At least 104 tigers in Kaziranga, population at saturation point

Wildlife Experts have sounded a note of caution that increase in tiger population in Kaziranga National Park may endanger the animals’ lives as well intensify man-tiger conflict as the population of the big cats reaches saturation point in the world famous national park.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority has recorded the presence of at least 104 tigers through camera-trapping Census between January 4 and March 9, this year. Though the Census has registered only one more tiger compared to the 2014 Census, wildlife experts have pointed out that the existing tiger carrying capacity of Kaziranga National Park is between 100 to 105 and the population must not increase beyond this point so as to ensure healthy survival of the animals.

Out of 104 tigers tracked this year, 95 tigers and seven cubs were found in Kaziranga National Park and two were found in Laokhowa Burachapori. The Census exercise covered a total 484 square kms. of the park. There were 31 males, 55 females and 11 undetermined.

Wildlife activists are of view that the NTCA should now focus on other tiger reserves where there is scope of increasing the population, like Namdapha.

Wildlife experts of Aranayak, an NGO, said, “A high population density means higher incidents of conflict with humans. Such density often produces a floating population of animals or ‘transients’ that are pushed out of their territory. It might result in infighting among big cats and death of animals.”

The Kaziranga National Park, where intensive exercise on tiger conservation started in 2007, is spread over Golaghat, Nagaon and Sonitpur districts.

According to a 2014 report, Kaziranga has the highest tiger density (per 100 square km) — 12.72.

Moreover two other national parks of the state has recorded a significant growth in tiger population.

The recent Census of Manas National Park and Orang National Park has also registered a growth in the number of tigers, with the presence of 30 tigers in Manas and 28 tigers in Orang.

http://www.asianage.com/india/all-india/260617/at-least-104-tigers-in-kaziranga-population-at-saturation-point.html

Tigers Are Now Back At Assam's Manas Tiger Reserve

The Manas National Park has recorded the presence of at least 30 tigers in just-concluded tiger census. The number is more than double the figure of the 2016 census.

The growth in tiger population in one out of four tiger reserves has come as a major encouragement for the forest department as conservationists pointed out the preliminary figure for Kaziranga National Park is not out yet but they expect it to cross the 140-mark. The authorities are yet to announce the census report of Nameri National Park, another tiger reserve in Assam.

Pointing out that this also marks the biggest ever tiger population in Manas after one-and-a-half decades of social unrest, beginning in 1989 that had pushed the tiger reserve to the brink, the conservationists believe that this is a huge moral booster to conservation initiatives in Manas National Park. The park has been on a recovery path after regaining the World Heritage Site status.

The last census had recorded the presence of only 14 tigers in Manas.

Field director of Manas Tiger Reserve, Hiranya Sharma, said, “The latest tiger census done through camera-trapping has recorded 30 tigers, 24 of those being adult tigers. The adult male-female break-up is 12-11, while the sex of one could not be determined.”

Mr Sharma also clarified that last year’s census had left the Panbari Range due to logistics constraints. “This time we covered the entire Manas landscape (in India). The increase in the tiger number is significant and a shot in the arm for Manas’ long-term conservation prospects,” he said. In 2016, the census, which was part of a trans-boundary (Manas National Park and Royal Manas National Park of Bhutan) survey, had recorded 25 tigers, of which 11 were from Royal Manas National Park and 14 from Manas National Park. Manas National Park provides shelter to at least 22 endangered species.

http://www.asianage.com/india/all-india/130517/tigers-are-now-back-at-assams-manas-reserve.html

Genetic study reveals eight tigers in Pakke Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh

The first genetic monitoring of tigers in Pakke reserve has recorded the presence of Eight Big Cats.

Guwahati-based wildlife NGO Aaranyak carried out the genetic monitoring activity at its wildlife genetics laboratory on the request of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

“Successful completion of genetic monitoring of tigers in Pakke this year enabled us to obtain information on the presence of eight tigers in the reserve — three female and five male tigers,” the report said.

The last camera-trapping carried out as part of the phase-IV monitoring of tiger and prey population under Project Tiger in collaboration with the NTCA, Arunachal Pradesh forest department and WWF India from December 2012 to January 2013, had recorded six tigers.

Sources said the work provides first-hand genetic information on the tiger population, which can be used for long-term monitoring and also contribute to studies on demographic and genetic exchange of tigers in the landscape.

The Pakke reserve is bounded by a contiguous forest of Nameri tiger reserve in the south, the Kameng river in the north and west and the Pakke river in the east.

During the field survey in January and February this year, 175 carnivore scats were collected. Of this, 45 scats of tiger origin were identified.

However, only 20 genuine tiger scats were taken for analysis, as the rest 25 scats showed ambiguous results possibly because of sample cross-contamination.

“There is scope of finding more tigers if the entire reserve is surveyed,” Tana Tapi, divisional forest officer of the Pakke tiger reserve, told The Telegraph.

The NTCA has made genetic monitoring mandatory in low-density tiger reserves, since camera trapping often tends to miss individuals in a low-density area.

Development activities, poaching and indiscriminate felling of trees leading to habitat loss are some of the prominent threats to Pakke, sources said.

The reserve has a great diversity of mammalian species with at least 40 species recorded. It is also rich in avifauna with 294 species.

Pakke was declared a tiger reserve in 2002 by the NTCA and is the 26th tiger reserve in the country. The NTCA has said since Pakke is adjacent to Nameri, joint monitoring work is essential for the tiger landscape.

