Bigcats News

[peter]

Interesting information. Many thanks Vijay Rahan.

Some time ago, a questionnary used by researchers in India was posted. I read it. There's no question that sedated tigers are measured and weighed. Same for tigers killed in conflicts. In spite of that, we only very seldom hear anything about measurements and weights. Is there a way to get the information we would want to see? Reply

[Pckts]

*This image is copyright of its original author

Reply

[Vijay Rajan]

(04-27-2016, 11:38 AM)Apollo Wrote: @Vijay Rajan


Thanks for the info on Bamera and Blue eye.
Is there is any weight and measurement details taken on Bamera and Blue eye when they were captured.

Any info on Tarun aka Bheema from Magdhi zone, didnt see or heard about him for sometime now.

Thanks

Apollo,

I'll try my best to obtain details of Bamera & Blue Eye's weights but wouldn't be optimistic since the BTR FD never disclose such info (for reasons best known to them).

Kindly note, Bheem is predominantly from Khitauli zone & not Magdhi. He remains the undisputed King of Khitauli zone & is being sighted almost every alternate day, a majority of those sightings occurring in Nigaah Nala, Kokdar, Darraha & Van Talai. Reply

[Vijay Rajan]

(04-27-2016, 08:01 PM)peter Wrote: Interesting information. Many thanks Vijay Rahan.

Some time ago, a questionnary used by researchers in India was posted. I read it. There's no question that sedated tigers are measured and weighed. Same for tigers killed in conflicts. In spite of that, we only very seldom hear anything about measurements and weights. Is there a way to get the information we would want to see?

Dear Peter,

Sadly, obtaining info on measurements & weights from Forest Departments of most parks seems next to impossible these days. If it's the result of a new diktat issued by the new Minister of Environment & Forests / NTCA or not, is a conundrum. Reply

[Pckts]

Uttar Pradesh set to get its fourth tiger reserve

• Pawan Dixit, Hindustan Times, Lucknow
  | 
• Updated: Apr 27, 2016 15:35 IST
  

*This image is copyright of its original author

If all goes well, the famous Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary will soon add to Uttar Pradesh’s three existing tiger reserves -- Dudhwa, Amangarh and Pilibhit. (HT file photo) 

The central and Uttar Pradesh governments have initiated steps to give the state its fourth tiger reserve.
If all goes well, the famous Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary will soon add to Uttar Pradesh’s three existing tiger reserves -- Dudhwa, Amangarh and Pilibhit.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a statutory body under the union ministry of environment and forests, had some time back proposed the new tiger reserve and sought a status report from the Uttar Pradesh government about the Suhelwa sanctuary.
Now, the UP government is planning to take forward the NTCA’s proposal to convert the Suhelwa sanctuary into a tiger reserve.
“Considering the centre’s advisory to convert Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary into a tiger reserve, the Uttar Pradesh government has now decided to take the proposal forward,” a senior official of the UP forest department said.
“After Suhelwa, Ranipur Wildlife Sanctuary in Banda will be the next one to be converted into a tiger reserve,” added the official. The Ranipur Wildlife Sanctuary is spread over 230 sq km and has rich flora and fauna.
The centre’s move to convert the Suhelwa sanctuary into a tiger reserve is part of its larger plan to convert all tiger habitats in the country into tiger reserves to conserve big cats. Spread over an area of 452 sq km, the Suhelwa sanctuary covers Balrampur, Shravasti and Gonda districts and also touches Mahadevpuri forest in Nepal.
Out of about 2,226 tigers in India, about 118 are found in Uttar Pradesh. Around 70% of the tiger population of the world is found in India.
It was after concerted efforts of the UP government that Pilibhit Wildlife Sanctuary was notified as a tiger reserve on June 9, 2014. After Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, which was notified in 1987, Pilibhit has the largest number of big cats in Uttar Pradesh. The Amangarh Tiger Reserve in Bijnor, which touches Uttarakhand, was notified as a tiger reserve in 2012.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/lucknow/ut...iDNkI.html Reply

[Pckts]

*This image is copyright of its original author

What does this mean?
Do you think this is truly because of an increase in poaching, poisoning and irresponsibility or do you think its because the means of monitoring these cats is improving and we now finally are able to see just how many tigers we are killing with more accuracy than ever before?
Or a little bit of both, let me know what you guys think. Reply

