Kathmandu Blues Memoir: Catching 'em Alive (Satis Shroff, Freiburg)
Satis Shroff
April 08, 2007
Tiger Ecology:Catching ‘em Alive (Satis Shroff, Freiburg)
I met John Sidensticker, a tiger-ecologist from the National Zoological Park (Smithsonian Institute) in Katmandu. He was a tall, thin-lipped, well-built man with deep blue eyes and a matching ruffle of brown hair. John had a Ph D in Wildlife Ecology and Management and was in Katmandu with his wife and a two year old daughter. He'd done a four month job at the Royal Chitwan Park when I met him. And there was also Kirtiman Tamang from the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife (Michigan State University).
The goal of the tiger study was to get a detailed ecological and behavioural information on the animal that had to be known if viable populations of tigers were to be maintained in the wild. There was no use in laying a ban on the tiger-hunts and calling that conservation. The tiger is a lone hunter and there's still a lot to be known about about it, in the field of population dynamics, its special features,its social structure,its response to man and so forth. As to the distribution, the Nepalese tiger Panthera tigris, is one of eight subspecies of tigers in the world. Panthera tigris (also called the Bengal tiger) is found in Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Sikkim, Bhutan and West Burma. The other subspecies occur in northern Iran, Afghanistan, China, Siberia and in other parts of south-east Asia.
The tiger-density at the Chitwan Park,according to an estimate in 1974 was between 20 to 25. And the Karnali and Sukla Phanta Wildlife Reserves are said to have fair-sized tiger populations. The cause of the sharp decline in the seventies were: over-hunting, poaching and poisoning of the tiger's prey. The tiger basically needs vegetative cover in which to hide, a source of water and adequate animals to prey upon.
Sadly enough,man's progressive strides have jeopardised the tiger's haven of refuge by clearing forests for agriculture,townships and all the paraphernalia that does in the name of development. The gradual dwindling of Panthera tigris' natural prey leaves it with no option but to go in for domestic animals, thereby bringing it in direct confrontation with a deadly, invincible, ingenuous and fast spreading species called Homo sapiens.
The fieldwork of the ecologist duo began in the Park's Sauraha area, confined to the north-east part. The Chitwan Park is noted for its thick vegetation and complexity, so a zoologist working with only a jotting pad and a pair of eyes would hardly get far trying to study the ecology of the tiger in the Nepalese jungle. It might be the other way around. The duo used radio-telemetry to gather quantitative data on the tiger and, for comparison, leopard movements and predator activities in of the Chitwan tiger. Radio-tracking consists in attaching a radio-transmitter collar around the neck of the tiger or leopard. But strapping the transmitter-collar around the jungle cat is quite a job, because the animal has to be captured first. This is done by shooting the tiger with tranquillizer darts (the drug then in use was: Parke Davis CI-744).
The exact term for this operation is "chemical restraint," and it is the safest means available to "manhandle these overgrown and ferocious cats". The technique used is either to dart free-ranging individuals or to box-trap them. John was telling me that the radio-telemetry and chemical restraint methods were very new in South Asia,in fact they were used for the first time in Chitwan. After an animal is immobilised it is weighed, measured and tagged with a transmitter-collar. The tiger comes out of the drug slowly and there's no danger, I was told. The poor fellow feels groggy and wobbles on its feet for quite sometime. The radio-tagged tigers and leopards return to both:baits and natural kills the same day they were darted, and they went about their home areas just as casually, unmindful of the radio-collars.
From the radio-tagging it has been learnt that tigers and leopards use and reuse specific areas,and they shift from one area to another in keeping with factors like: seasonal changes, their reproductive status and forest-fires and grassland cutting by the local Nepalese. However, the main reason for change of habitat by the tigers tends to be due to prey species becoming scarce.
During the tourist season, which falls incidentally in winter, the tigers and leopards are highly active and move about day and night. However, as the season progresses and the mercury shoots up, the tiger tends to enjoy siestas in the unburned tall grass areas near a waterhole. They also enjoy the shade.
An analysis of the predatory habits of the tigers was made with the information collected from at least fifty natural kills and more than thirty baits killed by tigers and leopards. Most of the natural kills were located by tracking instrumented cats. These kills tell us about the movement of the tigers in relation to their kills, the time taken to finish the kills, and the distance covered and time between one kill and and another. John and Kirti regularly observed Panthera tigris both from elephant-back and per pedis. They made systematic observations from machans (Jägersitz) and line transects. All the data have come in handy in analysing how tigers utilise a particular area in relation to the structure of that area.
