Royal Bengal Tiger -
Bangladesh
Tigers in Bangladesh are now
relegated to the forests of the Sundarbans and
the Chittagong Hill
Tracts. The Chittagong
forest is contiguous with tiger habitat in India and Myanmar, but the tiger population is of
unknown status. As of 2004, population estimates in Bangladesh ranged from 200
to 419, mostly in the Sunderbans. This region is the only mangrove habitat in
this bioregion, where tigers survive, swimming
between islands in the delta to hunt prey Bangladesh's
Forest Department is raising mangrove plantations supplying forage for spotted deer. Since 2001, afforestation has continued on a small scale in
newly accreted lands and islands of the Sundarbans From October 2005 to January 2007, the
first camera-trap survey
was conducted across six sites in the Bangladesh Sundarbans to estimate tiger
population density. The average of these six sites provided an estimate of 3.7
tigers per 100 km2 (39 sq mi). Since the Bangladesh
Sundarbans is an area of 5,770 km2 (2,230 sq mi)
it was inferred that the total tiger population comprised approximately 200
individuals. In another study,
home ranges of adult female tigers were recorded comprising between 12 and
14 km2 (4.6
and 5.4 sq mi). which
would indicate an approximate carrying capacity of 150 adult females.The small
home range of adult female tigers (and consequent high density of tigers) in
this habitat type relative to other areas may be related to both the high
density of prey and the small size of the Sundarbans tigers. Since 2007 tiger
monitoring surveys have been carried out every year by WildTeam in
the Bangladesh Sundarbans to monitor changes in the Bangladesh tiger population
and assess the effectiveness of conservation actions. This survey measures
changes in the frequency of tiger track sets along the sides of tidal waterways
as an index of relative tiger abundance across the Sundarbans landscape.
The population size for the Bangladesh
Sundarbans was estimated as 100–150 adult females or 335–500 tigers overall.
Female home ranges, recorded usingGlobal
Positioning System collars,
were some of the smallest recorded for tigers, indicating that the Bangladesh
Sundarbans could have one of the highest densities and largest populations of
tigers anywhere in the world. They are isolated from the next tiger population
by a distance of up to 300 km (190 mi). Information is lacking on
many aspects of Sundarbans tiger ecology, including relative abundance,
population status, spatial dynamics, habitat selection, life history
characteristics, taxonomy, genetics, and disease. There is also no monitoring
program in place to track changes in the tiger population over time, and
therefore no way of measuring the response of the population to conservation
activities or threats. Most studies have focused on the tiger-human conflict in
the area, but two studies in the Sundarbans East Wildlife sanctuary documented
habitat-use patterns of tigers, and abundances of tiger prey, and another study
investigated tiger parasite load. Some major threats to tigers have been
identified. The tigers living in the Sundarbans are threatened by habitat
destruction, prey depletion, highly aggressive and rampant intraspecific
competition, tiger-human conflict, and direct tiger loss
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