[Sully]

@Pckts poaching is increasing, it can't be that stark a rise just due to better monitoring, it may pay a small part but this is happening in parks as famous as corbett! A huge tourist attraction Reply

[Apollo]

(04-28-2016, 07:42 PM)Vijay Rajan Wrote:

(04-27-2016, 11:38 AM)Apollo Wrote: @Vijay Rajan


Thanks for the info on Bamera and Blue eye.
Is there is any weight and measurement details taken on Bamera and Blue eye when they were captured.

Any info on Tarun aka Bheema from Magdhi zone, didnt see or heard about him for sometime now.

Thanks

Apollo,

I'll try my best to obtain details of Bamera & Blue Eye's weights but wouldn't be optimistic since the BTR FD never disclose such info (for reasons best known to them).

Kindly note, Bheem is predominantly from Khitauli zone & not Magdhi. He remains the undisputed King of Khitauli zone & is being sighted almost every alternate day, a majority of those sightings occurring in Nigaah Nala, Kokdar, Darraha & Van Talai.

Thanks Vijay much appreciated. Reply

[strana]

(04-29-2016, 11:40 PM)Pckts Wrote:

*This image is copyright of its original author

What does this mean?
Do you think this is truly because of an increase in poaching, poisoning  and irresponsibility or do you think its because the means of monitoring these cats is improving and we now finally are able to see just how many tigers we are killing with more accuracy than ever before?
Or a little bit of both, let me know what you guys think.

In my opinion it is a bit of both.
 A few days ago, Indian Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said that tigers population in India is nearly 2500, an increment of about 250 since last census in 2014. I really hope this is a correct number.
I have read  quite recently, I do not know exactly where, that about 150 tigers cubs are supposed to born each year in Central India ( basically Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra  ) . If so, I believe that at least 450-500  are born overall. Considering that about 50% of cubs die, there are about  225-250 new  adult tigers each year. So, if 100-120 tigers are lost in a year by poaching or natural death, we would still have an increase of about 100 tigers a year, a similar number  of Javadekar estimation. Oficially, 69 adult tigers have died last year, but of course there are cases that were not registred.
It is also important  to note that with more tigers, more tigers cubs are borned but it is also easier to a poacher find a tiger. If protection is not improved, poaching  also tends to increase.
Despite all those bad news in 2016 , we had some good ones too. The budget for Tiger Project was increased in 80 % ( march 2016-march 2017) and it looks like there are a good number of cubs in some reserves. In Nagarahole, for example, 12 ( !! ) new cubs were born in a single month ( january ) . Reply

[Roflcopters]

looks like WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and GTF (Global Tiger Forum) tiger population increase reports are misleading the people according to 4 tiger biologists and they issued a joint statement of concern regarding the recent press release of a global population Increase. which in my opinion is also far fetched from ground reality. yes i can agree, some tiger reserves in Central India, South India and Northern India has done great and some not so well (unfortunately the alarming number of tiger deaths so far this year has ruined everything), 28 tigers dead in just four months in India alone. here's a few important quotes from some of the top tiger experts/biologists and wildlife authorities.


Dr. Ullas Karanth, India's top tiger expert and the director of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) :

Quote:Last year, India’s foremost tiger biologist and Asia director of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Ullas Karanth, contested the mathematical models used to estimate his country’s tiger population, casting doubt on the 30-percent rise in numbers. India is the largest remaining stronghold of the wild tiger and is home to 520 of the 690 “new” tigers counted in last week’s report.

With considerable human effort, money, and political will, tigers are slowly recovering in large, well-protected landscapes with plenty of prey, particularly in reserves in central India, in the Himalayan foothills, and amid the mountains of the Western Ghats.



