A collaboration between Thailand and the WWF has helped to begin restoring the country's tiger population, more than quadrupling their numbers over the past two decades. They've done that in large part by releasing sambar deer into the wild for the tigers to prey upon.
00:00A lone tiger approaches a camera trap in the jungles of western Thailand, slowly prowling through the understory.
00:08It's a special moment caught on video, and one much more common than it used to be.
00:14In 2007, there were just around 40 of these big cats left here in the western forest complex near the Myanmar border.
00:21But a joint project by Thailand's government and the World Wildlife Fund has slowly turned things around.
00:27Now there are about 200. Conservationists are thrilled.
00:32It's a rare bright spot in a part of the world where tiger numbers have collapsed.
00:36Thailand's tiger recovery is extraordinary. It's extraordinary in the context of Southeast Asia.
00:42No other Southeast Asia country has an increasing tiger population.
00:48And this is one of the secrets of the program's success, the sambar deer.
00:53These are native prey and great tiger food, but they've been in decline like the tigers.
00:58So, five years ago, the program started releasing captive deer back into the wild.
01:06Previously, the tigers and the sambar deer both disappeared from here.
01:10If some animals disappear from the food chain, it will cause the ecosystem in that area to be incomplete.
01:15We consider what we're doing a very good activity.
01:18But while some of these deer will end up as a tiger's meal, conservationists say they've shown themselves adaptable and resilient, and even able to thrive.
01:28Most go on to reproduce, bringing a second species back from the brink.
01:33The purpose of releasing sambar deer is not solely to serve as prey to predatory animals.
01:39But because the population was small, we wanted to preserve the species of deer to have a higher population first.
01:45This kind of eco-initiative isn't exactly new.
01:49Prey release projects have been going on in Africa for years.
01:52But for Southeast Asia, this tiger and deer project is a starting point.
01:57As tigers settle permanently in this corner of Thailand, other release programs are starting in neighboring Cambodia and Malaysia,
02:04bringing species and ecosystems out of decline in a region that's seen its fair share of ecological destruction.
02:11Luffy Lee and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.
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