Like John was saying,"Only from this can we learn how environmental factors affect,for example,hunting, density of breeding adult tigers, reproductive success, immigration and emigration rates and so on." This has to be known to determine the course management must take to maximise environmental conditions for the tiger.
In Nepal the National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act of 1974 made hunting, killing or sale of tiger skins illegal, and it is illegal to kill a tiger in any part of the world. In the year 1986 alone 28,000 Bengal tiger skins were imported to West Germany according. Furs are status symbols in the western world especially among Royalty and the super rich. A leopard fur-coat costs 50,000 euros.
According to a study on tourism carried out by World Bank adviser Michael Wells based on data collected in 1989, tourism had brought more disadvantages than advantages. The number of tourists visiting Nepal were 260,000 in 1989 and they left 22 million euros in the kingdom. A fourth of this sum came from the tourist's purse from the fees collected while visiting a protected area. But the National Parks could make no profits. The money collected through Park entry fees was 0,8 million euros, but at the same time the Parks had an expenditure of 0,4 million euros.
More than a third of this sum was spent by the Nepalese government to pay the Royal Gurkhas. After the Maoists starting over-running the Police-stations and Gurkha check-posts, the Gurkhas had to be deployed to combat the Maoists, instead of poachers. Due to this deployment, the poachers had a great time, without any control from the Nepalese government. The Royal Gurkhas were deployed originally to be on the lookout for poachers, and also to prevent the local Nepalese from felling trees for firewood, which were actually used for the benefit of the foreign visitors. The rounding up, transport and disposal of the garbage and the excrement left by the tourists also costs money. The World Bank expert suggests raising the entry-fees of the National Parks drastically. In his opinion this will serve as a deterrent to the great number of visitors, and they protect the landscape and provide higher income. But whether this will pay off is another story, and has yet to be seen. His trump is Bhutan, which demands from every tourist 200 US dollars (320DM) per day. In certain circles, it is said that Nepal made a mistake in its management of tourism by letting in all rucksack tourists, who are known for their low budgets. On the other hand, it's a wonderful experience for the Nepalese and westerners to get in contact with each other, develop friendships and interact.
Nepal, which is a favourite destination among low budget rucksack tourists, doesn't have such strict regulations till now, and no compulsory sums to be spent per day. The tourists spend an average of 16 euros per day in Nepal.
I met John Sidensticker, a tiger-ecologist from the National Zoological Park (Smithsonian Institute) in Katmandu. He was a tall, thin-lipped, well-built man with deep blue eyes and a matching ruffle of brown hair. John had a Ph D in Wildlife Ecology and Management and was in Katmandu with his wife and a two year old daughter. He'd done a four month job at the Royal Chitwan Park when I met him. And there was also Kirtiman Tamang from the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife (Michigan State University).
The goal of the tiger study was to get a detailed ecological and behavioural information on the animal that had to be known if viable populations of tigers were to be maintained in the wild. There was no use in laying a ban on the tiger-hunts and calling that conservation. The tiger is a lone hunter and there's still a lot to be known about about it, in the field of population dynamics, its special features,its social structure,its response to man and so forth. As to the distribution, the Nepalese tiger Panthera tigris, is one of eight subspecies of tigers in the world. Panthera tigris (also called the Bengal tiger) is found in Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Sikkim, Bhutan and West Burma. The other subspecies occur in northern Iran, Afghanistan, China, Siberia and in other parts of south-east Asia.
The tiger-density at the Chitwan Park,according to an estimate in 1974 was between 20 to 25. And the Karnali and Sukla Phanta Wildlife Reserves are said to have fair-sized tiger populations. The cause of the sharp decline in the seventies were: over-hunting, poaching and poisoning of the tiger's prey. The tiger basically needs vegetative cover in which to hide, a source of water and adequate animals to prey upon.
Sadly enough,man's progressive strides have jeopardised the tiger's haven of refuge by clearing forests for agriculture,townships and all the paraphernalia that does in the name of development. The gradual dwindling of Panthera tigris' natural prey leaves it with no option but to go in for domestic animals, thereby bringing it in direct confrontation with a deadly, invincible, ingenuous and fast spreading species called Homo sapiens.
