"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children"

Antoine de Saint Exupéry



This presentation represents the synthesis of hundreds of articles, tens of books and films, as well as information of ground which I could have to date. last update Monday, February 9, 2015

I - VARIOUS SPECIES

II - NATURE, HABITAT AND WAY OF LIFE OF THE TIGER

III - DANGERS TO THE SPECIES

IV - STRATEGIES OF CONSERVATION

Appendix: READINGS, REFERENCES and LINKS

I - VARIOUS SUBSPECIES

There were 9 subspecies of tigers, 3 already disappeared:
  • the tiger of the Caspian. (plans of reintroduction in Iran and Kazakhstan)
  • the tiger of Java.
  • the tiger of Bali.

The 6 remaining subspecies total approximately 3600 individuals:

  • the tiger of China: less than ten in wild, no photographied.
  • the tiger of Sumatra: 300 tigers, very in danger because of the human pressure and deforestation to plant palm trees.
  • the tiger of Siberia or tiger of Amur (name of river running in the area), 350 individuals. It profits since the years 1990 from the co-operation and scientific follow-up of the organizations international. It is largest of the tigers.
  • the Indochinese tiger: 200 individuals, distributed in Myanmar (≥100), Thailand (≤100), and some in Laos (?), Kampuchea (?), and Vietnam (?).

  • the Malaysian tiger: subspecies described in 2004, ≤ about 200 tigers in Malaysia.
  • the Bengal tiger, greatest population 2226 in India, 200 in Nepal and Bouthan, 120 in Bangladesh, 100 in the western part of Myanmar.

    In India, the last census 2014 shows good results    . It gives the official figure of 2226 tigers in India…, It gives official numbers 2226 tigers, in increase of 30% (1574 really sure)

The particular case of the white tiger

It is not a question of in no case of an albino tiger, but of a case of melanism.
The ancestor of the white tigers named “Mohan”. He was captured in 1954 in the reserve of Rewa (Bandhavgarh), by the Maharajah of the same name. This one tried to couple it with a fawn-coloured female of dress, without success the first time. Thereafter, it was given rise to small white tigers which left for the foreign zoos. All the current white tigers that one can see in the zoos, result from this same parent. Currently there is a hundred, all prisoners of it.

The other case: the black tiger

In the area of Chittagong and the hills of Lushai, in India, one tells that black tigers were cut down there. The only skins which could be examined showed so tightened stripes that the color of the dress appeared black. Despite everything, the belly was clear. It was not a question of in no case, of an aspect comparable with the black panther, which is entirely black (in spite of the very light spots that one can distinguish sometimes).

Despite everything, the reports of foresters and the studies which were undertaken, lead to the conclusion which the black tigers exist (or existed in a recent past).
“ June 4, 2007, a new black tigers (a female and 2 small cubs) were photographed in the reserve of Simlipal, during the operation of counting… “

II - NATURE, the HABITAT AND the WAY OF LIFE OF the TIGER

  • The tiger of Siberia measures up to 4 m, that of Bengal reaches 3 m and the islander tiger of Sumatra, 2,50m. Its weight varies between 180 and 300 kilos.
    The wild tigers live until approximately the 15 years age.

    The stripes of its fawn-coloured dress get one to him perfect camouflage which enables him to pass unperceived in an incredible number of different landscapes.
    The tiger is a secret and night animal and its step is flexible and quiet. It is an excellent swimmer, he adores water. Its mode of hunting is tracking.
    The tiger is an animal with the powerful musculature. Its broad hooks are crimped in a jaw provided of an extraordinary force.

    Its vision is excellent, including the night, which is very important for a night hunter.

    Hearing is certainly the smell more developed in the tiger.
  • The habitat of the tiger consists of taïgas for the Scandinavian part (tiger of Siberia), of forests tropical and thick jungles (Indochinese tigers and of Sumatra), of forests of sals (Bengal tiger).
    The tiger is a recluse. According to its place of dwelling, the territory of a male tiger can to cover a few tens or a few hundred km2.
    This territory covers that several females. It daily marks it while urinating on the trees, it hume the odors (flemen) and supervises the intrusion possible of other tigers.
  • When a female is in heat, it traverses its territory while urinating on the trees to deposit
    its odor. In this way, the male knows that the female is receptive. To the exit of the period of coupling,the male from goes away.

