Tiger tales triple bill - October 31, 2007
It’s a good day for tiger news, less good for the tigers themselves. Here’s the run down...
China
Authorities in China have set up check points around the area where a rare South China Tiger was reportedly photographed recently. A team of State Forestry Administration experts is to be sent in to conduct a special investigation, state news agency Xinhua reports. The Times dredges up questions over the authenticity of the original photograph, citing a blog by a botanist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences which voices doubts about size of vegetation shown in the photo. Xinhua also covered doubts on this a while ago.
Indonesia
Tigers - along with elephants, sun bears, tapirs, golden cats and clouded leopards - have been detected in forests allocated for the chop in Indonesia. Scientists from the Zoological Society of London detected at least five different tigers on camera traps placed in 2000sq km of forest already partially logged and recently earmarked for clearance. Sarah Christie, ZSL carnivore programme manager, said, “This work shows that the criteria for developing land in Sumatra need to be urgently reassessed. Just because forests have been logged does not mean they have lost their value for biodiversity” (press release, coverage in Telegraph, Guardian).
However Xinhua was told by Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban “Should the animals found in the non-forestry areas that will be used for palm oil plantation, the animals must be relocated.” Good luck with that minister...
India
England’s slightly tardy paper the Independent has noticed that there are only 1,300 tigers left in India (the story is splashed across its front page today). Similar figures have also surfaced recently in:
Reuters ‘India's tigers need miracle to survive’ 1 October
Washington Post ‘Poaching and Population Threaten India’s Tigers’ 16 October
The Hindu ‘There is hope for the tiger yet’ 14 October
Image: US Fish and Wildlife Service
Comments
The South China Tiger news is a plotted farce. The big cat has sparked a hot debate in the Chinese media. All evidence, from photography, graphic processing, vegetation, tiger behavior perspectives, compels one to conclude that the story a fake and the tiger a printed cardboard. But the popular questioning falls on deaf ears, since a living South China Tiger would certainly be something to brag about for some.
Posted by: xhhu | November 4, 2007 06:10 AM
it is absurd
he claimed had taken 71 pictures in 20 minutes of this tiger which kept a same gesture on that afternoon. about 10 pictures are published now(tiger is all in a precisely same gesture, the tiger posed for pictures???)
the tiger color is differ from the surroundings.
different distance (5--20meters)with same tiger gusture
The peasant said he stalked and searched,pictured it alone for about 20 minutes
the tiger pictures are fake, most chinese people like me, believe it is a paper tiger with a size no bigger than a cat(according to the height and size of the trees and leave beside the tiger paper)
dear editor, We wish a fair and independent investigation, but the mass voice was neglected.
Why not investigate???
Posted by: fei | November 16, 2007 01:18 AM