Oxford
This will mean that I will be leaving Thailand, but I hope this will provide me with better opportunities to help tigers in the wild.
My Tiger Work in the News
I'm not very active on DA these days, mostly due to work. I'm happy to share news coverage below of the tiger project I've been leading. It's a positive story, which is rare in tiger conservation. I hope this will generate more support for tigers that we can use to build upon these positive developments.
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New population of rare tigers found in eastern Thailand
www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39…
A new breeding population of the critically endangered Indochinese tiger has been found in a national park in eastern Thailand, conservationists say.
Camera traps discovered a small population with at least six cubs in the jungle.
Poaching and the loss of habitat has reduced the global population of the sub-species to under 250.
Conservationists said the success was due to the stepping-up of anti-poaching efforts in Thailand.
Counter-trafficking organisation Freeland and Panthera, the wild cat conservation group, conducted the survey with the support of the Thai park authorities.
Until this find, only one other breeding population of Indochinese tigers - also in a Thai national park - was known of.
The extraordinary rebound of eastern Thailand's tigers is nothing short of miraculous," said John Goodrich, tiger programme director at Panthera.
The director of Thailand's national parks, Songtam Suksawang, said: "The stepping up of anti-poaching patrols and law enforcement efforts in this area have played a pivotal role in conserving the tiger population by ensuring a safe environment for them to breed.
"However, we must remain vigilant and continue these efforts, because well-armed poachers still pose a major threat."
Numbers of tigers in the wild have dwindled from 100,000 a century ago to 3,900 today, the groups said in a joint statement.
Last stronghold: By Jonathan Head, BBC South-East Asia correspondent, Bangkok
Thailand was the first country in this region to deplete its forests, to such an extent that by the 1980s it had banned logging. It was also among the first to establish national parks, but initially these were also badly stressed by illegal logging and hunting.
At the time, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and even Vietnam had a lot of pristine forests left, with healthy populations of tigers. Tigers had declined in Thailand to the point where in the early 2000s it was thought they were very small and fragmented.
But since then, massive illegal exploitation has badly depleted the forests and tiger populations in the other countries - even Myanmar - to the point where Indochinese tigers are believed to be extinct in Cambodia, down to just a handful in Laos and Vietnam and with unknown, but almost certainly greatly reduced numbers in eastern Myanmar.
Meanwhile, improved conservation strategies have allowed the tiny population of Indochinese tigers in Thailand to recover in some areas, although they have disappeared in others. So, with its reasonably well-run national parks, Thailand finds itself unexpectedly the last stronghold of the Indochinese tiger.
Thankful / Twitter
Thank you to those watching me. I really appreciate your kind words and comments.
I have not been active here in quite some time. One major reason for this is that I lost my camera and haven't been able to afford a new one. I am also living in Thailand (and have been for five years) so my access to my previous zoo friends is not as easy. That being said, I've been very hard at work for tigers here in Thailand. We have had great results recently and I am looking forward to sharing them with you sometime in the near future.
BTW - If any of you wish to follow me on Twitter you can follow me at @WalksWithTigers.
Blood of the Tiger
Please check it out at this www.amazon.com/Blood-Tiger-Con… with a description below:
"Blood of the Tiger takes readers on a wild ride to save one of the world’s rarest animals from a band of Chinese billionaires.
Many people think wild tigers are on the road to recovery, but they are in greater danger than ever—from a menace few experts saw coming.
There may be only three thousand wild tigers left in the entire world. More shocking is the fact that twice that many—some six thousand—have been bred on farms, not for traditional medicine but to supply a luxury-goods industry that secretly sells tiger-bone wine, tiger-skin décor, and exotic cuisine enjoyed by China’s elite.
Two decades ago, international wildlife investigator J. A. Mills went undercover to expose bear farming in China and discovered the plot to turn tigers into nothing more than livestock. Thus begins the story of a personal crusade in which Mills mobilizes international forces to awaken the world to a conspiracy so pervasive that it threatens every last tiger in the wild.
In this memoir of triumph, heartbreak, and geopolitical intrigue, Mills and a host of heroic comrades try to thwart a Chinese cadre’s plan to launch billion-dollar industries banking on the extinction of not just wild tigers but also elephants and rhinos. Her journey takes her across Asia, into the jungles of India and Nepal, to Russia and Africa, traveling by means from elephant back to presidential motorcade, in the company of man-eaters, movie stars, and world leaders. She finds reason for hope in the increasing number of Chinese who do not want the blood of the last wild tigers to stain their beloved culture and motherland.
Set against the backdrop of China’s ascendance to world dominance, Blood of the Tiger tells of a global fight to rein in the forces of greed on behalf of one of the world’s most treasured and endangered animals."
Twitter Just Got a Little More Tigery
To all you twitter users, give me a shoutout so I can see who you are!