On Wednesday, newspapers across the world reported widely that the population of wild tigers had grown from 3,200 in 2010 to 3,800 in 2014 which has been steadily dwindling for 100 years.
Quoting a joint report from The World Wildlife Fund and The Global Tiger Forum the news came ahead of the three day International Union for Conservation of Nature Conference of 13 countries in New Delhi.
The WWF-GTF report should have brought much cheer to conservationists, however, world renowned conservation zoologist and leading tiger expert based in Bengaluru, Dr K Ullas Karanth, Director for Science-Asia for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), was quick to release a critical response to the WWF-GTF report.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Dr Ullas Karanth. Photo credit: Sandesh Kadur
Stating that these were his personal views and may not reflect that of the WCS, Dr Karanth said, “The various country-wide, regional, and landscape level tiger numbers reported in the WWF-GTF report are not based on any estimates from intensive rigorous camera trap/DNA studies of source populations. They are predominantly based on various kinds of counts of tiger spoor or in some cases simple guesswork.”
He also stated, that “Some tiger numbers cited in the GTF-WWF report have been generated by demonstrably flawed statistical extrapolations. Consequently these numbers are not reliable or useful metrics for assessing the fate of wild tigers, unlike the rigorous methods.”
We reached out to Dr Karanth to find out more.
Firstpost: So does this report call for celebration or is it a call too soon?
Dr Karanth: Neither, these numbers are all derived using poor methods or in some cases, guesswork.
Firstpost: India has the best numbers — 2,226 tigers. Cambodia on the other hand has zero tigers. What did we do better than the other countries?
Dr Karanth: India certainly has more tigers than any other country, for the past 50 years we have invested more money, man power, and political backing for tiger conservation and the results are showing.
Firstpost: Has the tiger population really grown or is it that our survey methods are better? For instance you have pioneered the radio telemetry and also the Camera trapping techniques. How have these newer methods vis-à-vis pug mark method changed in the tiger population census?
Dr Karanth: Tiger population in India has grown from the lows of 1960s, but the growth is uneven across the country.
His response to the report clarified this further: Tiger ‘source populations’ that produce ‘surpluses’ occupy just 90,000 sq km of the remaining 1.2 million square kilometers of tiger habitat in the world. About 90 per cent of all surviving tigers are confined to small 7 per cent area, broken up into 40-50 source populations. Tigers will certainly go extinct if we fail to protect these. Because of this these source populations should be monitored using the most rigorous methods that employ camera trap/DNA surveys at advanced statistical models.
The Pugmark method was abandoned in 2005 and camera traps are being used increasingly now, although not always using the best statistical design or analyses. These aspects need more attention.
Firstpost: You and the Centre for Wildlife Society (CWS) have done a lot of work in the Nagerhole National Park and in saving the Bengal tiger. How did this work help in conservation and preservation of tigers?
Dr Karanth: The WCS supported work in Nagarahole for over 30 years and has many components: development of new methods to monitor tigers and prey; gathering basic knowledge about their biology using these methods, supporting fair voluntary relocation of people who want to move out of the reserve and citizen science to develop local conservation leaders. All these have delivered gains, I think.
Firstpost: What can we look forward to gaining at the upcoming 3 day International Union for Conservation of Nature Conference of 13 countries at Delhi?
Dr Karanth: Such tiger summits have been held regularly for the past 10 years at great cost to the tax-payer… I do not think they have been very useful in practical terms.
Firstpost: Whither 2022 and what are the goals you hope to achieve by then?
Dr Karanth: I do not believe the goal of doubling tiger numbers by 2022 is realistic. I hope the country will infuse more rigorous science into its already substantial investments in tiger conservation.
‘Focus of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has been on doing such advanced monitoring of number of key source populations across tiger range. Rigorous, intensive, long term camera trap studies conducted by WCS in India, Thailand and Russia show that tiger population recovery from depressed levels is a slow process, even in these relatively better protected sites. None of the populations have been observed to ‘double’ in 10 years, even under best of protection.
If that is the case, simple back of the envelope calculations show that to double global tiger numbers from 3200 tigers in 2012 within ten years, would necessarily require increases of 27 per cent per year in ‘sink landscapes’.
This does not appear to be a realistic goal.
Firstpost: Predators are increasingly appearing in human habitats like the recent incidents of a leopard getting into school in Bangalore and a tiger that was killed in Nagaland. With increasing encroachment of forest land, how can we prevent these kinds of human-animal conflict for habitat and right to life?
Dr Karanth: Tigers are at high densities and producing surpluses in some well protected reserves, so such conflicts are inevitable on the edges and need to be managed scientifically so that local people living around the reserves do not turn hostile to them.

