AnimalVoicesNews
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Note: I am unable to access Newsweek/MSN any longer with my old computer
system. I copied a blank page and got what I pasted below. You must to go
to the link to get the second page.
As some of you know, I was elected as a Clinton Delegate at the February 5th
caucus, and served until the Colorado State Convention last week, at which I
was not elected to National. (Four Clinton seats out of 1,500 running!) I
will still be very busy with the Democratic Party! I am intensely involved
in several Democratic campaigns, both state and federal. I likely will not
have time this year to address a new computer, nor send very many news or
alerts about animals' concerns. My goal: Democrat take-over of the White
House and Congress first -- then resume fighting for justice for all,
especially animals and the environment.
Judy.
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Source/Letters: Newsweek <Letters @ newsweek.com> (close spaces)
or <http: // letters.newsweek.com/W0RH01E9AF88643FE32102A07D7240> (close
spaces)
Link: <http://www.newsweek.com/id/135050?rf=nwnewsletter>
www.newsweek.com/id/135050?rf=nwnewsletter
ENVIRONMENT
Tiger Troubles
Are Tigers About to Become Extinct?
The population of big cats is declining at an alarming rate. Is it too late
to save them?
Aditya Singh / AFP-Getty Images
Rare Sight: A tiger in India's Ranthambore National Park
By Lily Huang | Newsweek Web Exclusive
May 1, 2008 | Updated: 4:27 p.m. ET May 1, 2008
In India tigers are in trouble again‹and it may be the last time. Wildlife
conservation experts now believe that India has so few tigers left, and they
have so little room to maneuver, that populations have no recourse but to
dwindle to extinction. Alan Rabinowitz, president and CEO of the Panthera
Foundation, has championed tigers, jaguars, leopards and pumas and worked to
preserve their habitats, from South America to Southeast Asia. Formerly the
executive director of science of exploration at the Wildlife Conservation
Society, based at the Bronx Zoo, Rabinowitz wrote "Life in the Valley of
Death," about his recent experience negotiating with the Burmese dictator to
create the largest tiger reserve in the world, in the Hukaung Valley in
Burma. NEWSWEEK's Lily Huang spoke with Rabinowitz by phone about the work
of conservation and strategies for the future. Excerpts:
How long have tigers been endangered?
Alan Rabinowitz: That's a very good question. Part of the problem is that
nobody has been actually counting tigers, following tigers. It's only been a
little over 10 years that people have come up with a technology using camera
trapping in a certain grid formation to get accurate density estimations of
tigers. Until that time we didn't really know how to count tigers. People
did things like estimating tiger numbers by their tracks‹their pug marks‹but
the main place to do that was the tiger reserves in India. And that, in
fact, contributed to years [of inaccuracy], whether it was by the technique
being bad or because of the people doing it just not reporting it accurately
because their promotions were based on tiger numbers going up. For years and
years India reported huge successes in tiger populations and tiger numbers
when in fact anybody who was on the ground actually looking at tigers‹me
included‹realized that tigers were declining. Drastically.
When I started in '93 or so in Indochina‹doing tiger surveys throughout
Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam-tigers were in desperate shape. Desperate.
I can't pinpoint the year. What we know is that by the turn of the 20th
century‹about 1900 or so‹there were thought to be as many as 100,000 tigers
still roaming throughout the clear range. When the world woke up to the
tiger crisis‹because nobody was even paying attention or questioning it‹in
the early to mid-1990s, we were dealing with estimates (which I thought were
overestimates at the time) of 5,000 to 7,000 left throughout their entire
range. Now we know it's probably half that, at most. People like myself and
Ullas Karanth and some old-time cat biologists who were working within tiger
ranges knew that tigers had been on a steady decline‹continuously‹for our
entire careers.
Why have conservation efforts since then not been more successful against
the crisis?
The traditional paradigm in wildlife conservation‹which was valid‹started in
the '60s and '70s, when large swaths of habitat started being lost,
throughout the tropics and other regions. People started waking up to the
threat on wildlife species and especially the large cats. The main emphasis
was on locking up habitat. And locking up habitat worked well for a lot of
species, except when those individual species were targeted for economic
reasons. Then it didn't matter if you locked up habitat. Now, we didn't
realize that for a long time‹we didn't realize what kind of pressure was
being put on tigers specifically because of things like livestock conflicts
and the use of tiger parts and the very high price for traditional Asian
medicines. Everybody says traditional Chinese medicine, but it's actually
used in many Asian medicines.
And these causes were not apparent?
We didn't know because there really was hardly anybody looking at tigers
specifically. Even in my early graduate days, in the late '70s and early
'80s, I would do a radio telemetry study on something like jaguars or I
would follow tigers, and I would know what would be happening in my
particular little area. I would set aside a park, it would be a success, and
we'd feel, "OK, if this was repeated a hundred times or a thousand times by
others of like minds, you'll save this species." Well, that never really
happened.
So conservation efforts were undermined by unforeseen causes?
What people don't realize is that conservation is actually a very new word.
In the '80s eco-tourism wasn't even a term. Conservation biology wasn't a
science. There were no courses in school. You studied zoology. I went out
and did traditional wildlife, which is capturing an animal, radio-collaring
it, following it in the jungle. My job early on for the Bronx Zoo was to
just do scientific research, not conservation. When I started realizing,
first with jaguars, that these animals were going down, I actually had to
fight to do something in conservation, because that wasn't really a field.
The assumption was that there was enough [wildlife] out there, and it wasn't
a crisis yet. By the time we realized‹as usually happens with crises‹it's
already way far gone. And then you're just doing crisis management. The
tiger was very far gone.
1 2 Next Page »
From the Editors (2)
India¹s Missing Tigers
Gallery: Grim Menagerie
Member Comments
Posted By: Brien Comerford @ 05/12/2008 7:43:45 PM
Comment: These majestic tigers are being massacred by greedy and ruthless
poachers. It's a monstrosity to kill these magnificent creatures for sport,
trophies and vainglory. These are crimes against nature.
Posted By: Moniks @ 05/07/2008 2:36:48 PM
Comment: I have been blessed to have seen 5 tigers in Ranthambore National
Park. So sad that humans cannot appreciate and preserve the diversity in
nature. A live tiger is far more precious than a dead one....if only the
natives would realize that they can earn an income from a live tiger with
tourists coming to see it, for a far longer time than one earned with tiger
parts. Human don't deserve to live on this planet.....
Posted By: Moniks @ 05/07/2008 2:36:41 PM
Comment: I have been blessed to have seen 5 tigers in Ranthambore National
Park. So sad that humans cannot appreciate and preserve the diversity in
nature. A live tiger is far more precious than a dead one....if only the
natives would realize that they can earn an income from a live tiger with
tourists coming to see it, for a far longer time than one earned with tiger
parts. Human don't deserve to live on this planet.....
View All Comments »
Newsweek, 251 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019 © 2008
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Judy Reed
AnimalVoices
Speaking For Animals & Their Environment
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