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TwitterThis year in Thailand is the year of the Tiger and we just had to write about this amazing animal!
One of the most enigmatic creatures on the planet, the tiger stirs in our minds an image of a powerful being, ferocious in nature, steeped in mystery, danger and black magic. The reality is that over 95% of the worlds tiger population has been wiped off the face of the planet. A species so infamous and feared by many is in danger of disappearing because of peoples misconceptions. Other threats are that in traditional Chinese medicine it is believed that certain parts of these beautiful animals can heal ailments. It is also believed that to eat body parts of the Tiger is to give yourself strength and virility. Others fear it so much that any sign of one and they will send out a search party to hunt them down.
In the real world people and tigers do overlap, this is due to loss of forest habitat for them to hunt in and an ever increasing human population, but along with every other animal on the planet they have a right to survive too! They have a right to the forests and they have a right to hunt and live just as we humans do. There must be a balance, wild areas for the Tiger to live and areas we can cultivate and live in relative peace.
The Indochinese Tiger can be up to 3.7 meters in length, it can weigh up to 425 kg’s and it needs a huge hunting range of somewhere between 20 – 600km/sq . This is often the problem with encroachment from humans into forests. If they do not have the forest to hunt and survive in they are forced to move into farms and kill livestock and possibly people. The tiger is a relatively long lived mammal and lives for around 10 years in the wild with only one or 2 cubs having the chance to reach maturity per birth. Before tigers covered almost the whole of Asia, but now they are restricted to smaller ‘islands’ of forest and are on the IUCN redlist marked as threatened, endangered and are included in Appendix I of CITES, who monitor the global trafficking of animals.
Today Thailand is at the very forefront of tiger conservation and one of the best places to find the tiger is in Kaeng Krachan National Park in Petchaburi province just south west of Bangkok. This National Park is right at the juncture of continental Asia and the Malaysian Peninsular. Due to this it is extremely diverse in animal species. Along with wild tigers there are bear, Sambar deer and Guar along with 400 bird species and 54 other mammal species. The national park joins with the Tenasserim Mountain range on the border with Myanmar and links directly onto the Western Forest Complex stretching almost the entire length of Thailand’s western border. 
The Great Western Forest Complex incorporates some 19 national parks with Kaeng Krachan being the southernmost stretching to Khlong Wang Chao in the north. This area forms a world heritage site and is the center of a discussion by the WWF on Tiger conservation. It is one of the world’s most valuable reserves for Tigers and provides the best chance of securing their survival in Southeast Asia. Plus the forest complex itself offers a huge variety of other species and is a birdwatchers paradise. It is defiantly worth a visit although you will have to come back more than once to be able to appreciate its full beauty. Most of the park is covered in steep forest at an average gradient of 30 degrees (!) and contains hanging lianas, ferns orchids, and numerous fruiting trees along with evergreen and deciduous species, truly beautiful.
We are not suggesting you will see one but of the estimated 350 tigers left in South East Asia (down from 1200 during the last year of the tiger in 1992) but most are centered here and your entrance ticket to the national park will be a fantastic donation to the continued protection of the species. The parks also offer fantastic trekking and guides can be found at most National Park headquarters. Get out there and show some support for the tiger, after all it’s a long time until the next year of the tiger and let’s hope that the species continues until then!