The fieldwork of the ecologist duo began in the Park's Sauraha area, confined to the north-east part. The Chitwan Park is noted for its thick vegetation and complexity, so a zoologist working with only a jotting pad and a pair of eyes would hardly get far trying to study the ecology of the tiger in the Nepalese jungle. It might be the other way around. The duo used radio-telemetry to gather quantitative data on the tiger and, for comparison, leopard movements and predator activities in of the Chitwan tiger. Radio-tracking consists in attaching a radio-transmitter collar around the neck of the tiger or leopard. But strapping the transmitter-collar around the jungle cat is quite a job, because the animal has to be captured first. This is done by shooting the tiger with tranquillizer darts (the drug then in use was: Parke Davis CI-744).
The exact term for this operation is "chemical restraint," and it is the safest means available to "manhandle these overgrown and ferocious cats". The technique used is either to dart free-ranging individuals or to box-trap them. John was telling me that the radio-telemetry and chemical restraint methods were very new in South Asia,in fact they were used for the first time in Chitwan. After an animal is immobilised it is weighed, measured and tagged with a transmitter-collar. The tiger comes out of the drug slowly and there's no danger, I was told. The poor fellow feels groggy and wobbles on its feet for quite sometime. The radio-tagged tigers and leopards return to both:baits and natural kills the same day they were darted, and they went about their home areas just as casually, unmindful of the radio-collars.
From the radio-tagging it has been learnt that tigers and leopards use and reuse specific areas,and they shift from one area to another in keeping with factors like: seasonal changes, their reproductive status and forest-fires and grassland cutting by the local Nepalese. However, the main reason for change of habitat by the tigers tends to be due to prey species becoming scarce.
During the tourist season, which falls incidentally in winter, the tigers and leopards are highly active and move about day and night. However, as the season progresses and the mercury shoots up, the tiger tends to enjoy siestas in the unburned tall grass areas near a waterhole. They also enjoy the shade.
An analysis of the predatory habits of the tigers was made with the information collected from at least fifty natural kills and more than thirty baits killed by tigers and leopards. Most of the natural kills were located by tracking instrumented cats. These kills tell us about the movement of the tigers in relation to their kills, the time taken to finish the kills, and the distance covered and time between one kill and and another. John and Kirti regularly observed Panthera tigris both from elephant-back and per pedis. They made systematic observations from machans (Jägersitz) and line transects. All the data have come in handy in analysing how tigers utilise a particular area in relation to the structure of that area.
Like John was saying,"Only from this can we learn how environmental factors affect,for example,hunting, density of breeding adult tigers, reproductive success, immigration and emigration rates and so on." This has to be known to determine the course management must take to maximise environmental conditions for the tiger.
In Nepal the National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act of 1974 made hunting, killing or sale of tiger skins illegal, and it is illegal to kill a tiger in any part of the world. In the year 1986 alone 28,000 Bengal tiger skins were imported to West Germany according. Furs are status symbols in the western world especially among Royalty and the super rich. A leopard fur-coat costs 50,000 euros.
According to a study on tourism carried out by World Bank adviser Michael Wells based on data collected in 1989, tourism had brought more disadvantages than advantages. The number of tourists visiting Nepal were 260,000 in 1989 and they left 22 million euros in the kingdom. A fourth of this sum came from the tourist's purse from the fees collected while visiting a protected area. But the National Parks could make no profits. The money collected through Park entry fees was 0,8 million euros, but at the same time the Parks had an expenditure of 0,4 million euros.
More than a third of this sum was spent by the Nepalese government to pay the Royal Gurkhas. After the Maoists starting over-running the Police-stations and Gurkha check-posts, the Gurkhas had to be deployed to combat the Maoists, instead of poachers. Due to this deployment, the poachers had a great time, without any control from the Nepalese government. The Royal Gurkhas were deployed originally to be on the lookout for poachers, and also to prevent the local Nepalese from felling trees for firewood, which were actually used for the benefit of the foreign visitors. The rounding up, transport and disposal of the garbage and the excrement left by the tourists also costs money. The World Bank expert suggests raising the entry-fees of the National Parks drastically. In his opinion this will serve as a deterrent to the great number of visitors, and they protect the landscape and provide higher income. But whether this will pay off is another story, and has yet to be seen. His trump is Bhutan, which demands from every tourist 200 US dollars (320DM) per day. In certain circles, it is said that Nepal made a mistake in its management of tourism by letting in all rucksack tourists, who are known for their low budgets. On the other hand, it's a wonderful experience for the Nepalese and westerners to get in contact with each other, develop friendships and interact.
Nepal, which is a favourite destination among low budget rucksack tourists, doesn't have such strict regulations till now, and no compulsory sums to be spent per day. The tourists spend an average of 16 euros per day in Nepal.
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