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Bigcats News
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 (06-12-2018, 12:00 PM)Rage2277 Wrote: https://www.insideedition.com/zanzibar-l...inct-43962 It's the biggest news of this year yet! Don't just share a measly link!... The Zanzibar leopard was officially declared extinct 25 years ago, but the classification has been called into question after a wildlife biologist caught the elusive predator on camera. “To find rare animals is difficult. To find extinct animals is frankly impossible,” biologist and tracker Forrest Galante told InsideEdition.com. “I absolutely lost my mind at the fact that we had accomplished the impossible, and we had found an extinct animal, something the world had written up as gone forever." A Zanzibar leopard was briefly spotted walking into the frame of a hidden camera for Galante’s new show, "Extinct or Alive," before disappearing back into the trees. “I couldn’t believe what I was looking at,” he said. “Everything I’ve worked on for years and years came into fruition in one second.” Galante explained the breakthrough moment came as they were reviewing footage after about two weeks into filming on the island, located off the eastern coast of Africa. They were moments from erasing the footage, believing there had been nothing on the tape, when suddenly, what he believed was the Zanzibar leopard came into view. “I just erupted — I just started screaming," he said. "I went back to being a college athlete. I couldn’t control myself. I’m not someone who drinks a lot or has ever done drugs, but I blacked out." The show’s camera crew captured his many emotions in those few minutes following the discovery: Silent with disbelief, sobbing with surprise, and screaming in victory. "That’s what my show’s about," Galante said. "It’s about hope, and the hope the things we human beings have wiped off the face of the Earth may be hanging on by a thread." He explained that leading up to their expedition, Galante had a list of several extinct animals he believed they could find, based on whether the environmental conditions like habitat and prey were still present for the animal to survive. The Zanzibar leopard was at the bottom of the list, due to a rampant mythology that the Zanzibar leopard was evil. Local legend has it that the Zanzibar leopard worked in conjunction with the witch doctors. "[The island nation] is inundated with cultural beliefs of witchcraft," Galante said. "Leopards did an evil bidding by witch doctors so they were hunted to extinction. Anything bad that would happen, they would say the witch doctor sent the leopard to do their bidding." There is also a local rumor that when Zanzibar leopards were hunted to extinction, witch doctors brought African leopards from the mainland to continue to do their magic, and Galante said there was always the possibility if they spotted a leopard that it would be of a different species. “The truth is, I’m a scientist and science is the only thing that holds valid weight,” Galante explained. "I do not have genetic evidence that this is the Zanzibar leopard. What I have is a leopard on a trail camera." But, he explained that certain physical traits caused him to believe it would be a Zanzibar leopard. The predatory cat was smaller in posture, typical of the species since its prey are smaller, and moved lower to the ground than a bigger or more confident leopard species. Its markings, which appear more like a spot than a rosette, also pointed to the fact that he had the cat he was searching for. “I’m the last person on Earth giving those species a shot,” Galante said. "It is unfair to give up on those animals that other people may have written off, that we deem as gone or unimportant or extremely rare.” His team is continuing to work with local park rangers to test samples of DNA collected in the area, with hopes of confirming the Zanzibar leopard’s ongoing existence. And a little bonus... (Save it offline in your device before it's taken down) 
Apparently every lion in the Gir is to be radio collared.
I personally think that is a horrible idea.   
Only Two Wild Jaguars Were Left In U.S. — One Just Turned Up Dead
A photograph has just surfaced that suggests Yo'oko, one of the last remaining wild jaguars in the U.S., has been killed. The photograph, which was released to the public by the Northern Jaguar Project, shows a jaguar pelt with extremely similar markings to the pattern of Yo'oko's fur.  *This image is copyright of its original author RELATED: Baby Jaguar Was Hiding The Saddest Secret In Her Body  *This image is copyright of its original author Jaguar pelt believed to be Yo'oko's |Northern Jaguar Project/photographer unknown
Yo'oko, who was named by students at Hiaki High School in Tucson, Arizona, last year, was photographed by trail cameras several times in the last couple of years. Wildlife experts compared the photographs of Yo'oko with the photograph of the pelt, which was taken in Mexico; the fur pattern appeared identical. “This tragedy is piercing,” Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), said in a press release provided to The Dodo. “It highlights the urgency to protect jaguar habitat on both sides of the border and ensure that these rare, beautiful cats have safe places to live ... The thought of having to explain to those kids at Hiaki High School that somebody killed their favorite jaguar really just breaks my heart.”  *This image is copyright of its original author An image of Yo'oko in the Huachuca Mountains of Arizona in late 2016 |University of Arizona/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
While jaguars once lived all through the southwest U.S., habitat destruction and hunting (to make room for cattle ranching) nearly wiped them out entirely. Over the past 20 years, just seven jaguars have been seen in the U.S. It's believed that Yo'oko was just one of two living in the U.S. today. “We must continue working to overcome the cultural prejudice that jaguars are somehow enemies of people,” Serraglio said. “Indigenous people of the Americas have revered jaguars as majestic, powerful spirits of the wild for thousands of years. Whoever killed Yo’oko could learn a lot from them.” https://www.thedodo.com/in-the-wild/belo...orted-dead 
Tiger in trouble, Chandrapur, INDIA
A tiger has killed five people in five months in a tiny 2 km area at Sindewahi range of Chandrapur. Forest officials have secured the area and are working out a plan of action. The tiger in question has been 100% identified via wild life cameras. One of the biggest problems the tigers face in India is human overpopulation which causes habitat loss, prey species loss, which then forces the tigers to survive on what they can. A tragedy for all who have lost their lives, but hoping that the authorities are able to come to a humane solution. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/...t-5224415/ (06-25-2018, 04:40 AM)SuSpiciouS Wrote: @Pantherinae @Roflcopters @Pckts This is so cool! Would love to hear more about you’re travles and how you would rank tigers in size! 
