Forest officials seize tiger pelt, big cat suspected to be poached

HM Aravind, TNN | May 26, 2013

The forest and police are jointly conducting an investigation and suspect locals could have killed the tiger and skinned it. While the forest sleuths have recovered the pelt, the big cat's other parts including bones have not been located.

MYSORE: In a suspected case of tiger poaching, the big cat pelt has been found hidden inside forested area adjoining Nagarahole national park in Virajpet taluk in Kodagu.

The forest and police are jointly conducting an investigation and suspect locals could have killed the tiger and skinned it. While the forest sleuths have recovered the pelt, the big cat's other parts including bones have not been located.

Acting on a tip off, the forest sleuths recovered the pelt that was hidden in a rocky terrain in Tithimati forest. The spot is 3km inside Hunsur-Virajpet road. The officials led by DCF Mohan Kumar searched Devamachi reserve forest area and dug out the pelt. It is valued at Rs 4 lakh. The tiger's pelt is located some 10km outside the Anechowkur range in Nagarahole national park.

Field director (project tiger) BJ Hosmath told The Times of India that they are investigating whether the tiger was poached. "As of now, we don't know the reason for the death of the tiger. We are not ruling out poaching and are probing from that angle too," he said.

Part of the reason for the officials to suspect foul play is the fact that they are not able to decide for sure how the tiger has died. But, there are no bullet injuries either.

Recently there are two cases in the tiger belt where big cats were killed using poison. Though the tiger is believed to be 14 years of age, the officials are not sure and are suspecting involvement of anti-social elements. "We are not sure of the age of the tiger looking at the pelt," Hosmath stated.

The tip off was almost exact as the caller told the officials that the pelt is hidden at a certain beat, which the field staff are well aware of.

A wildlife activist, who has worked extensively in tiger reserves in Karnataka, said the life expectancy of the tiger is around 10 years in the wild, while it is around 14 in captivity. Recently, a tigress, which was tracked closely by the field staff died; she was eight years old. She was healthy but died suddenly, he stated. "The tigers are under stress, both from the human intervention and territorial," he explained.

If the tiger has died due to old age at Tithimati, which the anti-social elements have found and skinned to sell its parts, it is also a crime, an official stated.

A vet said it is difficult to establish the cause of death of the big cat merely by investigating the pelt. "Even forensic experts cannot do that. The suspects hold the key to know the cause of its death," the vet, who didn't wish to be named, explained. 

 

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Profile of Elena, a photo by Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr.

Tiger attack: Zoo worker’s family hit out at owner

The woman was mauled by a Sumatran tiger. Picture: Esme Allen

By TRISTAN STEWART-ROBERTSON
Published on 26/05/2013 
 

THE family of a Scottish wildlife keeper who was mauled to death by a tiger have hit out at the animal park’s owner for blaming the young woman for her own death.
Sarah McClay died after being attacked by a Sumatran tiger at the South Lakes Wild Animal Park in Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria, on Friday

The owner, David Gill, yesterday insisted that Ms McClay, originally from Glasgow, died because of “keeper error”. He opened the park as normal on Saturday.
Mr Gill, who founded the park, denied reports that Ms McClay had taken her own life.
The Scot’s family said they were hurt by the claims made by their daughter’s boss before the investigation into the tragedy was complete.

Brother Stephen McClay, 27, said: “These are unsubstantiated claims. My family and I feel his comments are ill-advised, premature and disrespectful.
“He’s laying the blame squarely at her door before the official police inquiries have begun. It has caused hurt to our family.”
He added: “If the investigation found that Sarah made a mistake, then we would accept that, of course. But until it is complete, I don’t think anybody – us or David Gill – should be making comments about who is to blame.”

Ms McClay’s boyfriend, David Shaw, posted a message to her Facebook page on behalf of
the family – including mother Fiona, 49, and sister Lucy, 20, – thanking the public for their support.
Detectives are now trying to establish whether the incident was due to a technical fault at the zoo or human error.
Ms McClay, from the Barrow area, was going about her routine duties in the big cat enclosure at the park when she was attacked. She died later from her injuries in hospital.

