A Biblical Zoo employee plays with Sylvester, an 8-week-old Sumatran tiger cub, in Jerusalem. Conservationists were excited to see a Sumatran tiger with cubs in the wild captured on video, a sign that the endangered species were continuing to breed. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Tiger Video Sparks Calls for Protection

Footage of a female Sumatran tiger and her two cubs captured by a video camera hidden deep in the forests of central Sumatra supports demands that such areas be given better protection and management to ensure the preservation of wildlife habitats, according to environmental campaigners.

“The footage shows us the tigers’ living patterns and the size of their roaming areas, which we can use to recommend areas that need protection and their best management practice,” Desmarita Murni, spokeswoman for conservation organization WWF Indonesia, told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday.  “It would be difficult if we did not have this evidence.”

An infrared-triggered video camera, which is activated by movement, captured the tigers on film when the mother showed up to check out the camera, followed by her two cubs, which are estimated to be about one year old.

“We determined that the last cub to appear on camera is a male cub, though we cannot yet identify the other cub’s gender,” said Karmila Parakkasi, the head of WWF Indonesia’s Sumatran tiger research team.

“Seeing this footage within one month of setting up the new video cameras was a real boost for our team in the field,” Karmila said in a press release. “We are very concerned though, because the territory of this tigress and its cubs is being rapidly cleared by two global paper companies, palm oil plantations, encroachers and illegal loggers. Will the cubs survive to adulthood in this environment?”

Desmarita said the footage of the tigress was captured in October, while other footage of a male tiger as well as many other species, including tapirs, macaques, porcupines and civets, was captured in November.

The camera was installed in a “wildlife corridor” between two protected areas in central Sumatra — the Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve in Riau and Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, which straddles Riau and Jambi.

Much of the forest in the corridor is being cleared by paper companies and palm oil plantations or is slated for clearing, putting the tigers’ future in doubt.

There are as few as 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild and they are under relentless pressure from poaching and habitat destruction. After five years of studying tigers using motion-activated camera traps, these are the first images of a tiger with cubs.

The discovery comes as WWF prepares to launch a yearlong campaign at the start of the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese calendar to raise the bar for tiger conservation by securing high-level political commitments at a summit in Russia in September.

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