Sumatran tigers face bleak future
Sumatran tigers face bleak future
Grace Nirang, Reuters, Cisarua, West Java
Peering out from a filthy cage, a Sumatran tiger roars angrily as
a veterinarian sprays liquid antibiotic on its scratched face.
The 110 kg seven-year-old tiger was captured in Sumatra's Riau
province in September after he was believed to have killed five
people.
It is one of the few remaining Sumatran tigers, whose numbers
have declined sharply in the past decade and which
conservationists fear may become extinct in the next decade.
"We brought him here after a long negotiation with locals.
They wanted to kill it as revenge, but we can't allow another
killing of a Sumatran tiger," Yohanna Trihastuti, a veterinarian
from the private Safari Park in Cisarua some 120 km west of
Jakarta, told Reuters.
In August, angry Riau residents launched a big search for the
man-eater. They caught a very young tiger and killed it despite
the fact that Sumatran tigers are one of the few species
protected under Indonesian conservation laws.
But they apparently caught the wrong cat, as another man was
found dead from a tiger attack two weeks later. The local
conservation office then sought help from the Safari Park team to
capture the real killer.
Trihastuti said the captured tiger would be kept in the park's
quarantine center for two months before being moved to its
Sumatran Tiger breeding center.
"We hope in the future he can become a stud for our breeding
centre," Trihastuti said.
The Safari Park has cared for 30 Sumatran tigers in its
breeding centre since it was established in 1992. About 12 of the
tigers were born in the centre.
The statistics for Sumatran tigers are disturbing: about 400
remained in the wild in 1992 and an average of 33 are killed each
year, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
With a shrinking habitat -- most Sumatran forests have been
converted into palm oil plantations -- and rampant poaching for
body parts and fur, tiger numbers are sure to be lower now,
experts said.
"A shrinking habitat because of rapid human population growth,
forest being cleared for plantations and illegal hunting are the
reasons for the sharp decline," said Jansen Manansang, the park's
managing director, who is also a coordinator for the national
Sumatran Tiger Conservation Project.
"They come out of the jungle, as they have nothing to eat, and
approach the village, disturbing the livestock or attacking
people.
"If they are caught by villagers, they usually kill the
tigers. We don't want that to happen. Maybe we can still save
them, regardless of age, and put them in a captive breeding
programme to save their kind."
The Sumatran tiger -- or panthera tigris sumatranensis --
could be Indonesia's last species of tiger.
The Balinese tiger became extinct at the beginning of the 20th
century and the Javan tiger has also been officially declared
extinct, although several park rangers have reported fairly
recent sightings, unconfirmed by photographic or other evidence.
The Safari Park's Sumatran tiger conservation programme keeps
stud books and a genome resource bank and employs a tiger rescue
team that works to save tigers from villagers and poachers.
"Poachers kill tigers for their bones, which are used for
medicine, but they also target the fur," Manansang said, adding
tigers were also captured alive to be sold illegally.
"I hate to say it, but owning a tiger is a status symbol for
some people here."
A stuffed Sumatran tiger carries one of the biggest price tags
on the black market, about US$2,500. Pieces of the magnificent
creature are also for sale -- tiger penises are sold as
aphrodisiacs, and ground-up bones, claws and teeth go into
traditional Chinese remedies for arthritis and rheumatism.
"It's sad to say, but the illegal trade is rampant here," said
Chairul Saleh of the WWF. "We may not be able to hear the roar of
a Sumatran tiger, or see it, in the next seven to 12 years if no
preventive measures are taken."
The total value of Indonesia's illegal animal trade is
unknown, but animal activists say hundreds of creatures are sold
each month despite protection under the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and
Fauna.
Wild animals often wind up at the Pramuka Market in East
Jakarta. Established in 1967 as a bird market, the market has
sold all manner of creatures since the 1980s.
Overlooking it is a remnant of a failed campaign to combat the
illegal trade, a faded billboard threatening sellers and buyers
of endangered animals with five years imprisonment.
"Poaching and illegal trade are even more rampant after the
economic crisis," Saleh said. "Locals see it as a lucrative
source of income."