2014, 10:56 AM)'GuateGojira' Wrote: Wrong again, for morphology we need to capture the tiger itself (this is obvious [img]images/smilies/dodgy.gif[/img]), and these captures are used also to get blood samples that can be used in further studies. In fact, in this form it was discovered in Russia that there was the menace of canine distemper in that population, and was avoided.
Trough radiocollar studies are the ONLY way that you can know the ecology of the tiger. Dr Karanth in his book “The Way of the Tiger” of 2003 clearly states that it is NOT possible to know the social relations and needs of the tigers with cameras only, it is simply IMPOSIBLE to know how those animals are related, are they of the same family, are they just transients, which is the dominant male??? All this answers can be answered only through direct studies in the population, and as Dr Chundawat states, radiocollaring in the BEST way.
Again, the news quoted here (which are also sensationalist and exaggerated) state that they are only TWO tigers. Together with the other two from Nepal, we can state that less than FIVE tigers have died from radiocollaring, in fact, a tiger is more safe during this process than in the wild, were mortality is way higher, maybe up to 30%.
Camera traps are good for conservation in the order that we know how many tigers are in a particular area, and I think this is your point. But is useless for other purposes, this is a FACT that you are denying right now. The BEST studies on tigers came from Nepal, Nagarahole and Russia, and guess what? ALL those studies used radiocollared tigers.
You are stuck with “Conservation”, but we need even more than just that, after all, Conservation is part of the "Tiger Science", but not ALL of it. It is IMPOSIBLE to leave the tigers “alone” just like that, we don’t know what ecological situations influence the tigers from the entire area of East India, for example, and Radiocollar studies are the best way to study them.
Quoting Dr Chundawat, most (if not all) modern studies are only of tiger density (camera traps) and prey selection (scats study). This is good in the sense that we can estimate how many tigers are in an area and what a tiger eat, but we don’t know what social situations drive the behavior of the tigers in those areas, or which preys are preferred by males and which are for females (scats can’t answer this).
Tiger conservation is useless if we only have pictures, like Dr Karanth said: they know how many tigers are in Nagarahole, but we don’t know the social relations, the family orders, how many of them are residents, transients or why some of them disappear. Although is possible to answer those questions inferring from the pictures (and with a LOOOOOOOT of time), it is necessary a deep knowledge of tiger behavior to understand why a tiger is there and what it needs. The Nepal Tiger Ecology Project is my best example, they studied tigers for about 10 years, radiocollared over 50 tigers (only TWO – c.4 % died) and now all modern tiger books base mostly of its ecology section in this project.
Finally, there is little stress for a captured tiger, IF the capture is done by an expert, those from Nepal even returned to the baits to eat, those in Nagarahole-Panna-Sariska expressed no problems after they captures.
Once again, morphology has nothing to do with collaring.
" canine distemper" is a disease that is easily noticeable without collaring, if cats are becoming sick, than you can tranq the sick cat and blood test it, still don't need a collar.
Tiger relations is easily seen by stripe pattern, you can tell witch tiger is which from their stripes, which of course is used now because of camera traps.
How can you say there is little stress from collaring?
This cats are "hunted and tranq'ed" then wake up with a foreign collar that they cannot remove around their necks, and in one case has killed the cat from the collar. As well as the discomfort it causes them and the stress they obviously go through from it.
Perfect example is T24 who has not forgiven the Forrest Department for doing that to him.
Sorry but there the stress far out weighs the benefits to these cats.
What is the goal, conserve big cats, correct?
How is that achieved
-Protect their Forrests
-Protect their prey
-Stop Poaching
Thats it.
Eyes on or hands on? A discussion of human interference
