Roaring back to life: Tigers rebounding in Thailand

The closest I've been to seeing any kind of wild cats in the wild is at a national park in mountain lion territory. So that was a little bit scary, but I didn't see. No, no, no, I was in mountain lion territory. I was walking my little tiny miniature dog in mountain lion territory without realizing. Anyway, never seen a tiger, that's for sure, but I'm guessing you have. No, I've never, never seen a tiger in the wild. No, I think it's extremely difficult, um, and very rare for

that to happen. They're, they're pretty um. They're pretty elusive. So, no, I tried to, as we'll discuss in the story coming up today, but unfortunately, no sightings for me except on the camera trap. You know, they could be looking at you without you realizing, right? They're so stealthy. Yeah. OK. Let's see how stealthy you are with this quiz. We are talking about endangered species today, tiger being one of them.

I want to know how well you know some of the other animals in our part of the world, how many of them are left in the wild. Lee Ling, can you rank these animals by their estimated wild population number? So we've got the Indo-Chinese tiger. There are several types of tigers in Southeast Asia. I'm talking about the Indo-Chinese tiger that you would find in Thailand, for example. We have the Siamese crocodile. We have the Sumatran rhino. And we have the Sumatran orangutan.

So inter-Chinese tigers, Siamese crocodiles, Sumatra rhino, what was it? Sumatran orangutan, um, from smallest population to largest? Or. Anyway, you, you want to do it. All right, so let's let's have a think about it so we give our listeners a chance to think about it too, and then they can write their comments and we'll see. OK. See how well you do at home, see if you can beat Li Ling on this one. Answers at the end of the podcast.

Now for our main story this week. So, I'm sitting on the back of a pickup truck traversing along a dirt trail through thick and dry evergreen forest. This is the home to all sorts of animals, black bears, elephants to piers, but today the research crew and national park rangers are on a tiger hunt, one designed to save the big cats. Their traps of choice are camera traps. This is Meirong National Park, some 360 kilometers northwest of Bangkok, and it's here that tigers are making a big comeback.

So wait. It sounds like you were having an Indiana Jones moment there, Jack, or perhaps, or perhaps channeling David Attenborough, you know, our story begins in the glistening jungles of Thailand's vast western forest complex, where the Indo-Chinese tiger is staging a remarkable comeback. Very good, very good accent. Yeah. Was it exciting? Did you manage to, did you manage to find tigers? You said earlier you didn't, so that's

a shame. But how close were you really? And were you at any point nervous that you might be in the proximity of, you know, what, a 200 pound wild cat? No, I don't think I was nervous. I just think like the, the chances of seeing them during the day as we trundle along in a, you know, a 4 wheel drive was pretty limited. And really, we're not, we weren't really looking for the tigers themselves. Of course, they were out there roaming somewhere, but they are very hard to spot and, and generally

not very keen on people. So we were headed towards a salt lick in the middle of the park. So this kind of just looks like a big mud pit. I don't know if you've been on a safari before, but animals get attracted to these types of places. It's the source of a lot of important,

Minerals that animals need. And this one was actually artificially created and it becomes sort of this meeting place where tigers like to wander around looking for prey, and of course where the prey tends to congregate at different times of the day. And that's what these cameras that are installed here are trying to capture, the signs of life. So we're standing there in the middle of the jungle, looking at a a laptop, scanning for this automatically detected movement of various animals.

And there's a lot, including elephants who routinely like to knock over the trees that contain the cameras. When we arrived, the the camera was just kind of like, Tied with a chain to the tree, but the tree was just lying on the ground. And then, of course, as well, there were bones scattered on the ground. So that was kind of interesting to show that tigers had been around as well. What about tiger poo, like scat?

