Tiger doubling from 2010 aim review – China

China is a country which has done very poorly when it comes to the tiger. Having a great deal of respect for the tiger – with it woven throughout its early stories, and having played host to 4 of the tiger subspecies ( South china tiger, Amur tiger, indochinese tiger and the bengal tiger). Of these the south china tiger is almost certainly extinct having not been seen for decades, the Indochinese tiger is also extinct, the Bengal tiger has been confirmed in a part of Tibet – though numbers are unknown) and the amur tiger which live along the border between russia and china – perhaps 20 live in china.

As such it seems far to big a stretch to suggest that China has succeeded in doubling the wild tiger population.

Tiger doubling from 2010 aim review – Laos

Laos is not doing well with tigers. Back in 2010 the government estimated that 17 tigers lived in the country.

Unfortunately, with ridiculous numbers of snares there is a great deal of fear that all of the tigers and leopards have been lost from Laos.

As with other countries in the area, it is entirely possible that if the poaching is ended these animals will return.

Tiger doubling from 2010 aim review – Sumatra

Indonesia is a archipelago of islands. Once connected to the Asian mainland, animals were able to make their way along the peninsular. When sea levels rose in the ancient past they were marooned on the islands.

Once they were found on a few islands including Bali and Java. They are now only found Sumatra. Sumatra is thought to have 400 tigers in 2010. This is down from as many as 1000 back in 1978.

San diago zoo estimate the number remaining in the wild at 400-600, but I cannot find any reason for this higher band.

It is possible that the tiger population has increased a bit, but in certainly has not doubled.

Tiger doubling from 2010 aim review – Thiland

As with many of the other countries on this list, precise population numbers do not seem to be available. What is clear is that in 2010 the tiger population was thought to be in excess of 100. Their current population is around 177 ( the population grew by 50% over the last 2 years).

Rapid growth of the population appears to be possible thanks to an improvement in their habitats health.

Tiger doubling from 2010 aim review – Bhutan

Bhutan is a mountainous country, thought to have a small population of tigers. Tigers have been photographed thousands of meters up mountains, and is the only country where this is known to happen. In 2014 a census counted 103 tigers, up from the previous estimate of 75.

There appear to be no further census done. It is entirely possible that Bhutans tiger population has increased, but we cannot know.

Tiger doubling aim from 2010 review – Cambodia

Unfortunately below is the last known sighting of a tiger in Cambodia from 2007

AreTiger (Panthera tigris) walking at night, taken by camera trap in Mondulkiri protected forest of Eastern Plains Landscape, Mondulkiri province, Cambodia. WWF-Cambodia has set up a camera trap in Eastern Plains Landscape since 2002, but only two photographs of tigers have been captured. The first was captured in 2004 and the next in 2007.

With no confirmed sightings since, it is thought that the cambodian tiger is gone. There are plans and conversations going on about reintroducing it -hopefully I can write an article on this in the near future.

Tiger doubling aim from 2010 review – Vietnam

In 2011 vietnams population of tigers was estimated at 20. These are of the Indochinese sub species, unfortunately with only around 350 left across all countries it lives in, this sub species could still be lost. It should be noted, that the last photo was in 1997, and it is considered functionally extinct.

Given populations of tigers in nearby countries, if Vietnam improves its forest health the tiger is likely to return on its own in due course.

Unfortunately, there is little more to say about the tiger in Vietnam

Tiger doubling aim from 2010 review – Nepal

In 2009 the first tiger survey counted 121 tigers. In this year, they set up Banke national park, to extend a reserve in the area called Bardia national park. The two combined protect about 860 square miles of land.

A pair of tigers in Nepal

A survey from 2018 counted 235 individual animals. Unless there has been a total breakdown, and poaching has started up, this is likely to be well about doubling the population by now.

Tiger doubling aim from 2010 review: Bangladesh

It appears that there are only 2 different areas of Bangladesh which still hosts tigers. These include the Sundarbans, an area of mangrove lying between India and Bangladesh and the Chittagong Hills Tract where photographic proof of a tiger has been taken. Unfortunately, though there are tigers in the Chittagong hills tract, it is unlikely going to be more than a few.

While not the habitat people think of, tigers are clearly doing alright in the Sundarbans. The habitat clearly has space for more, but with humans incursions it may never grow much.

There is still some argument about how many tigers call the Sundarbans home. 114 tigers were identified, however as this survey only looked at about 16% of the forest it is reasonable to presume there are more. If all areas of the Sundarbans have similar densities of Tigers, we can estimate the whole population at about 700. Assuming this is prime habitat, the original number of 400-500 seems reasonable.

My judgement is that the tiger population has grown. I suspect that it has not doubled, but it has increased. I suspect that there is still significant poaching, but with continued efforts these tigers could recover.

In 2010 the 12 tiger countries agreed to try to double the number of wild tigers by 2022 how did they do? Today India

Yesterday I wrote about the problem of tigers living as pets in the USA (https://seeanimalswild.com/2022/02/04/there-are-more-than-10000-tigers-living-in-the-usa-with-under-4000-in-the-wild/(opens in a new tab)

Today and over the next few days, I am going to try to do an overview of how the 12 tiger range countries have managed in their target of doubling tiger numbers in the last 12 years.

India:

Indian tiger resting in the shade

In 2010 it is estimated by WWF that India had 1706 tigers living wild within its borders. There are now estimated to be roughly 2967, which would mean an impressive growth but not meeting the doubling goal they have however claimed to have met it (often with lower starting figures). Still a population increase of 72% is not a bad showing in just 12 years. I should note that this number of 2967 is also listed on many pages as the number of tigers in 2018. So it is possible that they have increased the number further over the last 4 years – data is hard to find. One positive point for the future is currently wild tigers only live in about 10% of the potential 115,830 square miles of habitat. Either way, the Indian country is not satisfied with this number, and are aiming to increase numbers by a further 35%. One thing that has been recognized, is that reserves missing apex predators do not do as well. This is for a variety of reasons, but the main ones come down to regulating availability of grazing for too many herbivores. Mizoram’s Dampa reserve, West Bengal’s Buxa reserve and Jharkhand’s Palamau reserve are three tiger reserves within India which have no tigers.

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