Dear Readers,

Few weeks back, i happened to come across online msn video showing how the latest *intelligent group* uses elephant to be the spy of the jungle...

never seen before close up of tigers and the cubs gave more inside to us. :D

click here to watch part of the video... guaranteed eyes catching.

Comment! (1) | Recommend! | Categories: Tigers [t], Documentary [t]

Dogs to help sniff out tigers
Associated Press
February 15, 2009
Source: AJC.COM

Phnom Penh, Cambodia �- Maggie the German wirehaired pointer has arrived in Cambodia with an unusual task �- sniffing out tiger droppings in one of Cambodia�s largest nature reserves.

The unorthodox move to employ a dog trained in Russia to search for signs of the big cats is part of a campaign to boost a tiger population in Asia that has plummeted to as few as 5,000 from 100,000 a century ago.

Starting this week, the salt-and-pepper dog will begin scouring the undergrowth and sniffing for tiger scent on trees in an area of northeastern Cambodia.

It is unclear how many tigers are even left in Cambodia, where �- as in much of Asia �- poaching and habitat encroachment are blamed for decimating the population.

The turn to dogs comes after camera traps and field surveys failed to find the big cats last year. The last sign of a tiger was in 2007, when a paw print was spotted in the park.

�We think this is the best method when we have a large area and not that many tigers,� said Hannah O�Kelly, a wildlife monitoring adviser for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

WCS and the wild cat conservation group Panthera, also based in New York, are spending about $30,000 to bring Maggie and a second dog from Russia to Seima later this year.

The effort to find tiger droppings is part of a worldwide campaign by conservationists to mine animal droppings for genetic information that can save endangered species.

Elephant dung, for example, was used two years ago to calculate the population of pachyderms in Malaysia�s Taman Negara National Park.

Now, researchers are hoping the tiger scat will help determine the existence of tigers in Seima along with their sex, age and whether any are pregnant or even under threat.

�As we gain the technology to extract things from scat like DNA and hormones, all of a sudden scat becomes a gold mine of information,� said Linda Kerley, a WCS consultant who trained the dogs in Russia.

The fear, O�Kelly said, is that the dogs don�t find any droppings.

�If we cover the whole area and we don�t find any tiger scat, then we can be reasonably confident there are no tigers,� O�Kelly said. �That would be very disappointing and I hope that doesn�t happen.�

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Arent it cool? even the latest tech could not replace the nose of dogs.. :D

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I cant really update lots of tigers' news here because of copyright issues...

there r lots of news i wanted to share... especially the once again risen issues of tiger farming....

i need time to join all the information n make a summary....

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Source : cat channel.com

National Save a Tiger Month Highlights Conservation Efforts
New initiative aims to reverse a decline in wild tiger numbers.
13 September 2008

Courtesy World Wildlife Fund

The month of September, designated as National Save a Tiger Month, serves as a reminder that the largest cat in the world is struggling for survival, with 4,000 tigers left in the wild, according to World Wildlife Fund�s Dr. Shannon Barber-Meyer, Tiger Conservation Program officer.

The depletion of prey and habitat as a result of uncontrolled development and poaching for the illegal trade in tiger skins and bones has led to the sharp decline in tiger numbers from more than 100,000 a century ago.

Efforts to reverse the downward trend include the new Tiger Conservation initiative, a worldwide alliance of tiger conservationists, scientists and celebrities that have joined forces with the World Bank Group and the Global Environment
Facility to help save wild tigers.

The program kicks off with a series of dialogues in tiger range countries to find out what has worked locally to protect the tigers and their 13 landscapes, which include Russia, China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.

Dr. Barber-Meyer of World Wildlife Fund, a partner in the new initiative, said tigers occupy only 7 percent of their range and 40 percent less than they did a decade ago, a grim reality that shows wild tigers are in a perilous situation. The biggest threats to tigers include the following:

* Killing tigers directly to fuel demand for the black-market tiger trade
* Depletion of tiger habitat as a result of logging and urban expansion
* Loss of prey that supports tigers, such as deer, wild pig and cattle

�These threats are just everywhere,� Dr. Barber-Meyer said, �and they are very real and at scales that are very alarming.�

Courtesy World Wildlife FundThe decline in tiger numbers must be reversed before it gets beyond saving, she said, adding that the key to saving tigers is going to be successful anti-poach patrol and enforcement.

Cat owners, she said, can rally behind these efforts knowing that there�s a real connection. �We�ve got this domesticated animal in our home and a cousin is out there in the wild struggling for survival,� she said.

She pointed out that tigers, just like domestic cats, do have a high reproductive rate and are able to rebound with the help of efforts such as the Tiger Conservation Initiative.

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Yay lets celebrate tiger month :D

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Plz help sign the petition

Click Here for the link

The NGOs behind this petition are: Malaysian Nature Society, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia , WCS Malaysia Programme, and WWF-Malaysia.

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Dear Readers,

Source: AFP

KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia (AFP) � Malaysia is promoting its controversial palm oil industry as a model of eco-friendliness, but activists warn forests are still being destroyed to make way for vast plantations.

As palm oil prices boom, Malaysia has mounted a campaign to counter allegations that the crop is responsible for habitat destruction, air pollution from slash-and-burn farming, and pushing orangutans towards extinction.

It insists palm oil is only grown on legal agricultural land and that criticisms are an attempt by competitors in Europe and the United States to undermine growing demand for the commodity.

~~~~Continue Here~~~~

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sigh, now it make me feel so bad :(, if i know that it involve Orang Utan... i will never consider it.... sigh....

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