Agence France Presse

Dhaka, March 20:

Bangladesh and US wildlife experts have teamed up to place radio collars on Royal Bengal tigers living in a dense coastal mangrove forest to learn more about the habits of the elusive cats, officials said today. Little is known about the habits of an estimated 668 Royal Bengal tigers that live in the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and a United Nation’s heritage site that stretches along the eastern coast of the subcontinent. A UN-funded census last October found 668 Royal Bengal tigers, deemed critically endangered by the Swiss-based International Nature Conservation Union, in the Bangladesh and Indian sides of the Sundarbans.

“The collar sensor will keep data of how far the tiger goes to look for food, its sexual habit, its leisure and its lifestyle,” said Mahmudul Hasan, assistant conservator of Sundarbans forest.

“Despite tigers living in the Sundarbans for ages, their behaviour is still a mystery to us. Hopefully, that is about to end,” he said. David Smith, an expert in wildlife studies from the University of Minnesota, is leading the study team with funding from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Hassan said. The team has tied up eight cows at different places at Neeelkamal forest range in the Sundarbans to lure tigers into the traps so they can be tranquilised and the collars fitted, Hasan added.

Through a satellite antennae and a computer programme, the team will observe the tiger’s whereabouts by tracking the sensor, he added. The tracking will go on for three months before the tiger is tranquilised again to remove the sensor for further study. Authorities say the big cats are on the brink of extinction worldwide because of poachers who kill tigers for their pelts and bones which are used in traditional medicine. Experts have estimated only 5,000 to 6,000 Royal Bengal tigers are left in the world, down from about 100,000 in 1900.