How to save tigers
We join a WWF team to see the research being done in deep jungle to prevent a national symbol from becoming extinct.
WE had finally arrived at a ridge after some hours of wading through streams, trekking through wet vegetation and trudging up slopes at the Royal Belum State Park in northern Perak state.
After threatening to rain in the morning, the weather was clearing up as we were leaving our camp at a site called Kenarung.
While the rest of us from the media took a much-deserved break at the ridge, several experts from the World Wildlife Fund Malaysia (WWF) immediately got to work.
Senior field biologist Christopher Wong, species coordinator Shariff Mohamad and senior anti-poaching officer Lau Ching Fong, all began surveying the area for an ideal location to set up a camera to monitor tigers.
The effort to save the Malaysian tiger is urgent. In the 1950s, there were an estimated 3,000 of these magnificent animals in the country. However, recent estimates suggest only 250 to 340 tigers are left.
Tigers are revered throughout Asia as a symbol of strength. In fact, Harimau Malaysia is not only the nickname of our national football team, it’s also what’s shown on both sides of Malaysia’s Coat of Arms or Jata Negara, so it would be a real shame if we lose this national symbol.
With so few wild tigers left, bold and immediate action is needed.
In Malaysia, some of the key threats to tigers are poaching, habitat loss or fragmentation, and less animal prey for them to hunt. Eighty-five percent of tiger habitats in the country also fall outside protected areas.
Candid camera!
The WWF team looked for footprints of tigers and other animals such as wild boar and barking deer on the trail. In the process, they found fresh tapir dung at a location where two trails met.
This was a good indication of animal movement in the area, they agreed. On the way up to the ridge earlier, we had also seen elephant dung and sun bear claw marks on trees.
Once the team had established a suitable location, they cleared a spot near a tree up a slope and set up the camera.
Camera trapping, where a passing animal triggers off a photo snap, is a method used to monitor tigers and their prey to assess their population status.
The gadget itself was simple: it had two parts, a camera and a sensor, which was sensitive to heat and movement. Both parts were encased in a waterproof case with batteries to last two to three months.
“High traffic of animals is a good sign for a camera location. We also consider geographical features such as slopes and places with more than two trails,” explained Wong as he held up the camera.
“At downward slopes, animals tend to walk faster, so a camera will probably capture blurred or partial photographs of animals. As for two trails, it means more animals and better chances of getting photos.”
He and his colleagues were doing a pre-survey trip to see if tigers could be tracked in the area next year.
Wong said that there were at least 105 active cameras at any one time in Belum, and this took into account the risks of damage from poachers and curious animals.
This work was part of research on tigers at the Belum-Temengor Forest Complex (BTFC) here. This includes both the Royal Belum State Park, which is a fully protect- ed area north of the East-West (Gerik-Jeli) Highway and the Temengor forest reserve, south of the highway, where logging is still allowed.
Precious forests
However, both forests in the BTFC are deemed to be crucial “priority sites” under the National Tiger Conservation action plan.
Tigers are apex predators sitting on top of the food chain, hence they play an important part in regulating the entire ecosystem. Having large territories, they are also an ideal “umbrella species”, meaning that protecting tigers will also protect the entire ecosystem.
Healthy forests are important for humans too.
Not only do the orang asli depend on it for their livelihoods, the forests are also crucial to water supply (several states in Malaysia have faced water shortages) and flood control.
Its biodiversity may also hold future cures for cancer and other diseases which could be worth billions of ringgit.
WWF’s first tiger density research was done at BTFC between August 2009 and December 2011.
The second survey, which kicked off this year with annual funding of RM1.2mil from the Maybank Foundation, is due to be completed by the end of 2017.
WWF has the only NGO-led tiger conservation programme at BTFC, which has the highest density of tigers in Malaysia. The organisation is calling for better protection of forests where the tigers (and their prey) make their home.
This includes controlled access into the forest, better logging prac- tices and having “eco links” between different areas of forest. There is also a need for more anti-poaching patrols.
Perak State Parks Corporation is also starting to use state-of-the-art SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) systems for anti-poaching patrols within the Royal Belum State Park.
The three-day media trip with WWF and Maybank Foundation representatives began with a visit to the viaduct (built by the Federal Government at the nearby Amanjaya Forest Reserve) that enables wildlife to cross the East-West Highway, which runs across the Belum-Temenggor Forest Complex.
Then we made our way to the Kenarung river base camp via a 45-minute boat ride. The trip also took us through various parts of the forests.
Media members were also taken