Mr Shaw said a memorial page had been set up for donations to a favourite passion – red squirrel conservation.
Mr Gill yesterday posted statements on his animal centre’s Facebook page denouncing news coverage of the death, resisting suggestions the park should be closed or the animal involved destroyed.
He said: “From the investigations that have taken place it is clear this tragedy was caused by a sad error of judgment and breach of protocols – in essence, keeper error.

“This is not blame, it is not anything but defining the facts as they appear. This does not mean Sarah killed herself on purpose it means simply she died from her own tragic mistake.”
He added: “My thoughts are purely with Sarahs [sic] family and friends and very much with my staff. I wish to commend my staff publicly for their compassion, love, care and commitment in a time of severe emotional distress.

“I brought in a counselor [sic] for them and watched as we all suffered from intense media interest and involvement.”
Cumbria Police said an elaborate enclosure of gates means the animals and their keepers should remain apart at all times – but it appeared this system had somehow failed with fatal consequences.

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Sunderbans has more tigers than official estimate

Krishnendu Mukherjee, TNN May 25, 2013

 

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KOLKATA: Conservationists can raise a toast. The number of big cats in the Sunderbans is much higher than official estimates. A recent camera-trap study by WWF-India and the West Bengal forest department has detected the presence of at least 77 tigers in the mangroves, much higher than the lower limit of 64 thrown up by the national tiger census in 2011.

While the cameras captured 57 big cats in the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve (STR) region, a similar study in areas outside the tiger reserve last year had spotted 20 animals.

The three major ranges under the STR area — National Park East, Sajnekhali and Basirhat — have a minimum of 27, 17 and 13 tigers respectively, said STR field director Soumitra Dasgupta. The STR figure doesn't include the number of tigers in the National Park West range, where a study is currently being conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India. "So, the number of big cats in the mangroves can be higher when the final report comes out," Dasgupta said.

Chief wildlife warden N C Bahuguna, too, backed the claim. "I haven't yet received the report, but whatever the figures are, it's a minimum estimation and there can be more tigers," he said.

The figure of 17 tigers for tourist zone Sajnekhali, spread over only 362 sq km, has especially given foresters a reason to smile. "Two successive tiger sightings last Puja at Pirkhali, close to the Sajnekhali beat office, had resulted in a surge of tourists till January," said a forest official. "Though we generally receive around 80,000 tourists between October and January, the best time for tiger sightings in Sunderbans, last year the number crossed one lakh." The tourism zone covers forests of Pirkhali and Dobanki.

While the National Park East zone, spread over 700 sq km, comprises the Baghmara, Chamta and Gona forests, the Basirhat range covers the forests of Jhila, Arbesi and Khatuajhuri. An official said WWF-India members laid 56 pairs of trap cameras in the core forests and the exercise started last November.

Eminent conservation zoologist Ullas Karanth, who had conducted a camera-trap study in the mangroves in 1998, said the figure of 274 once given out by the forest department was highly inflated. "Only long-term population dynamics studies of the kind we are doing in Karnataka will tell us if the population of tigers in the Sunderbans is stable, increasing or declining," he said.

According to Wildlife Protection Society of India executive director Belinda Wright, Sunderbans is a "critical tiger habitat and a lot of hard work will have to be put in — in particularly protecting the prey species — to see a rise in the number of tigers here."
State wildlife advisory board member Joydip Kundu felt the camera-trap study was a landmark exercise undertaken by the WWF and the forest department. "We should move forward and strengthen the conservation efforts in the mangroves," he said.

Sunderbans forest officials had challenged the 2011 tiger census report that had put the minimum number of big cats in the mangroves at 64.

"Sign surveys, radio-collaring and camera trapping were done then to estimate the number. Later, we decided to go for an intensive study, which will be a tiger reserve-specific exercise, to determine the minimum number," said an official of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, adding that the exercise being conducted now is a landscape-specific census.

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Sarah McClay, UK Zookeeper, Dies After Tiger Attack At South Lakes Wild Animal Park

05/25/13 


LONDON -- A young zookeeper who was mauled by a Sumatran tiger at an animal park has died, British police said Saturday.

