Not long ago, tiger fans were saddened by the news that the T98 of the Renthenburg Reserve in India was transferred to the Mukundala Mountain Reserve, on July 29, the grand festival, before the grand festival, he left due to bovine tuberculosis pneumonia infection, at the age of 4. At this point, only the only male tiger and two female tigers remain, although the tiger reserve in Mukundala is 759 square kilometers in size (core 417, buffer 342.82 km) counting the cubs, and now there are no more than 7 cubs. Can such a small tiger population continue the glory of the Tiger King, branch out and multiply? How do small populations of tigers ensure long-term survival? Coincidentally, the former Panna Tiger Sanctuary in India also faces a threat of small populations due to poaching until it becomes extinct. This article briefly analyzes the threat of extinction of the Panna Tiger Reserve due to small populations, and may have some implications for the future of the Mukundara Mountain Tiger Reserve.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" although > the habitats are all forests, the quality of the detailed examination is different, and the same tiger reserve also has a core and buffer, high quality and barren part</h1>
Tigers live in forests, which are well known, but each forest has a different type of vegetation, water source, and prey, and even the same forest has a geographical location and remoteness. Although Indian forests have much higher biological carrying capacity than the Russian Far East and northeast China, tigers need much smaller territory, but there are still significant differences between protected areas. The most suitable areas for tigers to survive and reproduce are alluvial grasslands and subtropical moist deciduous forests, such as Dudwa, Kobit, Kazilanga in India, and tiger reserves such as Chiwang and Badia in Nepal, where water is abundant, prey is abundant, and cover-ups are abundant, which can support tiger populations with greater density and higher survival rates. In terms of data, the tiger survival rate per 100 square kilometers of alluvial grassland and subtropical deciduous forest reserves is comparable to 800-900 square kilometers of other poor quality habitats, with densities of more than 15/km2; second, tropical deciduous forests, including wet deciduous and arid deciduous forests, such as the Kanha, Pengqi, Bandippur and Naragahore reserves in India, and some protected areas in Southeast Asia, the latter such as Rentenberg, Tadoba, Sariska, Panna and other protected areas. However, due to human activities, many of southeast Asia have disappeared in large areas, and more in India, although they have also experienced different degrees of reduction, they still account for nearly half of India's tiger reserves. As for the tropical evergreen forests (tropical rainforests on the Indonesian island of Sumatra), the saltwater mangroves (Sundarbans, India), the temperate deciduous forests and the Taigalin (northeast of the country, Russia) protected areas, the Panna Tiger Reserve is still a high-quality tiger habitat despite a drop in quality from the first category.
The size of the tiger's home area is affected by a variety of factors, such as prey availability, population density, and its own strength. Changes in the female tiger's home area from less than 20 to 400 square kilometers can be explained mainly by prey biomass. As prey availability increases, the area of territory decreases, and vice versa. However, the area of the Pena tiger is 3-4 times larger than that of other tropical forest habitats of the same type, with female tigers reaching 60-70 and male tigers reaching 150-250 square kilometers, with obvious differences. The availability of prey does not explain the sheer size of its territory. Of course, there is another possible reason, most of the tiger's prey availability, home size, population density and other information mostly from well-protected areas, in other words, panna tiger reserve protection effect is not good, although there are only 7 female tigers of childbearing age, but the area is so wide can not meet its needs, only 1 occupies the best territory in the reserve, the prey is rich, the resources are numerous, the most suitable, almost no human activities interfere, but the other 6 female tigers of fertility age are not suitable for the proportion of the territory, the resources are poor The highly variable density of prey, the territory has to be extended to the edge of the protected area, the large number of livestock, greatly affected by human activities, and the human-tiger conflict is severe. The former has a super high reproductive success rate, with 4 litters and 11 tiger cubs surviving 90% and surviving more than 16 years; the contrast is obvious, the last 6 female tiger cubs have a super high mortality rate, only 40% live to adulthood, in addition, none of the female tigers of childbearing age live to the end of the study, only 1 in 4 survives to 8 years old, and most importantly, all female tigers are affected by marginal effects at the border, eventually leading to extinction. Studies have shown that the combination of the size of protected areas and the type of forest can explain the local extinction of tigers in the past 100 years. As long as the protected area is large enough, even if the forest quality is slightly lower, tigers can survive well. Panna is a typical counterexample, the protected area is not large, the quality is not good, the population is small for various reasons, and eventually extinct.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > efficient conservation stems from scientific management, ensuring the long-term survival of small populations is inseparable from the high protection of female tigers of reproductive age</h1>
Ensuring the long-term reproduction of tiger populations is inseparable from the protection of breeding-age tigers, of which complete protection of female tigers of childbearing age is a recognized option for maintaining a low risk of extinction. However, even a small increase in natural mortality can have catastrophic effects, even earlier than expected. The big question is whether the breeding populations can be adequately protected. Is comprehensive protection feasible? Unfortunately, the management of protected areas in India is based on the naïve assumption that there is no poaching at the border, so there is no second strategy to compensate for such losses. The risk of using habitats other than the boundaries of protected areas when tigers run out is not taken into account. Creating vast buffer zones does not reduce the risk of population extinction. This is one of the biggest setbacks in achieving the goal of protecting tigers in many of India's protected areas. The survival rate of panna female tigers is extremely low compared to other protected areas, only 0.7, such a high mortality rate, and under normal studies, the survival rate of female tigers is much higher than that of male tigers, and the mortality rate of female tigers of reproductive age is so high that population extinction is ultimately unable to return to the sky.
