Anti-poaching
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Between 1990 and 1994 an estimated 60 Amur tigers were poached each year. Some Russian experts predicted that, if no immediate measures were taken, the Amur tiger would go extinct around the year 2000. Tigris Foundation and other ALTA members presently support a number of anti-poaching teams as well as teams that step down on illegal logging. As result poaching has been substantially reduced and the Amur tiger population has stabilised.
Tigris and its ALTA partners have extended anti-poaching activities to the range of the last 35 Amur leopards, an area of approximately 3000 square km near Vladivostok and the Chinese and North Korean borders. Since 1998 an anti-poaching team, consisting of 5 rangers, started its patrols in this region.. Since 1998 our team issued hundreds of protocols for hunting violations in the leopard range and more than 450 fire arms have been confiscated in the leopard range, as well as 4 leopard skins and one tiger skin.
Our anti-poaching rangers know the environmental legislation, are trained in the use of firearms and can handle criminals. They are equipped to survive in the forest and communicate with each other by wireless. On patrol jeeps, 4WD Army trucks, horses and motorcycles are used. The rangers inspect cars on the forest roads and look for arms and poached animals. In winter the rangers patrol on skis and with snowmobiles in order to track down poachers whose footprints can be followed in the snow. The team works with a German shepherd dog that traces poachers, hidden weapons and poached animals when snow tracks are absent. The team developed a network of informants across the villages, with useful tips being rewarded. They even have infiltrated the wildlife mafia. During under cover operations anti-poaching team members act as buyers and record illegal transactions with hidden cameras. In this way several arrests were made and arms and tiger and leopard skins were confiscated. Our rangers do not only deal with poaching of leopards and tigers. Also illegal fishing, hunting of other protected species and illegal logging are fought.
Tigris
RUSSIA - In the Southeastern tip of Russia, not far from Vladivostok, the last 400 Amur tigers and 40 Amur leopards roam the forests. Tigris Foundation, a Dutch organization founded in 1996, is dedicated to the survival of these endangered ...
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