The woman, 24-year-old Sarah McClay, was in the big cat's enclosure at South Lakes Wild Animal Park in northwest England's Cumbria when she was injured Friday, police said in a statement.
The park's owner, David Gill, told BBC radio that McClay had worked at the park for several years and was "very proficient" in handling big cats, but that the park had strict safety protocols in place against entering the tiger's enclosure.

"For some unknown reason, an inexplicable reason, because there is no reason for why she did it, she opened the door and went into the tiger enclosure and straight into the tigers, and now we'll never know why," Gill said.

McClay was taken to a hospital by air ambulance, but died later from her injuries.

Cumbria police said Saturday they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident. The tiger has been locked in its enclosure since the attack and there are no threats to the public, they said.

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Image of the Day courtesy of Tambako the Jaguar

Tyler's Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge provides homes for big cats

Posted: Thursday, May 23, 2013 

By Christina Lane

All images by Michael Cavazos. Lily the Siberian tiger at Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge.

Nestled away in the tall pines of East Texas is a place where the big cats are free to roam and roar as they please.
Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge in Tyler has provided a home to abused, neglected or displaced big cats since 1997.

Open to the public Monday through Saturday, the refuge is dedicated not only to providing a permanent home for the animals, but also on educating the public.

 

To see a full display of images from Tyler's Tiger Creek , click this link 

“The cats are really amazing individuals,” said Jennifer Chellette, director of animal care at Tiger Creek. “It’s really neat, to me, for people to be able to come here and see the big cats exhibiting their natural behavior. They’re like house cats — they’re just bigger. It’s very easy to fall in love with them.”

A purr-fect home

Brian Werner started the Tiger Missing Link Foundation in 1995 in an effort to start documenting tigers in captivity in zoos outside of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. One of the first tigers he acquired was a rare Indochinese tiger. That tiger participated in the first genetic testing of tigers, according to Tiger Creek’s history.

In 1997, Brian Werner met up with Terri Werner, who also had an enthusiasm for rescuing big cats. Together they established Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge on 25 acres of land that Brian Werner had purchased years before. They cleared the land and built habitats for the unwanted tigers. In 1999, Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge opened up to the public.

“We started with one tiger and before long we got another, and then another and we just kept growing,” Chellette said.

The refuge is now home to 26 tigers, five lions, three pumas, two leopards and two bobcats. The refuge receives animals that have been abused, neglected or displaced. For example, when a drive-through safari closed down, Tiger Creek took in eight big cats that didn’t have anywhere else to go, Chellette said. Other cats have come to them from circus acts, roadside attractions and owners who did not provide them with the proper care, she said.

For animals that have been abused, refuge workers have to be more careful about how they handle them; however, for the most part the refuge is hands off with the big cats.
“We have to get to know their personalities,” she said. “Some of them like to be talked to. Some of them don’t. If they want to socialize, then we try to do that with them. We don’t force it though. We want to make the cats feel comfortable.”

When Tiger Creek first opened, it could only afford smaller cages with exercise yards to rotate the cats in; however, it began to grow and developed more space for the cats. The refuge has seen a lot of changes in recent years, particularly since 2008, Chellette said.

Newer habitats have indoor enclosures so the cats can be locked up while caretakers clean their outdoor spaces, she said. The indoor enclosures are also used to separate two cats when first introducing them. It allows one cat to be outside with the other inside; however, the two can see each other through bars.
The cats have lounging areas, pools of water, toys and more space, she said.
“Our goal is to increase the comfort level of the cats while also giving them more space,” Chellette said.

At Tiger Creek, there is no breeding or selling, she noted.
“We provide a home of top-quality care for the cats for the rest of their lives,” Chellette said. “Every cat who comes here stays here for the rest of its life.”

Meet the cats

Each of the cats at Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge has an individual personality. Some are well-socialized and friendly; others, prefer their space. They can be aggressive, playful and loving.
Their backgrounds are as varied as their personalities.

Tara, a tiger, arrived at Tiger Creek as a cub along with her sister. Chellette said their owner was not able to keep them. Tara has been at Tiger Creek ever since. When she was a young cub living under her owner’s care, Tara didn’t receive the proper nutrition and developed a metabolic bone disease, Chellette said. While her growth has been stunted a bit, Tara is one of the refuge’s friendliest tigers. Chellette attributes it to her being raised there since she was a cub.