In situations where comprehensive protection of breeding female tigers cannot be ensured ( as is the case in many tiger reserves ) , are there any other strategies that can be used to achieve conservation goals? The answer to this question could point the way to the next conservation effort.
The solution proposed by Rao Chuvert stems from a set of simulations, of mortality rates of fixed-age female tigers, which, due to poaching, dies 1 per year (high poaching situation), altering the tiger's carrying capacity, thus affecting the entire breeding population. From the simulations, it was found that even if the number of breeding female tigers increased to 10, there was still a high risk of extinction. The population can only continue if the number of breeding female tigers increases to 13 or more, and although there is still a risk, the probability of extinction is reduced to 5%. The number of female tigers of breeding age in the population is 13 or more to withstand such high poaching pressures. What an encouraging observation to draw from the simulations. If you extrapolate the entire tiger population from the number of female tigers of reproductive age (13), you get a tiger number of about 62. This is a fairly large population, and there are few tiger reserves in India that can provide such a large space. Even in such a desperate environment, Rao's model offers an encouraging and challenging possibility to find room for more breeding females. It is clear that protected areas cannot be relied upon exclusively, as a small space cannot play the intended role in protecting breeding populations. The goal of the study was to find space for the smallest number of breeding female tigers to ensure the survival and stability of the population. Since, in most cases, the expansion of protected areas is impractical and difficult to implement, and the provision of buffer zones does not reduce risk, other ways must be explored to strengthen existing protections, namely the construction of corridors. Although reality and Rao made a big joke, the ideal 62 were replaced by one, but the model he studied still has an important inspiration for the long-term survival of small populations.
The density of tigers in the Panna Tiger Reserve has dropped from 7/100 km2 in 2003 to 4, the beginning of decline and its complete extinction in 2009. Similar results are shown when modeled with empirical statistics. The simulation reiterates that it is vital to protect tigers of childbearing age from poaching, especially small populations. Panner, tigers need more space, but because it's unrealistic, the imbalance causes almost all female tigers of childbearing age to reach or exceed the park boundary. Even though wildlife authorities can provide protection for breeding female tigers in protected areas, they still can't prevent deaths due to marginal effects. The model shows that a population of more than 13 female tigers of childbearing age can withstand some external threats. However, with numerous protected areas not large enough to provide enough space for 13 or more female tigers of childbearing age, a new strategy is imperative. Rather than focusing on a single large population, it is another option to focus on several small, interconnected populations. This means revisiting the debate about SLOSS (a single large population or several small populations), which had been discussed for a long time in the early 1870s and 1880s. While factors such as prey depletion, habitat loss, and heredity are important, more immediate external threats, such as poaching, have a more direct and pronounced impact on populations.
Scientists have long debated the necessity and reasons for managing protected areas, but now it seems that it is completely impossible to leave management, and most of the protected areas are small and deeply disturbed by humans. Especially in smaller protected areas, it is not possible to rely entirely on these narrow protected areas to ensure tigers, species that require huge space for long-term survival. In this situation, we need to be proactive and flexible in managing to respond to changing threats. Unfortunately, for Tiger, the current management system does not do enough. In other words, they simply solved the problem, not eliminated it from the root cause, which led to several tiger population reductions.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the future and outlook</h1>
Science alone cannot protect tigers, but it can provide us with a bright path. While India has begun to tout the achievements of conservation over the past four decades on the recent International Tiger Day, the facts are far less promising than the celebrations, and more problems have been glossed over. Good conservation is always based on good science, but India does not follow it. Although a lot of money was invested, the results were not ideal. Significant funding concentrated in a small number of star protected areas, neglect of large areas of potential tiger habitat, and delays in the relocation of villages in most states are essential for the long-term survival and reproduction of tigers, but in terms of policy and conservation actions, nothing has changed since the Tiger Task Force made largely unrealistic and ineffective recommendations in 2005. According to Professor Ulas, India can accommodate tens of thousands of tigers, but the official view is more than that of 3500. In the future, the prospects for tiger conservation are worrying.
Back to the beginning, the management of the Mukundala Mountain Reserve is difficult to say, the details of the death of T98 were exposed, there was no mobile data in the three days before the death, although the staff found that it was abnormal, did not eat a week before death, lame, but did not care, until a few days later, invited the veterinary team of the Rentenburg Reserve, it was too late, sorry to see the world again. Although with a collar, the collar was not used in the back, but before that, it was injured and infected by lightning friction with another female tiger reintroduced, as to whether the collar had an obstructive effect, whether it was solved, the official statement every day was inconsistent and confusing. The leopard in the tube is extremely disappointed by the management of the reserve. A week later, on August 3, her partner, T106, the female tiger, found the body, including 2 tiger cubs, one of which was dead and the other was sent to the zoo. Another male tiger, Alfonso, also disappeared, but fortunately appeared later, so far, there are only one male and one female and two tigers left in the reserve, and the team that has experienced such an unreliable experience is deeply worried about the future of the Mukundala Mountain Reserve.
The long-term survival and protection of small populations are difficult and more fragile, and if they lack scientific management and careful management, the consequences are unimaginable. However, why it becomes a small population, this is another question worth exploring, and the follow-up is exhausted...