By IANS,
Washington : Wildlife Conservation Society researchers have built up a bank of valuable data on Myanmar’s tiger population and other smaller, lesser known carnivores.
These findings will help in the formulation of conservation strategies for the country’s wildlife. The data were gathered between December 2002 and May 2004.
Using camera traps survey techniques, researchers from the Soceity’s Myanmar Programme combed the 3,250-square-km core area of the Hukaung tiger reserve for evidence of the big cats.
Researchers photographed six individual tigers some 21 times in the reserve, and this has allowed the first ever scientific estimate of abundance for these big cats in northern Myanmar.
“We know there are tigers here, but previously we were not able to put some numbers to the population,” said Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) researcher, U Than Myint, co-author of the study that was published in the journal Population Ecology.
“We have collected the first real data needed to determine how many tigers are here. From the analyses of this data, it is estimated that there are at least seven and potentially up to 70 tigers living in the core area.
“Estimating numbers of prey animals such as gaur and sambar may give an indication of how many tigers can be supported over this vast habitat, but any further ecological monitoring will likely need to be done at the same time as efforts are increased to protect tigers and their key prey species from illegal hunting and trade,” Myint said.
Researchers have also confirmed the continued existence of 18 smaller carnivores in a variety of habitats across Myanmar, according to another study by WCS’s Myanmar Programme.