Near Tara’s home, is another habitat for Pepe, Kenya and Scrunches, three lions who reside together. Kenya, a female, came from a private owner while Pepe, a male, and Scrunches, a female, came from Mexico where they were part of a roadside attraction, Chellette said. People would stop along the roadway to take pictures with the lion cubs; however, once Pepe and Scrunches grew up, their owner had no use for them anymore as part of the roadside attraction, she said.

“When Pepe came here, he had ringworm and mange. It took a while to get him back to good health,” she said. “Scrunches growth was stunted. She has joint and development issues, and she requires special care, but she has a very good attitude.”

Juda, another male lion, came to Tiger Creek after the sanctuary he was living in had to let him go when laws changed. At the time, female lioness Ngala did not have anyone to share a habitat with because a male lion at Tiger Creek had just passed away.
“Since we had a lone female, we introduced them,” Chellette said. “Lions are very social creatures. They prefer to be with another. Tigers are not as social.”

Tiger Creek consistently receives calls from people looking to place a big cat, Chellette said. When the refuge is at capacity as it is now, she said, they try to call other sanctuaries to see about placing an animal that they can’t take with them.

Sarge and Lily (shortened names for Sergeant and Tiger Lily) came to Tiger Creek from a sanctuary in Indiana. That sanctuary had taken in a female tiger that turned out to be pregnant, Chellette said. The tiger had four cubs and Tiger Creek took two of them. Sarge became the mascot of East Texas Baptist University in Marshall.

Sarge and Lily’s first year of life at Tiger Creek was filmed for a documentary, “Growing Up Tiger,” that aired on Animal Planet a few years ago, she said. The documentary showed their first time to play outside, their first time swimming and other firsts for the two tigers.

Last week, as Lily rubbed her face against one of her toys (a rubber tub), she would jump back in fear when her face created a noise against the tub.
“They’re so big, you would think they wouldn’t be scared of anything,” Chellette said with a smile as she watched Lily. “But, they’re just like any other cat, only bigger.”

Panthera tigris proliferation

Though Tiger Creek’s mission continues to stay the same, the nonprofit entity is continuing to grow.
The refuge has grown to more than 40 acres and is continuing to open new, bigger habitats for the cats.

“Getting enough space is always a challenge for big cats like these,” Chellette said. “You also have to get them paired with the right neighbor. Having the funds to provide them with the habitats they need and the vet care they need is the biggest challenge. If you have the funding, the cats themselves are actually really easy to work with.”

Because it is a nonprofit organization, the majority of its funding comes from donations, Chellette said. The bulk of its funding comes from a nationwide mail out campaign. Gate fees at Tiger Creek help provide for the cost of extra things, she said. Gate fees are $10 for adults; $9 for seniors ages 55 and older; $6 for children ages 4-12; and free for children ages 3 and younger.

While winter months are slower than the summer, overall Tiger Creek sees more than 15,000 visitors each year, Chellette said.
Among the most rewarding aspect to Chellette is that people get to see cats in their natural environment while Tiger Creek educates them on the need for facilities such as this.

“Seeing the cats settle in and be happy, especially when they’ve come from a bad situation is just so fulfilling. They can run and be carefree here,” she said. “Our goal is to provide a top quality facility that can be a model for other sanctuaries. We want to provide a safe, stress-free environment for the cats.”

If you go

What: Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge
Where: 17552 FM 14 in Tyler
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, weather permitting
Cost: $10 for adults; $9 for seniors ages 55 and older; $6 for children ages 4-12; and free for children ages 3 and younger
Information: www.tigercreek.org

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Proposed Legislation May Affect Cat Haven

By Claudia Rodarte, KSEE24 News

May 20, 2013


Supporters of the bill say this is a big step forward in keeping the public safe, but one local wild animal park says that's just not true. In fact, it could affect big cats like these.

Project Survival's Cat Haven in Dunlap is home to 27 big cats; like tigers, lions and jaguars. A non-profit organization working to save cats in the wild.

Dale Anderson, Director of Project Survival's Cat Haven says the park would essentially be closed down if the bill is passed. "it's too broad as far as what it does and so we have issues with the bill because it includes organizations like ours."

