Bangladesh experiences the most intense form of human-carnivore conflict in the world, with terrible consequences for both tigers and humans. Around one person a week is killed by a tiger so it is not hard to understand why when tigers stray into villages, they are usually surrounded by crowds of thousands and beaten to death.
However, ZSL is very happy to say that for the first time, we and our Bangladeshi partners have successfully immobilised and translocated a tiger that strayed into a village safely back to her jungle home! This was partly thanks to the training given by Wildlife Vets International
to our Bangladeshi partners.
Read and see how this amazing story unfolded below.
Around 8:30 pm on February 19, a tiger was spotted swimming in the canal near a village on the edge of the Sundarbans. As she entered the village, panic began to spread across the community.
By 9:30, a large crowd had already gathered around the tiger. Thankfully, a concerned villager alerted the local Tiger Response Team, who immediately went to work calming the crowd.
The operation was led by Abu Naser Hossain (far left) of the Bangladesh Forest Department, with support from ZSL and a national NGO called the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh.
Our specialist team soon arrived and began making plans to immobilize and relocate the tiger. She was successfully anaesthetized at 1:40 am. She was then carried onto the boat, where she was placed into the cabin to recover.
While anesthetized, the team was able to perform a health check on the tiger, determining that she was about 12 years old, weighed 80 kg and had two broken canine teeth.
While the tiger slept inside the boat, the team identified a good location to release her. Meanwhile, we monitored her vital signs through from a safe distance to make sure she was stable.
The cool and spacious cabin proved to be an excellent place for the tiger to recover. Her right eye shows an injury given to her by villagers before the team arrived to rescue her. She responded to visual stimulation and seemed very relaxed, so we are hopeful that this will not cause her problems back in her jungle home.
In the evening, we prepared to release her from the cabin, using the clothes to direct her exit from the boat. After a good rest, some water and four chickens, the tiger was feeling much better and had recovered her full strength.
After nightfall, the team opened the cabin door and the tiger jumped off the boat and back into her forest home. Our team was ecstatic – they’d saved this tiger’s life and successfully completed the first tiger translocation in Bangladesh!
This was an incredibly important step for tiger conservation. A dangerous and likely deadly situation was resolved to the mutual benefit of both the villagers and the tiger. The incident has built the trust of the villagers in both their local response team plus conservation agencies. Killing a tiger is now not the only solution. We are very proud of our role in this historic event!