 
Dr John Goodrich - senior tiger program director for Phantera : 

Quote:Better camera trapping, and DNA analysis, in places like Bhutan did indeed find some new tigers, and expanded surveys in India now include tigers living outside reserves.
But counting cats in previously undocumented areas doesn’t mean they’re rebounding—it just means more complete data, notes John Goodrich, one of the statement’s authors who’s also the director of the tiger program atPanthera, an NGO dedicated to big cat conservation. Given the elusiveness of tigers and the rough, remote lands they inhabit, we’ll never know exactly how many there are, he says.
Each country uses different methods, and some are questionable. Russia’s researchers have counted Siberian tigers’ pugmarks—the same technique that led to India’s pre-2008 overestimates. Nepal’s data are three years old; Sumatra’s date from 2011. 



Tigers are not a single species, so the actual number of tigers must be divided among the five subspecies remaining in the wild. Assessed that way, their situation is even more precarious. Some 2,633 Bengal tigers live in Nepal, Bhutan, and India. The paltry remainder—1,257 tigers—is split among the other four subspecies: Siberian, Indochinese, Malay, and Sumatran. These tigers are almost extinct.

The greatest threat? “It’s poaching,” says Goodrich, adding that with the cats hunted out of 40 percent of their range in the past five years, nearly 400,00 square miles (1,000,000 square kilometers) of perfectly good habitat lies vacant—an area the size of Egypt.

Prerna Bindra - former member of India's National Board of Wildlife: 

Quote:What worries me is that [this report] gives a sense of complacency.” Tigers have gone virtually extinct in Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia since 2010, and some of India’s most important tiger landscapes are doomed by dams, mining, and other infrastructure, she says. “So what are we celebrating?”

At the turn of the 20th century some 100,000 tigers roamed throughout Asia. Today tigers are scattered across 7 percent of their former range, often in small “island” populations whose isolation puts them at risk of becoming inbred and imperils their long-term survival.

Belinda Wright - executive director of Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) :

Quote:Demand for tiger parts is skyrocketing. “India's tiger poaching and seizure figures for the first quarter of 2016 are the highest in the past 15 years,” 

PK Sen - former director of Project tiger :

Quote:Increasing tiger density (number of tigers in 100sq km) apart, 40 percent of 2,206 tigers in India are outside the most protected core area of tiger reserves, the HT reported.

The national park of Pench spreading across Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, for instance, has left its buffer zone (zone marked as tiger habitation) unpatrolled by forest guards as it has 600 villages and many roads traversing it; making it easy for poachers to infiltrate, hunt and smuggle.

The latest killings meant that "access to tigers is as easy as before," especially with many issues left unsorted.

Statement of Concern by Tiger Biologists - April/15/2016


On Sunday, April 10th, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Global Tiger Forum (GTF) issued a report stating that the world’s wild tiger population was on the rise, and on track for a doubling in a decade. We do not find this report[b]1 and its implications scientifically convincing.[/b]

1. Having devoted years of our lives to trying to understand and save wild tigers, we believe their conservation should be guided by the best possible science. Using flawed survey methodologies can lead to incorrect conclusions, an illusion of success, and slackening of conservation efforts, when in reality grave concern is called for.  Glossing over serious methodological flaws, or weak and incomplete data to generate feel-good ‘news’ is a disservice to conservation, because tigers now occupy only 7% of their historic range 2. A recent World Conservation Union (IUCN) assessment3 showed 40% habitat loss in the last decade, and a spike in poaching pressure in many regions. Cambodia, Vietnam, Lao PDR and China have virtually lost viable tiger populations in recent years. This is not a time for conservationists to take their eyes off the ball and pat each other on the back.

2. There is no doubt that wildlife managers in parts of India and even in specific reserves in South East Asia and Russia have made commendable conservation efforts, leading to recoveries in specific tiger populations. India has invested massively in recovering several tiger populations2 over the last four decades. This has been possible because of strong political, administrative and public support rarely matched anywhere else.

