Spotted quoll (same species) picture taken by Sean Mclaod
Australia has had a horrific time since the arrival of Europeans, in terms of extinctions. Much of these have been caused by introductions of stoats and weasels, as well as domestic cats. A wide array of species have been pushed to extinction, while many more are gone from the Australian mainland, but survives on island life rafts off the coast.
In this instance, Pao Ling Tsai, a South Australian farmer, thought that their chickens were being taken by cats, but instead had been hunted and taken by a spotted (or tiger) quoll, an animal last seen in the area 130 years ago. It should be noted that there have been multiple reported sightings, though this is the first time it has been successfully photographed.
Having checked that the quoll was healthy, it was released back into the area it was found, and many camera traps have been set up, in order to see if there are any others in the area.
Ulu Masen forest, Aceh, Indonesia photo credit:Abbie Trayler-Smith CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The Leuser ecosystem is one of the most biodiverse in the world, and is the only place where tiger orangutans elephants and rhino can all be found in the same place (and this ignores various special species such as bears and gibbons among many others, which still call this ecosystem home).
This deforestation, carried out to create palm oil plantations, is even occurring within a national park – somewhere where the rules means that a plantation cannot be given a licence. 2 new palm oil processing mills have sprung up near the deforesting concessions: keeping these supplied may well, now be driving further deforestation. Below is a 219 second documentary on this fascinating ecosystem.
Two of the released tigers in a part of Russia not been seen for 50 years – photo credit ANO WSC
Tigers once roamed Russia from East to West, but by the mid 19th century, the population had fallen to just 1000. However, the question is what was it like originally? Well, one thing we have found out in the last decade, was the fact that the Caspian tiger never existed, this was instead, merely the most westerly population of the Amur tiger. The scary thing about this, is it suggests that the Amur tiger would have roamed possibly millions of square miles of land – and presumably have existed in huge numbers, perhaps over 100,000, though the decline in these numbers is likely to predate modern humans (our ancient pre homo-erectus ancestors were incredibly efficient at killing mega-fauna, thought to be responsible for much of the worlds extinct mega fauna).
While parts of the western end of the tigers range are now well populated by humans, there are still vast areas ready for the tigers return – such as countries like Kazakhstan. This move is perhaps less of a jump forwards – never-the-less, tigers have not been seen in this new area for 50 years.
The Amur tiger population dropped very low, which means that these 6 initial translocations are well suited to form an initial core for the new population, though to retain genetic diversity, it will be necessary to translocate tigers back and forth for the next few decades, until both tiger populations are more safe.
We are a long way from the Pri-Amur tiger population being viable in the long-term, but this reintroduction is a good first step. I hope to see an acceleration of these reintroductions (it was a decade ago that translocation into Kazakhstan was discussed, and this has not yet happened). Is this just the first step in allowing the Amur tiger to return to former haunts, or will this be the only step? Time will tell, but at its worst, this should double the habitat, and potentially the population of the Amur Tiger, and is therefore healthy.
A tiger with these markings is rare, but it is not the first time – video at the bottom of the page
Cats are one of the families of species that perhaps show rare colourations relatively regularly. I say relatively, because naturally these can be very rare. Like a black leopard or a king cheetah, these can exist as a recessive gene.
Having said this, a tiger with more black on it, may well be better at hunting when there is little light, which could boost its chances of breeding effectively. This picture is from late in 2023, from Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha. There is a significant history of this genetic mutation in this reserve (though that is not particularly surprising, as black leopards and similar are also genetic so tend to occur in the same area for a time).
Thailand is only thought to have around 120 tigers (as of a photo count last year, but this is up from 100 in 2022). This is a significant reduction on the estimates just a few years ago. It is true that Thailand has significant wilderness within its borders, but there is also significant poaching pressure.
Never-the-less, to see a mother with 3 healthy cubs is rare and very encouraging. Recovery must be allowed to continue, both for the species, and the people of the country, as tigers are worth a great deal in tourism money.
This tiger is the Indo-Chinese tiger subspecies (Click here to visit the tiger page, and scroll to the bottom of the page to click on the subspecies tab).
This is a post origially put out 2 years ago, however, I found the video had not worked, so here it is again.
There are still sizable areas of protected land in Java, and in 2017 a warden took the below photo.
Now it is hard to see it clearly, but to me I think it looks more like a leopard unfortunately
Now I am unsure about this picture but would be pleasantly pleased to be proved wrong.
If not, the Javan tiger is very similar to the Sumatran tiger. As such, with a recovery in the wild Sumatran population if a reserve is not suffering poaching, it would be possible to bring the tiger back to Java.
There has been no more sightings of this animal, which suggests that this sighting cannot have been real, but who knows.
It should be noted, that while rangers decided that it must be showing a leopard, this is still exciting. This is because, while a leopard is not a species declared extinct 48 years ago, the Javan Leopard is a species that is highly threatened. The current estimate of the population of this leopard species is between 188-571, most likely around 250 leopards is an accurate figure.
The video below is a clip filmed of the Javan leopard
The Cats form an incredibly successful family. It is true that they are missing from the polar regions, and Australasia, but everywhere that they reached they have been successful, and in many ecosystems they are the undisputed kings
Panthera Family
This family split from hte Felid ancestor 10.8 million years ago. There have been some debate as to whether the two species of clouded leopards should be included in Panthera. On the circular mammal tree (which we are using – look in the species watch tab, orclick here)
They are generally included in a subgenus Panthera_Neofilis
This website aims to make it easy for those living with wildlife, and those who would like to see it, to find each other. Where-ever the wildlife, if the local people do not benefit it will not survive. Please note, on some computers these maps can take 10 seconds to load.
Explore the worlds wilds, through the map above (each country contains a list of any wild areas within it – world maps for each fo these can be found at the top of the page -“wild places, “shadow of mankind”, “Hides”, “Future places” & “sightings board”), or the species in the expandable section below. Add your destinations, by clicking on “list your wild”. Scroll down to read our latest wild news.
Victoria Falls national park, Zimbabwe, Part of KAZA transfrontier park
One of natures greatest spectacles, the Victoria falls lie within the national park that takes its name, and in turn is part of the vast Kalahari Zambezi Transfrontier park. The area around the falls contains a wealth of wildlife, Covering a total area of 56 000 hectares, both parks lie on the southern bank of the Zambezi River which forms the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. There are a number of picnic and fishing sites available. Activities include guided tours, walks, day and sunset cruises, game drives and adventure activities.
The Rainforest – Here visitors can see unique flora and fauna. Bird species and small mammals may be spotted beneath the forest canopy whilst following the paths through the groves of Date Palm, Fig and Mahogany.
The Game Park – Elephant, Lion, Buffalo, Leopard and White Rhino (the Big Five) can be seen in the park as well as herds of Eland, Sable Antelope, Zebra, Giraffe, Waterbuck and Kudu amongst other smaller species. The Zambezi River is known for its Bream and Tiger Fishing. There are two game drive routes, one accessed through the main gate and the other from just outside town on the Bulawayo road.
