A recent sighting of a Sumatran tiger in Indonesia’s Riau province sparked surprise and excitement among the public and officials, and images of the feline quickly appeared online, Anatra reports.
According to Riau’s natural resources protection agency BBKSDA, the agency is investigating the sighting near the channel of the Zamrud area water injection plant operated by Siak area oil producer PT Bumi Siak Pusako.
Ujang Holisudin, BBKSDA Riau technical director, said a response team stationed in nearby Zamrud National Park had been dispatched to conduct on-site inspections, Anatra reported.
“Our team from BBKSDA Riau is currently at the location for direct confirmation,” Ujang told reporters in Pekanbaru the day after the sighting in mid-January.
Sumatran tigers are extremely rare, with estimates of the total wild population ranging from 500 to 300 animals or less. The tigers are spread across 27 locations, meaning each population may only have 10 to 20 tigers.
On the one hand, trail cameras have made it easier to spot these beautiful creatures — like this tigress and her cub filmed in China — but their numbers are still declining, with five to 10 tigers being killed every year. Encounters with humans are the biggest threats, including territorial conflicts and deliberate poaching, such as this disturbing case of tiger organ smuggling.
Despite all these threats, Sumatran tigers still perform better than their closest relatives in the region. The other tiger species found in Indonesia, the Bali tiger and the Javan tiger, became extinct in 1937 and the 1970s respectively. This makes the Sumatran tiger the only living tiger species in the country.
Protecting this increasingly rare species requires active conservation efforts, such as protected areas. These include Zamrud National Park, which is adjacent to the industrial park where the tiger was found and where it may have come from. With any luck, it will return home safely and become part of the reestablishing species in the future.
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