There's Room for Tigers

A new field study conducted in Nepal suggests that humans and tigers may be able to live together in peace by "timesharing" their shared territories.

Chitwan National Park. Google Images

Neil Carter, a conservation scientist at Michigan State University conducted the study in Nepal's Chitwan National Park to analyze how humans and tigers coexist. Chitwan is only one of twenty-eight reserves in the world that has the capacity to support more than twenty-five breeding tigresses, which according to Carter, is the smallest number of females needed to maintain genetic diversity. Human activity in Chitwan is widespread and the population is nearly double the size of populations of areas in  other countries where tigers live.

In his study, Carter and his team set up more than 75 "camera traps" along roads and other trails from January-May (dry season) of 2010 and 2011. His results showed that the density of tigers inside and outside the park were not much different and were not affected by human presence. They also discovered that 80% of Chitwan tigers inside the park and 95% of Chitwan tigers outside the park were discovered to be more active during nighttime hours. These numbers are far greater than those of tigers living in Malaysia and Indonesia, where more than half of tigers are spotted during daytime hours.

Photo taken by Carter's camera traps in Chitwan. Google Images

Based on his study, Carter concludes that the shift in activity of the Chitwan tigers has been a positive effect for the existence of tigers in this area. However, this coexistence is also largely influenced by the economic incentives the people of Nepal have to get along with their surrounding wildlife. He concludes that this "timesharing" of territory should be included (when it makes sense) in future conservation plans. This kind of a unspoken compromise between humans and wildlife could help to potentially extend the existence of endangered species throughout the world.

Being students at Clemson University, our class know how important it is to have tiger pride. The number of actual tigers left in this world has decreased in alarming rates over the past few decades. This article is relevant in that it shows we can live in harmony with these creatures if we can learn to compromise with Mother Nature. If we don't, they could soon be gone forever.

Google Images

Article: Humans and Tigers Can Timeshare Territory

Written by: Sid Perkins

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/09/humans-and-tigers-can-timeshare-.html?ref=hp