Aaranyak has done genetic monitoring in five tiger reserves — Manas, Dampa, Namdapha, Buxa and Palamau. In Manas, 23 tigers were found, 15 and 19 tigers were found on two different occasions in Buxa, six in Palamau, two and one on different occasions in Namdapha and three and two on different occasions in Dampa.

The results of phase-IV monitoring of tiger and prey population of tiger reserves in the country, which will also include Pakke, will be revealed in February. The camera-trapping method was used for the study.


https://www.telegraphindia.com/states/north-east/genetic-study-reveals-eight-tigers-in-pakke/cid/1626689

Wild Tigers Spotted In Jalgaon District of Maharashtra After 33 Years

According to Nandurbar Range Forest Officials, two residents of Koknipada village spotted the tiger, the first since 1985, on July 22 in two separate incidents.

Read The Whole Article Here : 

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/after-1985-tiger-spotted-near-tapi-district-forest-officials-on-alert-5280395/

Pilibhit Tiger Reserve : Conservation Opportunities and Challenges

https://www.epw.in/journal/2015/20/reports-states-web-exclusives/pilibhit-tiger-reserve.html

FYI -- Pilibhit Tiger Reserve is in the Northern Indian State of Uttar Pradesh.

It has been in the news lately because of Rising Man- Tiger Conflict. 

In A First Maharashtra Tigress Raising Her 5 Cubs Outside A Protected Area

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/maha-tigress-raising-5-cubs-in-a-non-tiger-zone/articleshow/66269171.cms

Note : This Tigress Has been raising her 5 Cubs For the Better Half Of One Year in a Non Protected Area Near The Popular and Famous Tadoba Tiger Reserve.

This is obviously good news for Tiger Conservation in Wild Maharashtra.

Obviously, There is Sufficient Natural Prey For Her and The Cubs in this immediate area else they would not be here for at least One Year Or More.

This Article Points Out quite well that In and Around Chandrapur City there are 19 Tigers -- 12 Adults and 7 Cubs. Imagine, That Near a City Wild Big Cats.

These Striped Beauties really make my day in more ways than one.

This Article was published in the Times of India on Oct 18, 2018 that is today's edition.

Orphan Siberian Tiger Now A Mother

Found as a cub, starving and frostbitten in Russia’s Far East by a pair of local hunters, the Siberian tiger Zolushka—Russian for Cinderella—is a conservation success story. As covered by Matt Shaer in a February 2015 cover story for Smithsonian, she was brought to Dale Miquelle, the director of the Russia Program for the Wildlife Conservation Society, an American nonprofit.

He, in turn, brought Zolushka to a newly opened rehabilitation and reintroduction center, where scientists were developing a new approach to caring for captured tigers, so that they might release them to reclaim their ever-dwindling territory. Zolushka became the first tiger to arrive at the center—“the test case,” Shaer wrote.

And now, she’s the first rehabilitated tiger in history to mate and give birth in the wild. Camera traps in the region have spied two young cubs at Zolushka’s side.

Within a year after arriving in Miquelle’s care, Zolushka was hunting prey--inserted surreptitiously into her pen--with the skill of wild tigers her age, and conservationists decided that she was ready for reintroduction into the wild. They outfitted her with a GPS collar (which soon malfunctioned) and planned to keep tabs on her via camera traps they’d installed throughout her range. It was a risky move, but, Shaer wrote, “the upsides were enormous: If left-for-dead orphaned cubs could be rehabilitated to the point of mating with wild tigers, they would not only provide a boost in the local population but, in the aggregate, perhaps reclaim regions that hadn’t seen healthy tiger communities in decades.”

The winter after her release, having adapted well to life in the wild, footage confirmed that Zolushka was sharing a range, and even food, with a healthy male tiger the scientists named Zavetny. Tracks left in the snow indicated that the two might be mating, raising the possibility of what would eventually happen.

“Miquelle is hopeful that one day very soon,” Shaer wrote in February, “he’ll receive a photo from a camera trap showing Zolushka with a line of cubs trailing behind.”

Last week, a little over two years after her release, Miquelle received what he was looking for. Zolushka’s maternity has made history, and has made the team that worked to rehabilitate her feel “like godparents,” says Miquelle, when I spoke to him this week about the milestone.

If all goes well, he explains, Zolushka will care for her young until they’re about a year-and-a-half, at which point they’ll leave their mother to stake out their own ranges.

While Zavetny may drop in the family from time to time (as male tigers are known to do), it’s the females that do the heavy lifting when it comes to raising their cubs, hunting to feed them for a year or more. Miquelle is particularly curious to see how Zolushka will handle the responsibility given that she didn’t have the chance to spend her full “childhood” with her own mother. And he warns that there are always dangers. “If the cubs don’t survive,” he cautioned, “it doesn’t mean she’s a bad mother. Lots of things could happen.”

But he was quick to strike a celebratory note. In a video, the cubs can be seen huddling near Zolushka and playfully tussling with her. They also scratch and sniff a “scent-marking tree” where Zolushka and Zavetny may have marked territory before. “It’s interesting that the cubs were also interested in the scent marking tree,” said Miquelle. Other than that behavior, there isn’t much in the video that’s surprising or unusual—which is a welcome sign.

“They’re showing typical young cub behavior,” Miquelle said. “The good news is that Zolushka’s acted well enough as a mother to get her cubs to this stage, a couple months old. That’s a very good sign.”

Credits : Smithsonian Magazine 2015