New estimate for Sumatran tigers

BANDARLAMPUNG, Lampung: A research team from the Sumatran Tiger Project has increased the previous estimate of the number of tigers inhabiting a section of the Way Kambas National Park in central Lampung by 80 percent, Antara reported on Thursday.

By using Geographic Information System (GIS) equipment, the team was able to examine an 842-sq km habitat outside its main research site, team member M. Yunus said, and concluded that 36 tigers inhabited the area.

The figure represents an 80 percent increase from the previous projection, Yunus said.

"We are optimistic about the conservation of Sumatran tigers in the national park."

The Way Kambas National Park covers 1,300 sq km.

Yunus said that during its 16-month survey of a 162-sq km site the team used an automatic infrared camera to get clearer pictures of the tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) than at any time since the project began in 1995.

With such a camera, he said, the team was also able to take pictures of other wild animals, such as the two-horned Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicererhinus sumatranus), which is an endangered species.

The team took 200 pictures believed to be of 21 adult tigers, Yunus said.

With the help of the GIS equipment, the team was also able to identify six of the 21 tigers as resident tigers and the rest as transient tigers which passed through the research site only occasionally, he said.

According to research conducted by the Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation in 1992, the population of the Sumatran tiger is estimated at 200 in five national parks and protected forests and at least 100 living outside these areas.