Archive for the 'tiger' category

Some species of mammals are clearly confronted with the immediate risk of extinction. And, when I shoot photos of some of these at the other end of the world, I am often shocked by the immense chance I have to be able to still see these animals free in the wild for the years they have left.

For example, cheetahs were submitted to a major event of reduction in genetics diversity during the last Ice Age (less than 10,000 animals fought for survival during thousands of years). Today, the enormous competition pressure brought by Man and “its civilization”, on top of the stark competition from other carnivorous mammals (like hyenas), will most certainly bring cheetah out of the African savannas in a few years (maybe less than 20 years).

Tigers are also in a nearly desperate situation today: The last wild animals are already living in relatively small Reserves where, even free in the wild, they have become tourism subjects without being fully protected from poaching or illegal culling.

This is the context when Frédéric Lepage created a series of TV documentaries about a few emblematic species (cheetah, orangutan, tiger, elephant, jaguar, polar bear): Extinctions

I strongly recommend your being in front of the TV (France 5, French TV channel), to watch the episode for Tiger, on Friday 6 August 2010 at 20h30.

Right! But it may not be a real one. Some Chinese people seem to find it nice to transform/disguise their dogs into other animals. Sometimes, it’s a panda, but here it is a fake tiger.

Source: Daily Mail.

WebEcoist assembled some nice photos of the nicest big cats.

• Tiger
• White Tiger
• Lion
• Leopard
• Black panther
• Cheetah
• Puma
• Snow Leopard
• Lynx
• Caracal

This new species was discovered last month in Borneo and the lucky photographer just presented amazingly nice photos. Even better, one of them is good enough to allow a direct identification of gender differences and the specific fur coat of juveniles.

(more…)

The moral in the tale lies somewhere around the need to understand the difference between a big cat who does not climb (the tiger) and one that climbs routinely (the leopard). The monkey knew.

Thanks to the WWF and one trap camera, we now know that tigers are still present in Sumatra. It was a place where you could find many of them, but at least there are a female and her three cubs. They will soon have to find their own territory and then the hard time will be back.

Remember: There are only 3000-4000 tigers live in the wild… in the world.

Take these white tigers from the Singapore zoo. Birte Person photographed them while they were being fed.

Copyright (C) Birte Person / Solent	Copyright (C) Birte Person / Solent
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them

Source: Daily Mail.

The Indochinese tiger or Corbett’s tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti) is a subspecies of tiger found in Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam and -up to now- in China. It seems that Kang Wannian, a villager from Mengla, Yunnan Province (China) has killed -possibly in self-defense- the last known Indochinese tiger in China. Not satisfied with this altogether depressing act, he also ate the wild animal.

According to Reuters, the man is now in jail (he has been sentenced to 12 years).

There is no limit to true love. Riana Van Nieuwenhuizen truly loves cats: She has got eleven (11!) of them in her South African house.

Nothing really remarquable, except the cats are:

• Four cheetahs
• Five white lions
• Two tigers

…and I don’t count the dogs.

This is love, big lvoe!

Riana tries to help in protecting those endangered species, since 2006 when she adopted her first cheetah, Fiela.

Last but not least, remember that wild animals are still wild animals, even when they are perfectly integrated in a family. In this case, they also have a lot of free space, which must contribute a lot to the overall stability of this adventure.

Source: Daily Mail.

In this famous natural park for observation of wild tigers in India, Ranthambore, here is what can be found as a safety instruction.

Only those who strongly believe in rebirth should risk going near