Sumatran Tigers Released Into the Jungle
- 14 years ago
Indonesian forestry officials released two Sumatran tigers back into the wild on Friday.
A five-year-old female tiger and a seven-year-old male tiger were captured by villagers in South Aceh province. The tigers had entered and stolen livestock from their villages.
The Tambling Wildlife Nature conservancy and Safari Park took the animals into custody.
They implanted them with microchips so that officials could monitor their movements. After about 18 months they were released in a national park in Lampung province.
The two will join the 45 other Sumatran tigers currently living in the park.
The destruction of forests in Sumatra is creating a crisis and further threatening the habitat for Sumatran tigers. Forests are often cleared for palm oil cultivation and logging.
Sumatran tigers have been killed during skirmishes with inhabitants living near the jungle. Illegal poachers also hunt them for their skin and body parts.
Conservationists say this has caused the tiger population to decline to an estimated 400 to 500 or less, from an original estimate of a thousand in the the 1970s.
The Sumatran tiger is the most critically endangered of the world's tiger subspecies.
A five-year-old female tiger and a seven-year-old male tiger were captured by villagers in South Aceh province. The tigers had entered and stolen livestock from their villages.
The Tambling Wildlife Nature conservancy and Safari Park took the animals into custody.
They implanted them with microchips so that officials could monitor their movements. After about 18 months they were released in a national park in Lampung province.
The two will join the 45 other Sumatran tigers currently living in the park.
The destruction of forests in Sumatra is creating a crisis and further threatening the habitat for Sumatran tigers. Forests are often cleared for palm oil cultivation and logging.
Sumatran tigers have been killed during skirmishes with inhabitants living near the jungle. Illegal poachers also hunt them for their skin and body parts.
Conservationists say this has caused the tiger population to decline to an estimated 400 to 500 or less, from an original estimate of a thousand in the the 1970s.
The Sumatran tiger is the most critically endangered of the world's tiger subspecies.