Thursday, April 22, 2010

Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae)

Borneo and Sumatra is not that far, so i will talk about Mr. Sumatran Tiger next. What info did i get? Let us read together and i am pretty sure we will know better about Mr. Sumatran Tiger.
  • IUCN status: Critically Endangered; CITES: Appendix 1 (international commercial trading is prohibited)
  • In Indonesia, the Sumatran tiger is protected by Act No. 5 of 1990 on Conservation of Natural Resources and Ecosystems. 
  • The Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) numbering fewer than 400 individuals in the wild, is found exclusively on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. 
  • Is the smallest of all six subspecies, with length of about 2.5m and weight up to 140 kg. 
  • The Sumatran tiger has the darkest coat ranging from reddish-yellow to deep orange with black stripes.
  • Tiger stripes act as camouflage in the tall weeds and grasses.
  • Without natural predators in the wild, human is the foremost threat to tiger existence. Poaching nad habitat fragmentation in Sumatra threatens the endemic Sumatran tiger in its last frontier.
  • Human-tiger conflict adds to the problem. As the habitat becomes more fragmented, tiger is forced to go near to human settlement and cause casualities in human and tiger sides alike. 
  • Tiger is an umbrella species. The species identified as umbrella species typically have large home range covering multiple habitat types therefore protecting this species indirectly protects the many other species that make up the ecological community of its habitats. 
Okay, this info also i extracted from WWF. This endemic species is critically endangered and its most threats are HUMAN. It will be difficult to find solutions when there is human-tiger conflict occurs. However, experts may have the solutions to make sure win-win situation may apply. Who knows right? More behavioral studies done to get more information about them. Just random ideas from me.

Photo credit to Dave Watts at birdlife.org.

1 comment:

Rick (Ratty) said...

It's very difficult to get humans to not kill tigers, because humans are afraid of them. When humans are afraid, they want to take away the fear. Sometimes the easiest way is to kill the source of the fear. We all need to use our brains and find a better way.