    The gestation period is 105 days and the range is on average 2 to 4 small. The babies tigers are blind with the birth and remain it during 2 to 3 weeks. They will arrive at the adulthood around 2 years.

    It is at this time that the young males leave their mother to seek a territory.
    In general, the young females remain longer or establish a territory near that of their mother. Then tigress can be again coupled with the male for a new cycle of reproduction.

III - DANGERS TO the SPECIES

The principal enemy of tiger and his only predator is the man. Well-known refrain. The mankind is indeed responsible for sound massacre for the “sport”, then poaching and deforestation.

  • At the end of the XIXe century and beginning of XXe, the Western rich person came to India to show their “bravery”, during great huntings organized in their honor by the Maharajahs. Tens of elephants were used as stations of shooting for these princes and great names; they were thus well with the shelter, while indigenous hundreds of pickups drove back them tigers in nets.
    They remained with our “valorous” colonists the care of to triumph over the lord of the jungle, by “courageous” a blow of rifle with 20 meters. With the return in Europe, extraordinary” and ignited accounts made that these “heroes” were surely admired. Thus this single animal was exterminated, sometimes by tens, with each hunting.

    There were 100.000 tigers at the beginning of last century, it remains about it hardly 3.500     in nature. Which sad fate in the name of human vanity.
  • The poaching is very active.
    In India, certain reserves like Sariska (25/0), Similipal (85/6?), Ranthambore, Panna, Namdapha, saw their decimated manpower.
    The tiger is victim of its beauty and its force.
    A long time, the tigers were useful in the circuses Romans. Thetigers were to come from the Caspian one.

    Since millenia, the people of Asia confer medicinal virtues on the parts of the body of the tiger. Nothing of that is true, but the beliefs ancestral are tough.
    That are supported by gangster networks which grow rich by poaching the animals. Often, the tigers finish cut up in the Chinese dispensaries (bone, penis), the thaïs restaurants and Korean (flesh), the skins in Nepal or Tibet (ornaments cérémoniales).

    I would conceal the practices still existing in eastern countries .

  • Deforestation is perhaps the most serious problem.
    Once the destroyed forests, there is no more life. The forests put hundreds, even thousands of years to be constituted. It is thus vital to preserve them.

    But the situation is dramatic in India in particular, where the population is gigantic (1.300 millions men, and 19 millions + each year). Without speaking about poverty. Then, these people remain in the forests, to drive out game, to cut it drink to heat and make eating their 3 billion cows. All destroys the forests and preys.
    The tigers do not have then any more what to survive.

    Overpopulation and the human pressure represent a major problem.

IV- STRATEGIES OF CONSERVATION

The protection of the tigers really started in India.

We were in 1972. One realized that the number of tigers in this country was not any more but of 1827 animals. The Prime Minister for the time, Mrs. Indhira Gandhi déçida to save the tiger and launched in 1973 the “Tiger Project”. Manpower went up, but today the figures are seriously disputed. Indeed, they were largely overestimated by the guards of the parks. Results were needed…But, large thanks to Mrs. Gandhi. Without it, there would be no more tigers in India…

For the whole of the geographical area of the tiger, the strategy which was installation during the last decade, consisted in protecting from the parks and places where the tigers were quite present. One estimated to be able to stop the poaching and to allow these animals to survive. Unfortunately this strategy was not paying, in spite of the important sums which were invested in these actions.

The most famous case (alas) was that of the reserve of Sariska, presented like a model of protection. A few years ago still, there were 26 tigers in Sariska (the Rajasthan).
With the passing of years, those were done less present, but the fact was called upon that they were night, therefore… Until the beginning of 2005 when these absences prolonged interrogations raised. The disaster obviousness appeared then.

There was no more only one tiger with Sariska.
But more nauseating was that the poachers and their accomplices were for several, guards of the reserve (of which some graded).