The bill would ban the private possession and breeding of these categorized big cats. International Fund for Animal Welfare is spearheading the bill. They say a big problem is when people keep these wild cats as pets or exhibit them for profit.

Tracy Cappola, IFAW: "Very seemingly innocent endeavors, but are really really horrible for animal welfare, global conservation and of course public safety."

Anderson says it's frustrating to have to deal with congress again on things that are already taken care of. "We already have laws in effect that you can't have been cats out in public, you can't have public contact with big cats... those laws are already there."

The animal welfare group says they're looking out for the well-being of the animals. "True conservation isn't breeding the animals and then displaying them you know for public handling."
Anderson is compliant with all rules and regulations and says it's not right that they would try to eliminate all private organizations completely.

"When they start making legislation, the government makes broad stroke legislation and it encompasses people like us people, they don't make exceptions for us."

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As forests disappear, Indonesia must monitor big cats to reduce human wildlife conflict, says scientist

Source: Wed, 22 May 2013 

Author: Catriona Moss

As Indonesia’s national parks face threats from deforestation and human encroachment, it’s vital that tigers, leopards and other large mammals be monitored as part of conservation efforts – otherwise clashes with people will intensify, a senior scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research warns.

“New programs or policies aimed at protecting wild animals will have little impact unless they actually monitor the territories and behavioural patterns of key species,” said Terry Sunderland.
His comments come after rare images of three Javan leopards (Panthera pardus melas),were captured in a national park in west Java, Indonesia – part of recent CIFOR research to monitor declining leopard populations.

It is hoped that the images, which include other elusive species, such as barking deer, small-clawed otter and common palm civet, will provide the national park with vital data to better understand leopard home ranges in order to develop policies aimed at reducing human wildlife conflict.
“Big cats often have a defined territory or range, so once that is determined, you can pretty much manage your national park to avoid conflict situations to some extent,” Sunderland said.

This could include redrawing national park zones and boundaries to ensure that communities do not collect forest resources in areas where big cats are known to breed; carrying out interventions to scare wildlife away from smallholder farms and plantations; and implementing compensation schemes that pay communities when cattle is killed or crops destroyed.

The race for space in national parks in Indonesia

The need to survey and track biodiversity in Indonesia – which has the world’s second-largest tract of rainforest and one of its richest ecosystems – has become  increasingly clear in recent decades.

Despite a two-year moratorium, recently extended, to limit forest clearing for palm oil, agricultural plantations and commercial logging, up to 1.1 million hectares of forest is lost every year, according to Ministry of Forestry data. That’s decimating already vulnerable habitats. While the country is home to the world’s largest number of mammal species, a third of these are facing extinction.
At the same time, many local communities are being displaced from their traditional lands, sometimes into national parks and protected areas.

In Sumatra, CIFOR research has shown that landless farmers are converting buffer zones around Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park into smallholder agricultural and coffee plantations – a quarter of Indonesia’s coffee is now grown in national parks.
“It shows that the drivers of displacement from unprotected forest land are so strong that people are now willing to take the risk and set up farms in national parks … They have become the last areas of forest that people rely on,” Sunderland said.

As such, wildlife and people are increasingly coming into contact.
In January 2013 it was reported that 10 pygmy elephants, one of the rarest sub-species of elephant in the world, were poisoned on Borneo, an island shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Although not confirmed, a retaliatory killing by a local farmer for damage done to crops was cited as the most likely cause.

Tigers and people clash in Sumatra

Human-tiger conflict is something that a team from the Indonesian branch of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is seeing on a regular basis.

For the past four years, they have been monitoring tiger populations and their home ranges in Berbak and neighbouring Sembilang National park on the island of Sumatra. The island is home to the last 350 Sumatran tigers in the wild.

As acacia and palm oil plantations spring up around the national park’s borders, tigers are increasingly moving into areas frequented by humans, says Laura D’Arcy, Country Manager for ZSL Indonesia.

“The fruits and vegetation produced by these plantations attract an abundance of tiger prey, such as pigs and deer, which lure tigers out of the forest,” she said. “The goats and cattle reared by smallholder farmers are also an easy meal for a sick or injured tiger.”

As tigers move into these areas, the consequences can be deadly.