Was that something you guys were looking out for one of the first things that the teams noticed that there was scat of various animals which showed that this was a busy part of of the jungle. And a paw print as well of a of a large cat. And when you say automatically detected, were these cameras that came with motion sensors and night vision and were they just installed in different parts, OK. But how many were installed, I mean, the Western Forest

Complex is massive, right? It's got 11 national parks, 6 wildlife sanctuaries. How do you track the tiger population in an area like that? Yeah, exactly, you're right, that this, this is an extremely large complex. It's more than 18,000 square kilometers. So it basically stretches along this flank, Thailand's flank with Myanmar. Uh, it's actually the largest forest track in mainland Southeast Asia. So this is a huge area, 11 national parks, as

you said, uh, camera traps in strategic places. They're obviously not putting cameras. Just everywhere because that would be a waste of resources, and of course the rangers have to every now and then go and visit these cameras to kind of understand what's been happening. So, they tend to strategically place them where they know animals like to congregate. And so by creating this salt lick. They can draw animals to that spot. So that's what

they've done in this case. OK, so we know for decades that tiger numbers around the world have been dwindling, and this is due largely to hunting, poaching, habitat loss, infectious diseases as well. I think now globally we've got something like 5000 tigers in the wild, am I right?

You've mentioned in your article too that numbers have been rebounding slowly but surely in countries like India and Nepal, but they have largely been declining in Southeast Asia and Thailand, you say is bucking this overall trend in the region. That's right. So right now in Mei Wong alone, there are 9 tigers that are believed to be living in just this national park. So that doesn't really sound like many, right? But there were probably none going back just a few years. And

this wasn't even protected land until 1987. So Thailand is doing something differently. It is bucking the trend as you, as you say. Now across Thailand, there's estimated to be between 179 and 223 adult tigers in the wild, and the numbers are growing. And there's a lot of potential for these protected landscapes where they are starting to flourish, to carry many more tigers.

The WeFCO, which is the Western Forest complex, could potentially support up to 2000 tigers, given the right protections, according to some experts. And I interviewed Alex McWilliam, who is the regional coordinator for species and habitats at the International Union for Conservation of Nature. He explains the global situation that's going on with tigers, some of these numbers, and also why tigers are important for an ecosystem. Tigers

important part of an ecosystem. They are a top tier predator in those ecosystems, and. If we have healthy tiger populations, that means that we also have healthy populations of other species. We have uh good uh biodiversity in those areas, and that means that, uh, overall, the system, uh of forest, the forest is a complete and working well.

prey species. I mean more tigers mean they need more prey, right? Wouldn't the prey population deplete? So you're right, they're not just focusing on the tigers because it's the prey that that matters. Yes, the tigers are hungry, they're gonna eat, they're gonna eat the prey. And that's why we're calling them, that's why we're calling them the prey. Right, yes. If they have these food sources, they can expand their territories. They

can grow in population. And in Maerong, actually what they're doing is focusing on increasing the number of deer, for example, and Bang, and they've already begun work on these dedicated off-site breeding centers of those particular species. Which when they're ready, they're gonna release into the wild. Oh wow. So I think that's kind of interesting like you're just rearing these deers and then you're like, OK,

good luck out into the tiger habitat. That's interesting. So they're kind of plumping up the prey population to sustain. The increasing tiger population, that makes sense. Now, the other thing is, we know, Jack, that conservation generally is really slow and also very tough to execute effectively. How did Thailand manage to do what so many others couldn't? Yeah, that's a key point that experts I spoke to have made,

that this is such a difficult thing to do. Like saving a species involves so many moving pieces. So let me unpack a little why Thailand has succeeded in this case, or is succeeding. Of course, it's not the end of the story. It's not to say the situation is perfect and that there aren't many other issues with,

with landscapes, with protected areas, with communities, other species. But in this western forest complex, I think what has been important is this holistic and long-term approach to environmental management with a goal in mind, which is to allow tigers to, Expand and to survive. Firstly, I think Thailand has prioritized gazetting large areas of land for protection, and then you add the other ingredients. In this case, it's scientific research.

It's the species monitoring, actually knowing what animals and how many of them are out there, and that's the camera traps. Then the smart patrols, like the one I went on, and the local information campaigns. To involve local communities. So the answer I think is to have data to understand the situation. This data, if you look back even 15 years ago, it's very vague. We have rough ideas of how many tigers are out there. And then you have the, the buy-in from various groups.

