Sumatran tiger, RI's vanishing treasure<\/p>\n
By Maria Kegel<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The statistics are disturbing: there are only
\nbetween 400 and 600 Sumatran tigers left in the wild.<\/p>\n
And that was in 1992.<\/p>\n
With rampant poaching and a steep decline in the tigers'
\nhabitat, their numbers are sure to be lower now, experts contend.<\/p>\n
Research has pegged the responsibility for the Sumatran
\ntigers' endangered species status entirely on human activities,
\nand measures are being taken to save them from going the way of
\nthe extinct Balinese tiger.<\/p>\n
Ligaya Ita Tumbelaka from the Bogor Agricultural University
\n(IPB) aims to heighten people's awareness of the Sumatran tigers'
\nplight. She spoke on behalf of them and the conservation efforts
\nbeing made to save them at a lecture sponsored by the nonprofit
\ngroup Sahabat Satwa (Friends of the Zoo) at Ragunan Zoo on
\nSaturday morning.<\/p>\n
"A shrinking habitat because of rapid human population growth,
\nforests being cleared for agricultural purposes and illegal
\nhunting are the reasons for the sharp decline in tiger numbers,"
\nshe said.<\/p>\n
The Sumatran tiger could be Indonesia's last living species of
\ntiger. The Balinese tiger became extinct by the turn of the
\ncentury and the Javan tiger, although officially declared extinct
\nin the 1980s, has reportedly been sighted by several park
\nrangers. A lack of evidence, such as photographs or fur samples,
\nis holding back proper verification of the Javan Tigers' possible
\nexistence.<\/p>\n
The invasion of the Sumatran tigers' protected habitat by
\npoachers is one of the biggest concerns.<\/p>\n
"Poachers kill tigers for their bones, which are used for
\nmedicine, but they are mainly killed for their fur."<\/p>\n
They are also captured alive to be sold on the black market as
\npets, she added.<\/p>\n
"I hate to say it, but owning a tiger is a status symbol,"
\nLigaya said.<\/p>\n
Even though she has received reports on tigers' whereabouts in
\nBogor and Jakarta, confiscating the privately owned predators is
\nnot an easy matter.<\/p>\n
"Where can we put them? Sadly, we don't have enough
\nfacilities. So all we can do is educate the owners on how to take
\ngood care of them for the animals' sake and try to prevent more
\ntigers from being sold."<\/p>\n
There is a law prohibiting the selling and buying of
\nendangered species in Indonesia, and Ligaya hopes the government
\nwill enforce it in the future. Law No. 5\/1990 on the conservation
\nof living resources and their ecosystems carries a maximum
\nsentence of 10 years in jail or a Rp 200 million fine.<\/p>\n
"It's human nature. We are just not happy about seeing them in
\ntheir natural habitat," she said.<\/p>\n
"Why do people take them out of the jungle for their own
\ninterests?"<\/p>\n
Drying up the market by not buying wild animals, their skins
\nor byproducts was one way to give a clear message to poachers to
\nstop catching tigers, she said.<\/p>\n
Concern<\/p>\n
So who should be concerned about the tigers' plight? The
\nanswer is all of us.<\/p>\n
"Wild animals do their part to keep the ecosystem balanced."
\nPeople in Jakarta might not feel the impact from the part
\nwildlife plays in their lives, Ligaya said.<\/p>\n
"But for villagers who live close to an animal's habitat, you
\nbet there is a direct impact," she said.<\/p>\n
For example, if a predator is removed from an area, there is
\nan increase in wild boars, which eat vegetation, including
\nvillagers' crops, she said.<\/p>\n
A participant at the lecture asked Ligaya if there was a
\npossibility that tigers could be reintroduced into the wild.<\/p>\n
She explained that this possibility needed a lot of
\nconsideration, such as whether they needed to be returned.<\/p>\n
"We have to decide if the animals are ready to go back. If
\nthey are in captivity for a long time, they still have their
\ninstincts intact, that doesn't go away, I think. But
\nreintroduction is not that easy to do, especially for tigers. We
\nhaven't done it and it's not necessary to do at the moment."<\/p>\n
They would also need to be screened for diseases before being
\nreintroduced to the wild, she continued.<\/p>\n
"One of the purposes of ex-situ conservation is not be for
\nreintroduction to the wild, but for reservation. We need to put
\nthem back into the wild, for example, if they become extinct,
\nthen we have them in reserve", she said.<\/p>\n
Zoos have been mating tigers, but inbreeding has been a
\nconcern as they were not keeping track of which tigers were
\nmating which, she pointed out.<\/p>\n
"Before 1992 they did keep records, but they were not
\nconcerned with which ones were mating. But now we have a
\ndifferent approach with a recording system where we recommend
\ntigers to mate in order to get good genes for future offspring."<\/p>\n
Ligaya explained that as of December 1999 there was a total of
\n235 tigers outside of their habitat, with 77 at 10 zoos in
\nIndonesia, and the other 158 outside the country.<\/p>\n
The current conservation program, based in Taman Safari
\nIndonesia in Cisarua, Bogor, has been in effect since 1992 and
\nits key points are keeping stud books, a genome resource bank and
\nemploying a tiger rescue team.<\/p>\n
She said keeping stud books, a must for managing a small
\npopulation of tigers, started in 1992.<\/p>\n
"Another goal of this measure is to keep the purity of the
\nspecies and retain a minimum 90 percent of the original ethnic
\ndiversity acquired from the wild for at least 100 years," Ligaya
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
In 1995, a genome resource bank was established for preserving
\nfrozen tiger sperm.<\/p>\n
Ligaya also said the tiger rescue team was working to save
\ntigers, not only from poachers, but from villagers.<\/p>\n
"They come out of the jungle, as they are old usually, or they
\nhave problems, and approach the village, disturbing the
\nlivestock, or attacking people. If they are caught by villagers,
\nthey usually kill the tiger. We don't want to have that happen.
\nThey can't be killed because of that. Maybe we can still save
\nthem, regardless of age, and put them in the captive breeding
\nprogram."<\/p>\n
The rescue team can comprise of local government officials,
\nstaff from the nongovernmental group, Perlindungan dan Konservasi
\nAlam (PKA), veterinarians, paramedics and locally recruited
\nvolunteers.<\/p>\n
She said tigers' DNA needed to be checked as well because
\nthere could be a danger of a Sumatran tiger mixing with a Bengal
\ntiger in captive breeding, and preserving the purity of the
\nspecies was important.<\/p>\n
Although Ligaya's specialty is medical primatology and its
\nhusbandry, she has worked with tigers since 1992 in the captive
\nbreeding program, a collaboration between IPB and Taman Safari.<\/p>\n
"I was appointed as the stud bookkeeper for the program and I
\nwas happy to do it," she said.<\/p>\n
"We can do something, we can help the tiger," she emphasized
\non the sidelines of the lecture.<\/p>\n
"I can't do a lot, but I can share with others what I know
\nthrough my experience and knowledge, and open some minds to the
\nplight of the tigers. Knowledge of conservation is important,"
\nshe said.<\/p>\n
Ligaya quoted a popular Indonesian proverb: "If you don't know
\nsomething or someone, how can you love them? So in the case of
\nthe tiger, how can we save them?"<\/p>",
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