“Palm oil is an extremely lucrative crop, so to protect their plantations from crop raiding by pigs, farmers are now using electrical fences, spanning several kilometres, with deadly voltages. We have lost two adult male tigers in one month from electrocution.”

During a patrol last year, the team discovered a set of tiger bones while setting up camera traps to monitor big cats in the area. With the skin and teeth still remaining and the body badly decomposed, the team ruled out a deliberate kill.

“Tigers are often killed by poachers as they are extremely valuable for export in the illegal wildlife trade, but they can get caught accidentally in snares set up to catch other prey,” D’arcy said. “It is very likely this snare was put out to catch a large animal, such as a deer, and then was forgotten about by the poacher with tragic consequences.”

It is always disheartening to lose a tiger, she said, especially when so many deaths could be avoided. However, ZSL, in partnership with the Wildlife Crime and Conflict Response team (WCCRT) – a team of national park staff, ministry and district-level forestry officials tasked with enforcing the laws protecting national parks and tigers – are already seeing results from their activities on the ground.
The WCCRT carries out foot patrols to catch illegal poachers and collect snares, D’Arcy said. They also teach communities how to use tiger-scaring devices, such as flares, and help them find more wildlife friendly ways to protect their crops.

“We even have a tiger hot-line that communities can call in the event of an incident. Incidences of human tiger conflict have decreased, so we know what we are doing is working.”
atrols and collars tracking tigers as they move through forest is being relayed daily through a central database system that has helped reduce human-tiger conflict and improved protection efforts.

“Technology has advanced so much in the last few years that we can now identify individual tigers and can get a more accurate picture of their behaviour as they move through the landscape. The database also gives people the incentive to share information.”

“It is all vital evidence to ensure tiger protection in the future.”

Can wildlife and people live side by side?

Such monitoring, Sunderland argues, is one way to ensure that legislation and initiatives aimed at protecting key species – that normally come at a cost to both people and wildlife – are actually effective.

“At the moment there is a lot of confusion over rights and access to forests resources, which as forests and wildlife habitat dwindle, will only exacerbate human-wildlife conflict in the future.”
“There needs to be some kind of trade-off, and these decisions need to be based on accurate data,” he added

For example, compensation schemes that would pay farmers for loss of livestock and crops could be one way to prevent retaliatory wildlife killings. Although Indonesia does not yet have such a scheme, those carried out by small non-governmental organisations like the Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC) in Namibia, Africa, to cover crop damage from wildlife attacks, have had some positive impacts.

However, the monitoring of big cats in Indonesia will be vital to help eliminate false compensation claims, Sunderland says, as these are often linked to the wider and more serious problem of the wildlife trade, which according to TRAFFIC reached the value of USD323 billion in 2009.

“The wildlife trade and human wildlife conflict go hand in hand. Retaliatory killings for damage done to crops or loss of livestock are often used as an excuse to hunt valuable and protected species, which are often sold on the black market to consumers, ” said Sunderland.

“There are cases where people claim crops are being destroyed and livestock taken with very little evidence to suggest that tigers, leopards or elephants, are actually the ‘perpetrators’ of the crime.”
It’s a challenge to ensure that people and wildlife live peacefully side by side, says Sunderland, especially as success often depends on well-funded conservation programs and the support of local communities to adapt their livelihoods.

“It’s very sad that national parks in Indonesia are unable to adapt to the pressures placed upon them as there is so little money put on the table for operational costs.”

“This makes the involvement of the community in managing wildlife even more critical,” he said. “They know the parks, they know the wildlife, and, as the ‘gatekeepers’ of the resources within, they often know how to manage the land sustainably. In many cases their management systems are better than the legal instruments put in place.”

“So involving communities in a really meaningful way – don’t just ‘say’ participation, ‘do’ participation – is the way forward.”

For more information about the issues discussed in this article, please contact Terry Sunderland at t.sunderland@cgiar.org

This research is carried out as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.

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Big cat's huge hairball

Big cat's huge hairball

Thu, 23 May 2013

Ty the tiger's 1.8kg hairball (Supplied)

It's not unusual for a cat to get a hairball, but a 181kg tiger needed help from veterinary surgeons in Florida when he couldn't hack up a basketball-size hairball by himself.