This electric shock, highlighted what also occurred in other reserves (Namdapha, Panna, Ranthambore). Organizations of protection (WWF, WCS, SAVE THE TIGER, for exemple) decided on a reorientation of their strategy. They undertook to establish one cartography of the territory where the tiger can hope to survive.

The surface of répartion of the tiger represented in 1995, 11% of its original surface of the beginning of the XXe century. In 2006, surface is not any more but 7%.
These territories suffer from the parcelling out, of deforestation, as well as human pressure. The continuation of the study consisted in seeking the sites most favorable to the tiger with preys in a number and a diversified forest cover (for the detail of the study, to see the site of “Save the tiger”, the document of 170 pages is in English).


The points key of protection are:

  • Protection of the forests
  • Fight against the poaching
  • Contribute to the population and education
  • Scientific follow-up

It was highlighted broad priority zones gathering 76 TCLs, offering best conditions, in all Asia.
The stress is laid on the creation of corridors, to facilitate the genetic mobility of the animals, need for a good density of preys, and one human presence as weak as possible.

These areas represent the ultimate hope of survival for wild tigers

IT IS PERHAPS NOT YET TOO LATE

Throughout the world, thousands of people are mobilized so that one of the most beautiful animals of creation, can live like it does it since 3 million years.

So that in the forests of the book of the jungle, the reign of Shere Khan continuous.

READINGS (general public) and BOOKS PHOTOGRAPHS:

Valmik Thapar & Fateh Singh Rathore "Les tigres-leur vie secrète (Solar)
George Schaller "The deer and the tiger" (University Chicago Press)
Peter Matthiessen "Tigers in the snow" (Acte Sud)
Valmik Thapar "Tiger-The ultime guide" (Cds Books)
Pierre Chéron "Les derniers tigres de l'Inde" (Territoires Sauvages)
Iain Green "Wild tigers of Bandhavgarh" (Tiger Books)
Anup & Manoj Shah " A tiger's tale " (Fountain Press)
Vivek R. Sinha "The vanishing tiger" (Salamander)
Michael Nichols " Tiger" (National Géographic)
Cubitt Gérald "L'Inde sauvage" (Soline)
Stephen Mills "Tiger" (Firefly)

FILMS & VIDÉOS: Voluntarily, I will quote here only films in French version.

Gros plan sur les tigres (Bbc 2008): The technology for nature to shoot 4 cubs tigers newborns in the Park Pench. An extraordinary film.
Ranthambore, paradis des tigres (Bbc 2002): Valmik Thapar tells the story of the tigress Machell in Ranthambore.
La vie secrète du tigre (Bbc 1998).
La forteresse des tigres (Bbc 2000): Fateh Singh Rathore and Valmik Thapar introduces Ranthambore national park.
Sur la piste des tigres (Marathon, Canal+ 2004): Bandhavgarh
Chroniques de l'Asie sauvage (Tf1 2005): for sequences of the tiger (among others), filmed in Thailand. A wonderful birth in the night and an amazing quarrel between two young tigers and a monkey (!).
Les tigres de la forêt d'émeraude (Bbc 2003): the scientific monitoring of the tiger population in Panna Reserve.
Sita et son fils (Odyssée 1999): Portrait of Sita and Charger, the famous parents of the current tigers population in Bandhavgarh, with a presentation of their last litter.
Tigres d'Asie en danger (National Géographic 2003): Scientists in India, Thailand and Siberia show the status of tigers in these areas.
L'empreinte du tigre (Tf1 2004) episode of the famous show Ushuaia.
Le temple des tigres (Icon Films 2001) the reserve of Bandhavgarh, Charger's end life and rise of B1, his grand-son.

INTERNET LINKS:

 21 stcenturytiger
one of the fist ONG
WWF Russie, russian WWF, with actions for tigers and leopards
Save China's tigers, action of Li Quan to reintroduce iger in China
Globaltigerpatrol, organization directed in the fight against the poaching
WII, institute of research and conservation for wildlife of India
Tigertrust, organization of defense of the tiger of Sumatra
Panthera, Savethetigerfund, one of the most effective organizations
WPSI, society of wildlife of India
Cats, site on big and small cats, l'IUCN (6800 documents)
Wcsindia, society of biologie in India

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