" This Studying
Is
Killing Us!"
You might here
this from a wild tiger if they had the ability to communicate with
Homosapiens; people
in other words. How
much more study of a species do we need when they are being crowded
out and poached to death? Do we need to tranquilize another wild tiger
for radio collar tracking when the anesthetic could kill? We already
know where the tigers are! We know they're territorial, we know how
they kill, we know how they mate, we know they will tear up a papier-mâché tiger
when placed inside their enclosures, but first and foremost we know
they're headed for extinction! All the study in the world
is not going to stop that inevitability. Dr. Michael Bleyman, a leading
zoologist and founder of the Carnivore Preservation Trust, once told
me a representative from the American Zoo and Aquarium Association
(AZA) stood up at a Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) meeting and stated that
it was their intention to manage tigers in the wild until extinction.
That sums it up pretty well.
Do scientists in the field
really want to save these tigers or just keep their jobs? A friend
in England who attended
the 1997 Tiger
2000 Symposium in London wrote, "The tiger symposium was a
big success !!! well...that is it attracted a lot of publicity and
the jolly old UK government even threw in some research funds to boot!!
The first day was concerned primarily with Tiger habitat and prey density...however
at the risk of sounding bored, they might all have been reading directly
from George Schallers 'The Deer and the Tiger'…. Anyway quite
frankly, the more they talk- the less they say, and the less they say,
the more it costs!! There will be an official report out soon although
what great conclusions will remain to be seen."
There are exceptions, as
my friend went on to state, "…Billy
Arjan Singh, who I think is one of the few genuine tiger lovers
in the world, threatened to operate a shoot to kill policy in order
to preserve his tigers. The local Indian government had a lot of objections
to this, and he almost succeeded by saying he was merely protecting
his land…" This is the answer. You want to save tigers you
initiate a shoot to kill policy against any poachers. This policy brought
the elephants back. Convince the governments in these countries where
tigers live to place a military ring around the remaining isolated
tiger 'islands', islands meaning a land mass surrounded by civilization,
and shoot any poacher that crosses the perimeter. That's where funds
should be going.
The following excerpt is
from the Tiger Information Center's World Wide Web page, " On
September 28, 1995 the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Exxon
launched
the Save the Tiger Fund
(STF), an international effort to assist in the long-term survival
of Asia's remaining populations of wild tigers. Exxon pledged $5 million
over five years to tiger conservation, one of the largest single corporate
donations ever made for an endangered species. The establishment of
the Save the Tiger Fund represents a real commitment by Exxon and the
Foundation to save the tiger from extinction in the wild through the
generous funding of a diverse and effective group of conservation projects.
This sort of commitment is desperately needed; the wild tiger is more
imperiled now than ever before, as increased poaching and relentless
habitat loss threaten the tiger's survival throughout its range.
Now in its third year of
operation, the Save the Tiger Fund has funded 41 projects with a total
of $3,348,712.
Over $200,000
of this funding has been raised from the general public. Thousands
of individuals, from school children to business professionals, have
joined Exxon and the Foundation in the effort to save the tiger, and
their contributions are making an impact from the National Zoo in Washington,
DC to Kaziranga National Park in the jungles of India…"
I invite you to
visit their site and
read for yourself how this money is spent (if that is still available).
You will find the majority of it going to more field studies and meetings.
There
is one
project
where the money went to buy two jeeps for an anti-poaching team. Two
jeeps, more meetings, and a lot more study.
This is from the Director
of TRAFFIC East Asia, "The
demand for tiger bone in traditional Chinese medicine is pushing three
of the world's remaining five subspecies of tiger ever closer to extinction
and threatening the long-term survival of the species as a whole. There
are only an estimated 30 to 80 South China Tigers, 150 to 200 Siberian
Tigers and 600 to 650 Sumatran Tigers left in the wild. Worldwide,
tigers have vanished from much of their former range and may now number
as few as 5,000.
Tigers could once be found
from Bali to the Caspian Sea. As human populations grew, however, loss
of habitat became the greatest
threat to the species' survival. Habitat loss played a key role in
the extinction of the Bali Tiger in the 1940s, the Caspian Tiger in
the 1970s and the Javan Tiger, considered to have disappeared as recently
as the 1980s. Today, the medicinal trade in tiger bone is proving just
as deadly. Prime tiger habitat, such as that in the Russian Far East,
may remain long after the last tiger is killed to supply the bone trade."
Why put money into programs that sound good but
are ineffective? Could publicity have anything to do with it? Tigers
are a popular item.
Let's get down to some cold, hard reality. Field
scientists are not going to save the tiger. Exxon is not going to save
the tiger
by putting their money into more field studies and meetings. Governments
are not going to commit their militaries or significant funds to save
these animals. With the value of a full grown, boned out tiger bringing
upwards of $100,000 (US) poachers will become more and more sophisticated.
Eventually, when the tiger is gone in the wild new targets will be
zoos and private preserves. None of these facilities is equipped
to prevent the taking of their tigers, and these poaching teams will
not be local villagers trying to make money to feed their families.
These will be teams of ex-military paid huge sums for their expertise
and efficiency. Make no mistake, the cartels that traffic in
tiger bone will not cease this activity until all tigers
are gone, or the people who ultimately purchase this contraband realize
the error of their ways and no longer offer a lucrative market. No
buyers, no poaching. This is not likely anytime soon. It will take
many generations for the tiger bone myth to disappear into history.
So, its hopeless then! No, it is not hopeless.
A plan has to be undertaken to ensure the survival of the species before
its too late. We need a preserve that will incorporate the features
necessary to effectively prevent the poaching of these magnificent
animals by any para-military team and at the same time be able
to provide genetic management, vast habitats, food, expert medical
care, and visitor amenities. All this is possible right now. There
is nothing futuristic about it.
Let the scientists go about their business in
the wild until there are no more tigers to study. This is a select
'club' that
wants no more than funding and to be left alone. I personally have
written to many of these leading scientists and have received no responses.
It was an effort that needed to be made, but no more time will be spent
in that pursuit. I am working to raise funds for this new tiger facility
to be called Paleocene Park in honor of
the late Dr. Michael Bleyman. Proceeds from product sales will be used
to develop this exquisite preserve.
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