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Why study tigers in the Sundarbans? Why not put all our resources and efforts into protection? Surely we know enough about tigers by now to know how to help save them! Why are you trying to catch and collar tigers? Isn’t that a dangerous undertaking that endangers a tigers life?
These are important questions that deserve careful thought and response. Imagine if you are trying to manage an animal and its environment but you don’t know:
how many animals you have
what resources they need to survive
how their habitat is changing, or
what threats they are facing
The tigers of Bangladesh present such a conundrum. Studies from other countries such as Nepal, Russia, and India has told us a lot about some general life history characteristics and behavior that can probably be applied to all tigers, but we simply don’t know the first thing about the current Sundarbans tiger population or how current management strategies are affecting it.
There have been several valiant attempts to gain understanding of how tigers living in the Sundarbans survive, but the thick vegetation, large tidal fluctuations and a maze of waterways has hampered these efforts. The only way to really get to know how tigers exist in a particular habitat type is to follow those tigers using telemetry. This will give information on how much area they need, and what particular parts of the forest are essential for its well being. A female’s territory, for example, is directly related to the quality of the habitat, measured in abundance of prey. A female tiger needs to defend enough food for both itself and its young to live off. Defending to much will decrease its chances of survival (through increased competition from other tigers), as will defending too little (through starvation). Getting information on the home range size of female tigers in a particular setting will give a good estimate of the breeding population size. This can be used to calculate how the population will change to various pressures and will allow formulation of monitoring schemes that can quantify the effectiveness of management activities. Knowing about the population in isolation is not enough. We also need to know how the tigers use its environment, i.e. are their factors essential for their survival that also need to be managed and protected. Relating locational data from the radio/GPS collars will identify which factors are important. In addition, following tigers on a daily basis will give a huge amount of behavioral information that will help understand such issues as man-eating.
Not less importantly, a research program also helps tiger conservation indirectly by two different means. Firstly, a field level team provides ground level “eyes” in the forest that provide feedback to administrative policy makers, and act as a deterrent to human activities that would otherwise threaten the tigers or their habitat. Secondly, the information gained can be used to dramatically increase support for conservation by if it is made available to all levels of society, from government bodies and local communities to schools, universities and the general public.
There is certainly a small but very real risk to individual tigers that are captured for study. However, there is an even greater risk to the tiger population as a whole by sitting back and doing nothing. Look at other tiger countries and see where the most effective conservation has been carried out. You will soon find a clear pattern of well managed tiger populations connected to long-term scientific research programs.
Examples of tiger related research projects
| ECOLOGICAL NEEDS OF TIGER |
Home range
Tiger abundance
Habitat selection
Prey selection
Movement patters
Response to human presence |
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6 Females need to be collared
Tigers followed on daily basis to
identify prey types and kill frequency
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LIFE HISTORY CHARACTERISTICS
& BEHAVIOR
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Survival
Mortality
Recruitment
Social organization |
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Males & Females collared &
followed throughout their life |
MAN-EATING
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Occurrence
Distribution
Behavior
Ecological factors |
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Record ecological conditions that pre-dispose a tiger to become a man-eater
Collar tigers in areas that consistently produce man-eaters
Collar problem tigers
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HABITAT ASSESSMENT
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Prey abundance
Vegetation cover
Salinity
Human use |
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Remote sensing and ground surveys to record and monitor ecological variables that effect tiger abundance and distribution
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Update on findings from research conducted
The findings of the FD tiger abundance survey completed in 2007 have now been published in the journal of Biological Conservation. Now that we have a strong monitoring program we will be able to track changes in the tiger population over time so that we can measure if our conservation efforts are having an effect; if we are doing a good job then tiger numbers will remain stable or increase, if we are not being effective then the population will decline and the survey will help us identify problem areas where we need to put in more effort. The survey is planned to take place every two years. The abstract of the paper can be found at:-
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V5X-4SY5X1C-1&_
user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_version=1&_urlVersion
=0&_userid=10&md5=ad547d6cf4b8d0a2cf34c81c209ed2ab
The findings from other research undertaken including home range, man-eating, prey abundance, and palaeontology are currently being analysed and written up. These will be made available as soon as this is complete.
Other workstreams required for a successful conservation program
The project was initially research focused - there was very little information on the tigers of the Bangladeshi Sundarbans and it is hard to gain the political and funding support for a full scale tiger conservation without such information. Now from the research base, the project is evolving rapidly to also encompass capacity building and conservation awareness activities. This will help ensure that the issues illuminated by research are mitigated via conservation action on the ground.
| Capacity building |
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Improve basic ecological understanding, data collection skills and general motivation of Forest Department staff working in the Sundarbans; this is being done through field training, workshops, presentations and the development of a field handbook and a short documentary film.
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Enable the forest department to carry out scientific research and monitoring of tigers; this is being enables through the experience gained through the day to day activities of the research team
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Enable the Forest Department to deal with problem tigers; this is being don through the creation of a problem tiger response team and a communications network throughout the human settlements bordering the Sundarbans.
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| Increasing conservation awareness |
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GENERAL PUBLIC: through this web site, newspape articles, TV reports, books, films
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TOURISTS: through presentations, literature and hopefully in the future a visitors center
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SCHOOLS & UNIVERSITIES: through field trips, work opportunities, presentations and the production of educational materials |
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LOCAL COMMUNITIES: through presentations and free educational material |
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