The Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae)

[phatio]

@GuateGojira  maybe you should try to contact herself directly to find out another measurement she gathered from her experiences. i've tried before but so far no luck for me, maybe she just too busy in the field. she is one of the few who were 'lucky' enough to interact directly with the elusive and enigmatic wild sumatran tigers.
some of her interesting experiences that i can remember are:

- at the beginning of her carier, she has to tranquilizing snared tigers directly with her hand, a very dangerous moment, she recall.

- another time she has to rescued another tiger trapped in a snare, but before she manage to tranquilizing it, the tiger made it to unbind the trap. fortunately it's leg was still entangled by barbed wire so it walked around and stayed in the bushes. still it's a very risky situation.

-once she and her team has to race against a group of poacher. after two day jungle trek to find the animal, luckily, her team arrived first. due to difficult terrain, they had to treated the tiger for 10 days in the jungle where the team constructed a cage from branches and wired they found scattered around the location.

-she and her team once followed by a curious young tiger 'Aliman' from the forest up until the village they stayed. (read my previous post in this thread)

-she often tells a story from Seluma where a pair of tiger attacked villagers because one of them had killed their cub. some of the villagers escaped but they have been unwilling to return again. the most interesting part to me is...  how can those tigers able to 'tell a story' to each other. i mean, a pair of tiger, must be the cub's parent right? lets say the mother knew exactly what happened, but how could she told her mate, and then ask him to attack the specific location?
this reminds me of another remarkable story (from Aceh 2013) where a group of wood gatherer accidentally killed a tiger's cub and then as a retaliation a group of tigers killed one of the them and leaves the other five struck on tree for five days. according to the witness from local news, they were surrounded by at least 6 to 7 sumatran tigers!
again, the question is, how can a solitary animal spreading the news to one another, then decided to make "coalition" and forget about their territorial behavior for a while just for a retaliation.

@peter, i think your idea to create thread about wild animals and human communication is really a great idea, for sure it's interesting for many.

back to the measurement topic, i think the data for wild sumatran tigers is out there, we will find out sooner or later. what worriying me the most is their future existence. luckily in captivity we have breeding program both in indonesia and foreign countries. and so far it looks promising. here are one of my favorite pair from Dudley Zoo, Daseep and Joao (Photos credit to vision-it-photography).

beautiful Daseep with her little mane

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Dasep, she's one photogenic cat

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Joao, staring at something

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Joao, the Mufasa tiger

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Joao guarding his mate

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i hope the indonesian goverment trully understand how magnificent and precious these tigers are, the last of sonda tiger

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