As recently as a hundred years ago, Asia had a tiger population numbering around one hundred thousand. These days, there may be as few as five thousand tigers in the wild.
Researchers are hoping to find signs of a tiger presence in one of Cambodia’s largest nature reserves — Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area. The last time anyone saw evidence of tigers in the park was in 2007, when a paw print was found. Surveys and camera traps failed to find any sign of the big cats in 2008.
Now it’s time for Cambodia to turn to the dogs for help. Two dogs will sniff their way around the 1,158 square miles (3,000 square kilometers) of the nature preserve, looking for signs of tigers — especially droppings.
It may seem like an unusual plan — using dogs and dung to count animals — but this isn’t the first time it has happened. In 2007, researchers used elephant droppings to figure the population in Malaysia’s Taman Negara National Park. Conservationists are also looking at animal droppings as a way to gather genetic information about endangered species.
Cambodia is the first country in Asia to utilize dogs for tiger-counting. The idea comes from Russia’s Far East, where dogs were used to help researchers get an accurate count of tiger populations in an area that covered several thousand miles. Specially trained dogs have also been used to seek jaguars in South America and leopards in Africa.
Experts aren’t sure how many tigers are left in Cambodia — if any. The specially trained dogs will search only for droppings, and not for the tigers themselves. Trainers say they don’t want a dog who is interested in tracking the big cats — for the dogs’ safety.
The two dogs’ trip to Cambodia is part of a ten year, ten million dollar initiative hoping to increase tiger populations by fifty percent throughout Asia and Russia’s Far East. The Tigers Forever initiative is the work of the Wildlife Conservation Society and Panthera; future plans include better monitoring of populations, assessments of threats to big cats, and efforts to minimize dangers to tigers.
What the dogs find will give researchers an idea of the baseline tiger population — sex, age, and more. With that information, conservationists can work on a plan of action to protect the big cats.