Bengal Tiger More Endangered than Previously thought

Tracking a Tiger

Last year I was fortunate enough join a tiger tracking expedition in India. (well we took pictures of the experts who tracked the tigers) So when I just heard on NPR that the tiger population is half of what they estimated (less than 1500), I decided to share my experience.

First off, this isn’t a safari, teeming with wildlife. For two hours, we saw little more than dirt, and tiger tracks, and dirt. (backdrop of great scenery though) We were just about to give up when we saw the above pic less than 15 feet away. So what did I do?

Just about the cheesiest thing you can do –
take a pic with a Bengal tiger.

What was strange was that the Bengal didn't respond to the nearby watering hole with several tasty anteloped creatures. The tiger slipped back into the tall grass. We waited and thought that was it.

Then someone spotted him in the forest.

The expert explained that tiger was avoiding giving off its scent because of the direction of the wind. Soon the tiger hid in the grass on the other side of the watering hole.

Enlarge: tiger bottom right

So the tiger is about to pounce, when we here warning calls behind us. Apparently, some deer were in the woods while the tiger was trying to avoid the wind. And poof, we saw like 50 deer scatter off from the watering hole. Pretty amazing

Two main reasons why the Bengal tiger, who shrank from 100,000 to less than 1500 in just a century. Poaching (unforgivable) and deforestation (fixable).

Tigers need a lot of space, that’s their nature. Deforestation, that’s in our control. Start with the World Wildlife Fund - they’re great.

-Sanjiv