Today, fewer than 3,200 tigers exist in the wild today. It is esti­mated that between 400 – 500 wild Suma­tran tigers remain. The Suma­tran tiger is tar­geted for its valu­able skin and body parts that are sold on the ille­gal wildlife mar­ket and used for tra­di­tional med­i­c­i­nal reme­dies across Asia. Another main cause of the decline in Sumatra’s tiger pop­u­la­tions is habi­tat loss and frag­men­ta­tion of once wild areas for agri­cul­ture and other devel­op­ments, includ­ing mono­cul­tures for oil palm, cof­fee and pulp and paper. Grow­ing devel­op­ments like these and increases in human pop­u­la­tions have forced the Suma­tran tiger into closer con­tact with local com­mu­ni­ties, often lead­ing to human-​tiger con­flicts. In retal­i­a­tion, many Suma­tran tigers are hunted by local vil­lagers. A lack of nat­ural prey like deer due to over­hunt­ing by humans is also forc­ing tigers to prey on domes­tic ani­mals, fuel­ing human-​tiger conflicts.

On Thurs­day, July 26^th, the BBC 2 Nat­ural World doc­u­men­tary Tiger Island will air for the first time in the United King­dom. This film fol­lows Panthera’s CEO and world renowned big cat expert, Dr. Alan Rabi­nowitz, as he trav­els to Suma­tra to inves­ti­gate a con­tro­ver­sial project work­ing to reha­bil­i­tate and release ‘con­flict tigers’ back into the wild. Travel with Dr. Rabi­nowitz as he vis­its a ‘sanc­tu­ary’ for con­flict tigers in south­ern Suma­tra and learn what he dis­cov­ers while mon­i­tor­ing tigers released back into the wild. Find out if this new and rad­i­cal approach to tiger con­ser­va­tion could put tigers and local vil­lagers in harm’s way or be a tool used to help save the Crit­i­cally Endan­gered Suma­tran tiger from extinction.

Watch the trailer:

Tiger Island addresses the con­tro­ver­sial ques­tion of what to do with con­flict tigers after they have fed on local live­stock, or worse, injured or killed local vil­lagers. Many times, these con­flicts end in a death sen­tence for tigers. This film explores a new capture-​rehabilitate-​release strat­egy to help pro­tect the dwin­dling Suma­tran tiger pop­u­la­tion with ‘The Indi­ana Jones of Wildlife Pro­tec­tion,’ Dr. Alan Rabinowitz.

Tune in to UK’s BBC 2 Nat­ural World to watch the film on Thurs­day, July 26^th, at 8pm. Tiger Island will pre­mier in the United States on Ani­mal Planet. Check Pan­thera for details.

Learn more about Tiger Island, a Mike Birk­head Asso­ciates film.

The above news item is reprinted from mate­ri­als avail­able at Pan­thera. Orig­i­nal text may be edited for con­tent and length.

(Source: Pan­thera, 18.07.2012)