Sustainability Times
13 Jan 2022, 12:54 GMT+10
Photo: Pixabay/ArtisticOperations
Tigers in the wild are critically endangered throughout their remaining ranges in South and Southeast Asia, but that has hardly stopped unscrupulous poachers from continuing to hunt the iconic predators any chance they get.
A case in point is the recent discovery of the pelts of two tigers in central Thailand on the country's border with Myanmar. The pelts were found by Thai park rangers at a campside inside a protected forest where tiger meat had just been left roasting on a grill by five suspects who managed to flee.
In fact, the rangers had been alerted to the presence of the suspected poachers by the smoke billowing from their campfire.
"On seeing the patrol unit, [the suspects] sprang up and fled. The officials gave chase, but failed to catch the suspects, who appeared to know the tracks to follow in the area," a local newspaper reported.
"When they inspected the camp, the patrol members were aghast to find the meat of two Bengal tigers being grilled at the site. Nearby the tigers' pelts were being dried. The officials also found four weapons and 29 other items at the site," the newspaper explained.
"A cow carcass, believed to have been used as bait to lure the big cats, was found tied to a nearby bamboo tree," it added.
Although the dead predators have been identified by the news report as belonging to the Bengal subspecies, Bengal tigers are not indigenous to Thailand, which is home to the Indochinese variety.
In any event, the loss of two wild tigers to poachers is a blow to conservation efforts in the Southeast Asian nation, whose population of wild tigers now stands at fewer than 200 individuals.
Encouragingly, however, Thailand has been making progress in increasing its tiger populations within several protected forest complexes, even as Indochinese tigers have been declared functionally extinct in neighboring Cambodia and Laos, two countries once home to robust populations of the striped predators.
Stepped-up anti-poaching measures, reintroduction projects and habitat conservation initiatives can still turn things around for the region's beleaguered tigers, experts say.
Yet such efforts are not without its challenges. ?Snaring is very difficult to control because snares are cheaply made, and a single person can set hundreds and sometimes thousands of snares,? one expert has noted.
The post Poaching remains a threat to Thailand's wild tigers appeared first on Sustainability Times.
Source: Sustainability Times
Get a daily dose of Asia Bulletin news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Asia Bulletin.
More InformationWASHINGTON, D.C.: The Trump administration has started sending some weapons to Ukraine again, just a week after the Pentagon told officials...
ECAULT BEACH, France: On clear days, the white cliffs of the United Kingdom, are visible from northern France, where men, women, and...
ATLANTA, Georgia: The United States is facing its worst measles outbreak in more than three decades, with 1,288 confirmed cases so...
In the past month alone, 23 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza—three more than the number of remaining living hostages held...
LONDON, U.K.: At least 13 people are believed to have taken their own lives as a result of the U.K.'s Post Office scandal, in which...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Travelers at U.S. airports will no longer need to remove their shoes during security screenings, Department of Homeland...
NEW DELHI, India: India has submitted a revised proposal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva to implement retaliatory tariffs...
SAN FRANCISCO, California: Nvidia, the Silicon Valley chipmaker at the heart of the artificial intelligence boom, this week briefly...
REDMOND, Washington: Artificial intelligence is transforming Microsoft's bottom line. The company saved over US$500 million last year...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: A federal rule designed to make it easier for Americans to cancel subscriptions has been blocked by a U.S. appeals...
BASTROP, Texas: In a surprising turn at Elon Musk's X platform, CEO Linda Yaccarino announced she is stepping down, just months after...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Former British prime minister Rishi Sunak will return to Goldman Sachs in an advisory role, the Wall Street...