The 17-year-old tiger named Ty underwent the procedure Wednesday at a veterinary centre in the Tampa Bay area community of Clearwater. Doctors said in a statement that they safely removed the 1.8kg obstruction from Ty's stomach.

The tiger, which is cared for by Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation in Seminole, was brought to veterinarians after not eating for nearly two weeks. Doctors said they detected the hairball using a scope with a camera.

Vernon Yates, whose non-profit group regularly assists law enforcement agencies with seized animals, says he's thankful the hairball was removed and Ty is doing fine.

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How the White Tiger Got His Coat

The white coat of white tigers, such as these ones at Chimelong Safari Park in China, results from a change in a pigment gene. CREDIT: Chimelong Safari Park View full size image

Tanya Lewis, LiveScience Staff Writer

Date: 23 May 2013

The strikingly beautiful, milky coats of white tigers are caused by a single change in a known pigment gene, a new study finds.

Since their discovery in the Indian jungle centuries ago, white tigers, a variant of Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris), have had a certain mystique. Captive white tigers have been inbred to preserve the recessive white coat trait, leading some to speculate the trait is a genetic defect. But the genetic basis of tiger whiteness was not known. (A recessive trait will only show up if the individual gets two genes for that trait, one each from mom and dad.)

White tigers have now disappeared from the wild. "The white tiger represents part of the natural genetic diversity of the tiger that is worth conserving, but is now seen only in captivity," study author Shu-Jin Luo of China's Peking University said in a statement.


Luo and colleagues are calling for a captive management program to maintain both white and orange Bengal tigers, and possibly to reintroduce the cats back into the wild.

To find out the genetics responsible for white tigers' creamy hue, Luo's team mapped the genomes of a family of 16 tigers — both white and orange — in China's Chimelong Safari Park. The researchers also sequenced the full genomes of the three parent tigers. They validated their findings in 130 unrelated tigers.

The team focused on a pigment gene called SLC45A2, which is linked to light coloration in modern Europeans as well as horses, chickens and fish. The white tigers carried a variant of this gene that inhibits the production of red and yellow pigments without affecting black pigments, results showed.
The gene variant explains why the majestic cats lack the rich orange shade of their feline cousins but still have their famous dark stripes. The findings are detailed today (May 23) in the journal Current Biology.

Now that the researchers have identified the white color gene, they want to investigate how these two color varieties, white and orange, have survived through evolution.

Records of white tigers in India date back to the 1500s, Luo and colleagues say. They appear able to survive in the wild, as their primary prey, such as deer, are probably colorblind. The animals were widely hunted, and the last known free-ranging white tiger was shot in 1958. Habitat destruction probably contributed to the cats' decline.

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Images of the Day

 

A Portrait of Louis

 

A very very close-up of Louis

Image of the Day

Sophie looking on the side, a photo by Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr.

Image of the Day

Funny lying female snow leopard II, a photo by Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr.

Famous Big Cats from India Face Threats of Extinction

Mon, 05/20/2013 - 13:35 by Emilia Marowanyanga

 

Scientists have warned that collapse in the variety of mating partners is posing a grave threat of extinction of famed big cats of India. Welsh researchers said that tigers nearly wiped out in India during British rule. The mechanized trophy hunting was the predominant cause behind the wipe out.

Scientists, for the first time, compared the data of modern tigers with tigers shot during the time of the British Raj so as to have a better perspective of genetic diversity.

The researches were granted an unprecedented access to Natural History Museum of London's tiger collection. They found a very high number of DNA variants in the tigers shot during the British rule. The scientists revealed that 93% of the DNA was shockingly missing in Indian tigers today.

During the last three generations, the territory, occupied with tigers, has sought a decline for more than 50%. The latest research said that only seven percent mating occurs of its historical territory.

Scientists from Cardiff University said that both conservationists and the Indian government must appreciate that the species' survival cannot be ensured by the number of tigers alone. The whole spread of forest reserves have to be protected, as many reserves have their own unique gene combinations, which might be useful for future breeding programmes.

sources 

60 Minutes: Discovering the Secrets of Lions

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Dereck and Beverly Joubert have been filming Africa's lions for 30 years and their discoveries have challenged conventional wisdom. Lara Logan reports.