3. Such sporadic tiger recoveries should be monitored using statistically robust camera trap or DNA surveys. Rigorous scientific studies in India, Thailand and Russia4-6 demonstrate this can indeed be done. But these studies also indicate that tiger recovery rates are slow and not likely to attain levels necessary for the doubling of wild tiger numbers within a decade4-6.

4. Estimates of tiger numbers for large landscapes, regions and countries currently in vogue in the global media for a number of countries are largely derived from weak methodologies7-9. They are sometimes based on extrapolations from tiger spoor (tracks and droppings) surveys, or spoor surveys alone.  While spoor surveys can be useful for knowing where tigers occur, they are not useful for reliably counting their numbers. Translating spoor counts to tiger numbers poses several statistical problems that remain unresolved9, which can lead to fundamentally flawed claims of changes in tiger numbers7-9.

5. Source populations of tigers that occur at high densities and which are likely to produce ‘surplus’ animals that can disperse and expand populations now occupy less than 10% of the remaining 1.2 million square kilometers of tiger habitat2. Almost 70% of wild tigers survive within these source sites. They are recovering slowly, only in some reserves4-6 where protection has improved. Outside these source sites lie vast ‘sink landscapes’, which are continuing to lose tigers and habitat due to hunting as well as rural and developmental pressures.

6. With the above considerations in view, even taking these putative tiger numbers at face value, simple calculations show thatdoubling of the world’s tigers in ten years as hoped for in the report1 is not a realistic proposition. Assuming 70-90% of wild tigers are in source populations with slow growth4-6, such an anticipated doubling of global tiger numbers would demand an increase between 364-831% in these sink landscapes. We believe this to be an unlikely scenario.

7. Rather than engaging in these tiger number games that distract them from reality, conservationists must now focus on enhancing and expanding recovery and monitoring of source populations, while protecting their remaining habitat and their linkages, all the while being guided by the best of science.



K. Ullas Karanth, Ph.D

Director for Science Asia-Wildlife Conservation Society

[email protected]



Dale Miquelle, Ph.D. 
Director, Russia Program-Wildlife Conservation Society 
[email protected]

John Goodrich, Ph.D. 
Senior Director, Tiger Program-Panthera 
[email protected]
Arjun Gopalaswamy, Ph.D. 
Research Associate, Zoology, 
University of Oxford, UK[[email protected]]
[email protected][/email]


http://press.wcs.org/News-Releases/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/8872/Statement-of-Concern-by-Tiger-Biologists.aspx Reply

[Pckts]

A-mark tigress has died.
She was reported to be found with deep injuries to her spine and left side.
She was the mother to the infamous Jai.

Sad news indeed Reply

[Apollo]

(05-07-2016, 06:15 PM)Pckts Wrote: A-mark tigress has died.
She was reported to be found with deep injuries to her spine and left side.
She was the mother to the infamous Jai.

Sad news indeed

OMG

Thats very sad news.
Did she got into a fight and who injured her ?
Do u have more info on her death ?


RIP A mark tigress. Reply

[Pckts]

Unfortunately I do not and I'm on my phone at the moment so I cannot post the person who reported it. I'll look more into it and see what I can find.

Edit: they said they aren't sure as to the cause of death but they'll have a post mortem test tomorrow and release the conclusion then. Reply

[shaileshsharadnaik]

(05-07-2016, 06:15 PM)Pckts Wrote: PcktsA-mark tigress has died.
She was reported to be found with deep injuries to her spine and left side.
She was the mother to the infamous Jai.

Sad news indeed

Friends,yes. Its indeed another horrible news. Today Indian express and Loksatta newspaper says " Mother of Nagzira aka Mai ( mother) aka A mark tigress was found by tourist and forest guards on the bank of a lake in critical condition on death bed and died soon after. It seems she had a deep wound on her hind side inflicted by Indian Gaur. She was 16 years old and had 5 litters , last one was 2011- Jai and viru. After her death; nagzira reserve has hardly any tigers left. Dendu; her mate and father of Jai-Viru had disappeared last year. RIP Mother of Nagizra.This year has been horrible for tigers in India. feeling very sad. Reply

[Pckts]

Article on Radio Collaring by Dr. Habib
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/...760507.cms

Good read Reply