And I think overall, this situation is helped by the iconic nature of the tiger itself. And another expert told me, quote, There's very few iconic species or issues quite as compelling as tiger conservation. And that's very powerful and has largely been capitalized on in Thailand. These are dangerous creatures and they don't like to live with or near people generally. What considerations are

there about the human-wildlife conflict? You quoted Mick William in your article saying that overall tigers coming closer into contact with humans can be very negative and we're talking about damage to property, but also loss of life, right? What protections are there then for both man and beast when tiger populations increase and they venture into where people live,

because that would kind of be scary. There's definitely a, a balancing act between population numbers and where these tigers will choose to roam, because, As someone told me, the tigers don't have passports. They don't have a sense of this is the end of their boundaries. They will go where there is food, and tigers are wide roaming animals, and they will come into contact with people, and they will kill livestock. They could

kill people. And we've seen some of these issues actually occurring in India and Nepal where very successful conservation has led to more human wildlife contact. That's right. So a lot of this is around the fragmentation of our natural landscapes. Are we creating corridors for wildlife to move safely and be away from humans, or are we breaking down the connectivity between forests, for example, are we building new roads? Are we building new agricultural

lands that would cause tigers to come into contact with people? So. There are a lot of considerations about land management, how we gazette land in certain ways. Community forests play a big role in this, that's, they're the buffer zones between animals and people. Both are benefiting from that shared space, so. Yeah, a lot of strategies and a lot of thought going into this, but you're right, it will be a consideration if these conservation programs continue to work well.

If you want to read more and see some of the images of the tigers captured on camera traps throughout Mei Wong, go and check out Jack Bor's story on CNA.Asia. Ah, very kind of you. Yes, you're welcome. The videos on YouTube as well. You can check it out. OK, now it's weather time update, it's still cool in Thailand. It's ridiculous. I told you it's gonna be cool for a while. Not much has changed since the last we talked about the weather in Bangkok, and you can continue

to expect that. So first, let's start with Singapore, and this is based on a collection of various weather sources, including my cell phone. So in Singapore, expect rain. What, not scientific enough for you. So in Singapore. In Singapore, expect rainy days with a possible break in the clouds this Saturday. Mild temperatures won't get hotter than

32 °C. In Kuala Lumpur, you'll see a mixed bag of rain and sun as well, with similar conditions in Bangkok, where Jackboard is sunny all day, every day for the next few days, with highs of 34 °C. But yes, you know, you still get that coolish climate for now. In Hanoi, mild conditions with some cloud cover and cool breezes. Jakarta, Nusantara, very high chance of rain, rain, and more rain for the next few days. Back to you, Jack.

OK, back to our quiz question. To repeat it for you, can you rank these endangered species by their estimated wild population number? The animals again, the Indo-Chinese tiger, the Siamese crocodile. The Sumatran rhino and the Sumatran orangutan. OK, so I'm going to start with the smallest population and I'm going to go with the Sumatran rhino, because

you know, rhino horn poaching and all that. And then I'm going to go with the, I'm going to go with the Sumatran orangutan and then Indo-Chinese tiger, and then Siamese crocodile. OK, so. You, that's 11 is correct. 1 is correct. But you just have one out of place, which is ruining everything for you. Um, you're correct that the Sumatran rhino is the most endangered. Less than 50 now in the wild.

So a precarious situation for them. The second most endangered is the Indo-Chinese tiger, that we've been talking about throughout throughout this episode. Uh. About 300. Of course all of these numbers are just rough estimates, and they change with time and with conservation, but about 300 of those. The Siamese crocodile is 3rd, only about 500 in the wild, which is, Pretty surprising given that we have just. Thousands and thousands and thousands of them in crocodile farms,

but in the wild. But not in the wild. Oh my goodness, OK. Yeah. Yeah, and most of those are are in Cambodia who's been enjoying some, some conservation success with those crocodiles. And the least endangered, but still endangered is the orangutan, there's about 14,000 of those particular friendly critters. Hay, orange. Friendly critters, are there numbers going up or down, do you know?

Because there was so much attention on them. There are different types of orangutans as well, like there are with rhinos, crocodiles, etc. So um don't, don't press me too too hard. OK, I won't. All right. OK. That's it for this episode of Climate Conversations. Thanks for joining us. Please give us some feedback or come and connect with us on LinkedIn if you like. We're there. We're sharing stuff all the time. And thank you for joining us. This is Lee Ling Tan. I hope you did better than I

did in today's quiz. Until next week. Bye-bye. I'm Jack Board. Thanks as always to the team that put together this podcast, Ajambala, Sai Ye Win, Tiffany Ung, Janai Jahari, and Christina Roberts.