The following script is from "Lion Kings" which aired on Nov. 25, 2012, and was rebroadcast May 19, 2013. Lara Logan is the correspondent. Max McClellan, producer.

60 Minutes Overtime

Dereck and Beverly Joubert have spent more time filming and living among lions in the wild than anyone alive today. The discoveries they've made over 30 years of wildlife filmmaking have challenged conventional wisdom about Africa's big cats.
They've made more than 20 films for National Geographic, where they are "Explorers in Residence."
They live in Botswana in the heart of southern Africa, a country about the size of Texas.
As we first reported in November, the Jouberts often go long stretches without seeing another human being, but they made an exception for us, and allowed us to join them in a wild place they call home.
For information on the Big Cats Initiative, click here
Their films are known for these spectacular cinematic moments. But what distinguishes their work is their belief that all the animals have untold stories which they bring to life in their films.

21 Photos

Behind-the-scenes on a 60 Minutes safari

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From King of the Cats to House Cat, all are magnificent!

Leopards: 21st Century Cats, BBC One, review

Jake Wallis Simons reviews Leopards: 21st Century Cats on BBC One, and discovers what causes the animals to 'go rogue'.

A leopard at the Junnar Wildlife SOS rescue centre in India Photo: Icon Films/Laura Coates

 

 

By Jake Wallis Simons

18 May 2013

Did you know that there are around 14,000 big cats living in India today, often within metres of humans? Did you know that Mumbai is infested with them? And did you know that in some districts they are afraid of humans, while in others they have mysteriously become man-eaters?

If the answer to the above is no, you must have missed Leopards: 21st Century Cats (Friday, BBC Two). I didn’t. I was gripped.

The presenter, the wonderfully named Romulus Whitaker, one of India’s leading conservationists, kicked things off by relating the tale of how his dog was dragged off and killed by a leopard at his home in southern India. From there he went on the hunt, travelling across India to try to work out why some leopards turn bad.

At one point, he tested the tameness of a leopard by advancing, unarmed and in full view, until he was within metres of the animal. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Attenborough.

The final 20 minutes of the documentary had rather too much Blair Witch nightscope footage for my liking. And at times it was rather hammy, what with the overblown accounts of leopard encounters and repeated shots of the clouds passing in front of the moon. Romulus’s conclusion, however – that leopards go rogue when they are “messed with” by man, and that with a bit more tolerance, inter-species coexistence is possible – was compelling.

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Young mountain lion rescued from Santa Cruz aqueduct

Thursday, May 16, 2013

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mountain lion Santa Cruz sedated

 

Photos of Santa Cruz mountain lion rescue

 

RAW VIDEO: Footage of mountain lion being sedated in Santa Cruz

 

KTVU

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — 

A young male mountain lion tranquilized and rescued after it was trapped for hours in an aqueduct near downtown Santa Cruz is being released into the wild Thursday, a state Department of Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman said.

The cat was first seen around 7 a.m. Later in the morning, it became trapped in the Branciforte Creek aqueduct near Water Street and May Avenue, police said.

Wildlife rescue crews from the University of California at Santa Cruz Puma Project were able to tranquilize the animal and it was transported to the Marine Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center in Santa Cruz, department spokeswoman Janice Mackey said.

Staff from Moss Landing-based WildLife Emergency Services provided equipment for the rescue, including netting to block escape routes at the creek after they were alerted about the situation by Santa Cruz authorities around 8 a.m., group president Rebecca Dmytryk said.

A veterinarian from the Department of Fish and Wildlife was also at the scene, Mackey said.
A staff member from WildLife Emergency Services helped the veterinarian and police personnel move the tranquilized animal into a crate, Dmytryk said.

"We were all working for the good of the animal as well as the safety of the people," Dmytryk said.
The mountain lion weighs about 100 pounds and is healthy and in "very good condition," Mackey said.

Dmytryk said the young mountain lion is likely a few years old.

The mountain lion was taken to the center around 1 p.m. and was expected to be released later Thursday -- after the effects of the tranquilizer wore off -- into an undisclosed area of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Mackey said.

No one was injured during the hours-long rescue effort, police said.

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