Family sighting brings hope for Thailand’s tigers
Thailand is home to fewer than 200 wild tigers. But recent camera trap footage has given us hope that the population might be increasing.
Recorded in one of western Thailand’s national parks, the video shows a tigress walking through the forest accompanied by her three cubs, who cautiously follow her.
”I’ve seen many camera trap videos of tigers, but this one really stands out – it’s beautiful,” says WWF-Thailand’s senior project manager Rungnapa Phoonjampa.
“With only 148-189 tigers in the whole of Thailand it’s rare to film tigers, and it’s even rarer to see a tigress with three well-developed cubs. While tiger populations are stable in the country they’re still worryingly low, making them vulnerable to poaching and prey depletion.”
Watch: Tigress with her cubs
Wild tiger numbers are increasing globally, but Thailand’s populations have been badly affected by a loss of habitat and prey.
WWF-Thailand is working with the country’s Department of National Parks to monitor tigers and their prey, increase and improve ranger patrols, and restore habitats and prey species.
Work is already under way to increase populations of prey such as Sambar deer, and camera traps have shown that banteng (an endangered type of wild cattle and tiger prey) have returned to Mae Wong National Park after disappearing from this area in the 1970s.
Another camera trap has captured footage of a female tiger that’s moved from a high-density tiger population to a low-density area, raising hopes of boosting numbers in her new home.
”Many people are giving their time and effort to protect Thailand’s tigers, such as the dedicated ranger teams and conservationists,“ says Rungnapa. ”It’s so rewarding to see this kind of video – it motivates us to keep going.“
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