A roaring love story from Satkosia: Tiger finds new love
Post News Network Updated: June 27th, 2018, 15:34 IST  *This image is copyright of its original author Angul: The Royal Bengal tiger from Madhya Pradesh-based Kanha National Park, rehabilitated to the Satkosia Wildlife Sanctuary recently for the special purpose of procreation, has been quick to find a new love. The tiger would soon serve the call of the Wildlife department in augmenting the big cat population. After the tiger’s arrival, the mood was dull to start with. The new guest felt himself an odd-man-out in the strange milieu of Satkosia. For two to three days, he was anger personified, refused to touch food and led a solitary life in the enclosure. During the Royal Bengal tiger’s transportation from Madhya Pradesh, in acts of resentment, he had urinated and defecated on the straws that he was provided with for his comfort at a corner of the mobile cage. After getting acclimatized with the new home, he had his first prey in the shape of a 60kg boar. Having got used to the new atmosphere, the tiger has begun having some fun. The staff who attend to him have noticed romance in the air. They say a tigress of Satkosia has started taking a liking to the new arrival, and looks set to having some intimate moments with her new-found love in the sanctuary. Just as the lovelorn tigress had sensed, she got seduced at first sight by the Royal Bengal tiger. Love-struck, she is regularly seen roaming and loitering around the outer parts of the tiger’s enclosure. The hero is seen energised at being wooed by the heroine’s erotic gestures and biological urges. Enthused sanctuary officials of Satkosia are still in a ‘wait and watch’ mood, though. The green signal from the National Tiger Conservation Authority is awaited for freeing the new guest from his enclosure, to enable him reach out to his new-found love. Time for procreation, clearly, is near at hand.
06-28-2018, 08:21 PM
( This post was last modified: 06-30-2018, 09:30 AM by Rishi
Edit Reason: corrected the formating
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Satkosia gets second tiger from Bandhavgarh
Thursday, 28 June 2018 A week after a three-year-old Bengal tiger called MB-2 was relocated from Madhya Pradesh’s Kanha National Park to the Satkosia Tiger Reserve in Odisha, another tigress from Madhya Pradesh has been sent to give it company.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author The 27-month-old tigress, called Sundri (T-412), was packed off from the Bandhavgarh tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh’s Umaria district in a special vehicle along with around 30 officials on Wednesday evening. She reach the Satkosia tiger reserve a few hours ago. Mridul Pathak, field director of the Bandhavgarh tiger reserve, said Sundri was one of the three cubs delivered by a full-grown tigress called Spotty (T-40). “It was tranquilised by our officials before being put in a special cage. WII experts are also accompanying the tigress,” said Pathak. Bandhavgarh-based wildlife photographer Ravi Pathak said Sundri – weighing 135 kg – was the most camera-friendly feline of its kind in the whole of Bandhavgarh. “Unlike others, Sundri was every photographer’s delight. She would even climb up small trees,” he added. This is the second big cat of six planned tigers brought to Satkosia Tiger Reserve as part of inter-state Tiger Relocation exercise to increase tiger population. Meanwhile MB-2, the first male tiger MB-2 successfully relocated from Kanha to Satkosia on June 21, has already been released for acclimatisation procedures in a specially designed enclosure with CCTV surveillance. WII scientists, who are keeping a close watch on its activities through a radio collar, said it preyed on a 60-kg wild boar after reaching the reserve. The male has shown all positive signs to adjust with the environment after tiger translocation, official said, & his health condition is stated to be normal. Odisha chief wildlife warden Sandip Tripathy said four more tigers would be transferred from forest reserves in Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Panna after October. All the tigers identified for relocation are below 3 years of age.
I'm trying to get measurements on her as we speak, he's driving right now but hopefully I can get them soon.
It would be interesting to find out the weights of all the cubs (all less than 3 years), Satkosia will be revived back to its glory days with the help from Bandhavgarh, Panna and Kanha. this will be a perfect blend of genes, very excited for this. Tfs
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