Tiger Directory

[GuateGojira]

In fact, the article that you post here prove my point, radio-collaring tigers is relative safe and should be applied in order to understand tigers. At least this is the case in India. I will not touch the case of Russia, as they use completely different methods and drugs, and as far I know, there has been no incidents in the few specimens captured in Thailand and Sumatra.

Techniques like camera traps and scats analysis are unable to show the REAL ecology of tigers. There are only indirect methods, that although are HIGHLY valuable, they are unable to show us the ecology, behavior and interspecific relations of the species. Sadly, for that reason, the studies of Dr Karanth are not as deep as those of Dr Sunquist and Dr Smith in Nepal, for example. In fact, Dr Karanth don't captured more tigers because the government blame him for the death of five tigers, but at the end, NONE of them died from the captures, but from natural causes. Even more, the old male T-01 was already injured by another tiger in the neck, and although they tried to cure him, he died in a few months.

About this: "The World Health Organisation has reported that medical errors are one of the top causes of mortality in hospitals [59], but this does not cause us to stop medical interventions."

This proves very well that captures are relative safe and should NOT be stopped. Let's review the scientific captures:

1. Chitwan: 49 specimens captured (Smith et al. 1983) - Deaths: two specimens, one old female and Sauraha (an accident).
2. Nagarahole: 4 specimens captured (Karanth, 1993) - Zero deaths.
3. Panna: 7 specimens captured (Chundawat & Malik, 2010) - Zero deaths.
4. Kanha: 10 specimens captured (Vattakaven et al. 2010) - Zero deaths.
5. The Sundarbans: 9 specimens captured (Several authors) - One death, but indirectly, the female was in bad shape. In fact, ALL the captured specimens were in bad shape, sadly.
6. Ranthambore-Sariska: 5 specimens captured (Several authors) - Zero deaths.

From 84 radiocollared specimens, only three (3.6 %) died in the captures. This show how safe has been the capture of tigers in India and Nepal. Take in count that the number of tigers captured in Nepal is higher, as the document of Smith et al. (1983) don't take in count other specimens captured in the later years.

Now, take in count that these six regions were worked by scientists, true professionals in the field. About the captures made by the park rangers and other "second hand" people, I can't speak. These 6 are the studies that I know and those that I can speak. In this order, if new studies would be allowed, they MOST be supervised and carry on by true scientists of great reputation.

Conservation and prey density are good to keep tigers alive and the Camera traps are excellent for this, but to know, to REALLY know what is a tiger, we need to work with them directly. Check that what Valmik Thapar have done in Ranthambore for over 30 years of study, the Smithsonian Nepalese Tiger Project done it in 10 years, and with quantitative data, no less.

Finally, check what Dr Ragu Chundawat want to say on the issue:

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Hope this helps to prove my point. [img]images/smilies/smile.gif[/img]
  Reply