Animals Sumatran tiger population threatened by poaching according to researchers

Researchers believe that the Sumatran tigers, which are threatened with extinction, are also endangered by poaching. Camera traps in a protected ecosystem showed: there is a lack of females - but why?

During several years of monitoring with camera traps in the Ulu Masen ecosystem on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, a team identified eleven specimens - including mostly males and no cubs at all. The sex ratio points to poaching. This underlines the urgent need for stronger monitoring and targeted protection of this rare species, according to the study published in the journal "Scientific Reports".

The Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is the smallest of the surviving subspecies of tiger. It is estimated that there are only around 400 specimens left in the wild. The animals are listed as critically endangered on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Other Indonesian subspecies such as the Bali tiger and the Java tiger are already extinct.

Many more males than females

Up to 70 percent of the remaining big cats live in unprotected areas outside of national parks, the researchers emphasized. The Ulu Masen area in the north of the island is an important habitat for the animals, with sufficient prey such as the sambar (horse deer). However, the region, which largely consists of forest, is also not part of any national park and has therefore long been insufficiently surveyed for tigers.

Between 2020 and 2022, camera traps at 16 of more than 50 locations recorded Sumatran tigers 39 times, according to the study led by researcher Joe Figel from the Leuser International Foundation. Eleven specimens were identified: eight males, one female and two animals of unknown sex. "The high proportion of male tigers observed indicates massive poaching," the study states. The lack of fertile females is worrying.

Poached for fur and bones

"While a predominantly female sex ratio indicates a healthy tiger population (...), high population turnover and a predominantly male sex ratio generally indicate severe poaching," explains the team of authors. The survival of adult females is also usually the strongest factor for the growth and survival of tiger populations. Tigers are poached for their skins, among other things, and their bones and other body parts such as claws and teeth are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

It was only in September that a dead female Sumatran tiger was found in a snare trap in the north of Sumatra. The animal had died on a plantation. The loss of their natural habitat due to palm oil plantations, for example, is driving more and more wild animals into inhabited regions.

SDA