Our Water Our Future - Severn Suzuki

2nd Year Blog Anniversary

Today is my 2nd Year Blog Anniversary. I was on a mission to make my 300th entry today but i can't make it happen. I didn't have enough time but i manage to make my 268th entry today and this is the 268th entry. I am quite happy about it even can't accomplish my mission.

Just a bit of reflections to make for this anniversary. I was started my blog two years ago with my very first entry PART 1: MY CHILDHOOD on 22nd April 2008. Only a little bit introduction about myself. Grow up in a small village somewhere in Dalat. (Ops..sorry, i thought this year is my third year blog anniversary but i was wrong. This blog is just reach the age of 2 today. Sorry for wrong info earlier).

The most entries i make was in month of July 2009 with 28 entries. Tried very hard to update my blog everyday so, i can complete 31 days or 30th days in a month. But never make it happen. Anyway, i am still happy that my blog is not that outdated. At least i make an entry every month. Even though only one entry or two in a month.

Hope i can still survive for another more years with this blog. Thanks for blogging friends especially Ratty and rainfiled61 for your never ending support. Both of you always give me encouraging comments that keep my passion to blog about nature. Our loves on nature brings us together and we share our interest with our blogs. Thanks so much guys.

Not to forget for other friends that support me too especially Bibab, Den and also all followers of my blog. For those who follow me on Networked Blog. I appreciated all of your comments and time visiting my blog.

Will blog more of nature for the coming year. Till then!!

Tiger Trivia

So many facts about tiger right. Let us have a break first. Here is Tiger Trivia also i extracted from WWF. Quite interesting info here.

• Latin name for tiger is Panthera tigris. The word "panthera" is argued from oriental word means "yellow-white" and "tigris" derived from Greek word which means arrow, as the species can move swiftly even through the dense forest.
• Tiger stripes are individually as unique as human finger prints. There are no identical tigers!
• I you shaved tiger fur, you'll still find stripes in its skin.
• Tiger saliva acts as antiseptic that helps clean its wound.
• Unlike Lion, adult wild tiger is solitary territorial animal, marking their territory by urine and scratch marks on tree trunks.
• A male tiger territory never overlaps with other male's territory, thus tiger needs large unfragmented home range for them to survive.
• A female tiger usually roam around her mother' range.
• Unlike domestic cat, tiger loves water and a great swimmer.
• Adult tiger can eat up to 40kg of food at a time. After a big meal, it may not eat again for 1 or 2 weeks. 
• Tiger is a highly adaptable hunter, their habitat varies from taiga in Russia, grassland in India, to tropical mangrove swamp in Southeast Asia. 

For more info visit WWF website.

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.

Malayan Tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni)

For the next posts i will share about the six subspecies of tigers that still alive in this world. Since i am from Malaysia, then i will write about Malayan Tiger first.

• IUCN: Endangered, CITES: Appendix 1 (international commercial trading is prohibited)
• The Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni) was only identified as being a separate subspecies from the Indochinese in 2004. (*This subspecies is still new to the science).
• This new subspecies is named after the tiger conservationist Peter Jackson.
• It is estimated that 490 adult individuals exist in the wild.
• Malayan tiger lives in tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests of Southern Thailand and Malaysian Peninsula.
• People in Malaysia have special name for tiger, Pak Belang or Datuk Harimau.
• With round pupil and yellow iris, the night vision of tiger is six times better than normal human. Therefore tiger can easily walk in the density of tropical forest.
• These carnivorous mammals instinctively avoid human beings and will only attack people if they are provoked, injured or unable to hunt for their usual food. 
• Tiger has five times the pulling strength of human athlete. 
• Mating seasons happens throughout the year, although it has been suggested that tiger reproduction, in Peninsular Malaysia might have a seasonal peak around November to March.
• In Malaysia, the main tiger-prey species are wild boar, Sambar deer and medium-sized mammals such as Barking deer (muntjak). (*Opss... i maybe wrong about tiger eating small mammals. Hmm.. seems to be tigers only eat until the size of medium-sized mammals). 

All of these info was extracted from WWF. Thanks for this information and hope this will help more of us to know and understand better of Mr. Malayan Tiger.

Photo credit to The Animal Files.com.

Mr. Tiger & Me

Pity and shame on me. Why? Because, actually i didn't know much about tiger. Just to make a confessions here. Since i am living in Borneo, i am not really aware about status of tigers. I was working on small mammals before and i know one of small mammals predator is tiger. But i didn't search more information about tiger. It's habitat, distribution, population status etc. I am aware about WWF efforts on Tiger Conservation but i just don't bother about it so much. Why? Because we don't have Tigers. See, my mind set is so selfish. Okay, enough talking about how insensitive i am.

However, it was great that i browse through Dr. Bala blog and found out about Tiger BlogFest. Since i was committed to participate in this event then i have to find and know more about Mr. Tiger. Let me share what did i find out about them. As i Google through the net, i find these interesting facts about tiger. This article was from WWF but not sure which web site since this was the pdf file of Tiger Facts and Trivia.  Let me see what can i share here.

Based on this info, Tiger (Panthera tigris) divided into nine subspecies ranged widely across Asia, from Turkey in the west to the eastern coast of Russia and to Indonesia in the South. With three extinct subspecies, only six subspecies left in the world. the only proof of Caspian Tiger (Panthera tigris virgata) existence is preserved specimens in museums. Indonesia has lost both Bali tiger (Panthera tigris balica) and Java tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) in the last 50 years. last official records for both subspecies in the wild were in 1930s and 1970s, respectively.

Wow! This is really interesting findings for me since i am not really know Mr. Tiger before. It means that this is really serious. The efforts that has been made by NGOs and other agencies for tiger conservation is soooo important. Awareness of this status is really important. I hope by this post there will be more people aware of the status of tiger in the world. Three subspecies already extinct and the recent one is about 40 years ago. I am supporting Tiger Conservation efforts!!