Fewer than 50 wild tigers left in China: conservation group

Malaysian tiger found dead after attack on tribesman
Kuala Lumpur (AFP) Feb 8, 2010 - A tiger which injured a tribesman in northern Malaysia was found dead with gunshot, spear and snare wounds inflicted before the weekend attack, a wildlife official said Monday. Shabrina Shariff, wildlife department director in Perak state, said seven men from one of Malaysia's indigenous groups had admitted injuring the four-year-old male tiger in an attempt to trap it before Saturday's attack. "The carcass of this lovely animal is right in front of me. I am in tears. I love tigers," Shabrina told AFP. "We will submit a report to the prosecution for action," she said, adding that the men faced five years in jail if found guilty of trying to poach one of the world's most endangered species. She said the tiger was the same one that injured Semai tribesman Yok Meneh, who fought off the animal armed only with a rock when he was attacked while gathering food in a forest in Perak on Saturday. The attack left 47-year-old Yok Meneh with a deep gash on his back and injuries to his hands and legs, a local newspaper reported.

"The tiger is a reclusive animal. It would have not have attacked the man if it was not injured," Shabrina said. She said the tiger had been caught in a wire snare but escaped as the poachers returned to kill it with a gun and spears. It was left with a serious leg wound that had become infested with maggots. Loretta Ann Shepherd, a coordinator with the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers, called for swift action. "It is a sad way to welcome the Year of the Tiger. The authorities should prosecute those responsible. Let it be a lesson for other poachers," she told AFP. Conservationists last month called for a war on the poachers who are undermining Malaysia's ambitious goal to double its population of wild tigers to 1,000. With 2010 declared the Year of the Tiger according to the Chinese zodiac, experts fear there will be a surge in tiger poaching. In the 1950s, there were as many as 3,000 tigers in Malaysia but their numbers fell as the country opened up more land for agriculture.

by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Feb 8, 2010
Fewer than 50 wild tigers remain in China, a conservation group said Monday, voicing hope that the Year of the Tiger would not be the last for the endangered cats.

Xie Yan, director of the China programme for the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), said that just 20 years ago tigers still roamed across large swathes of China.

But based on data from the year 2000, there are only around 15 Bengal tigers left in Tibet, 10 Indochinese tigers in China's southwest, and around 20 Siberian tigers in the northeast, she told reporters.

And the South China tiger may already be extinct. According to the international conservation group WWF, none have been spotted in the wild since the late 1970s. In the 1950s, there were around 4,000.

Degradation of the animal's habitat and poaching of the tiger and its prey are blamed for its rapid disappearance.

China banned international trade in tiger bones and related products in 1993, but completely stamping out poaching and illegal trade has been a challenge due to weak law enforcement, experts say.

"Tiger conservation has been depressing for many years, (numbers) keep dropping and dropping," Xie said.

"But last year is the first year I've felt a lot of confidence from the support of the central government, the State Forestry Administration, and the local governments," she added.

"We see improvement in the management of nature reserves, we see the understanding of local communities, so I hope the tiger year will be the turning point for tiger conservation in China," she said, referring to the Chinese Year of the Tiger which starts on February 14.

China was among 13 Asian countries which last month pledged to double the number of wild tigers by the year 2022 and called for the protection of habitats to save the animals from extinction.

The global wild tiger population is estimated to be at an all-time low of 3,200, down from an estimated 20,000 in the 1980s and 100,000 a century ago.

Xie said the greatest hope for tigers in China was in the country's extreme northeast, which borders on Russia where hundreds of Siberian tigers live in the wild.

Authorities in the northeast are implementing several measures to protect the animal and one nature reserve in Jilin province has launched a tiger tourism programme, she said.

The Hunchun Nature Reserve started an annual tiger festival last year, and has plans to develop eco-tourism further with possible excursions into the wild, said Xie.

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