Word: tigers
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...India that pioneered the use of sanctuaries to save big cats. In 1973, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi became the toast of the conservation community when she launched Project Tiger, setting aside nine wilderness areas for tigers. Now India, with its neighbor Nepal, is leading the way in the next big phase in cat conservation: building links to turn isolated preserves into one continuous habitat. Scientists call this approach landscape conservation, and many believe it's the best hope for saving the world's tiger population, which, despite decades of effort, remains in peril: only 5,000 to 7,000 animals...
...sparsely populated, but after malaria was eradicated in the 1950s, farmers and loggers moved in. Today it is South Asia's Rice Bowl: there are 3.6 million people, vast paddies and 3.3 million head of livestock in the 19,000-sq.-mi. area. As land was cleared, tiger turf disappeared. Because the animals won't cross what they consider hostile terrain, they became separated into three isolated populations...
...reconnect them, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)--with the Indian and Nepali governments, Save the Tiger and other groups--launched the Terai Arc Landscape Program in 2001. The plan, which is projected to take 50 years to complete, aims to unite 11 reserves into one functioning ecosystem--providing habitat for tigers as well as elephants, rhinos and deer but without displacing farmers or herders. "The future of conservation in Asia is about zoning," observes Eric Dinerstein, chief scientist for the WWF. "We have to figure out how agriculture can coexist with wildlife...
...paper published in the June issue of Conservation Biology, Dinerstein and his colleagues describe how they used a computer model to identify gaps larger than 3 km in tiger-friendly habitats and work out ways to bridge them. The Terai Arc program gives local people incentives to plant trees or tall thatch grass, which they can harvest and which tigers can use as cover. As forests and grasslands recover, deer, wild pigs and other tiger prey return. "Big cats can handle a modest amount of disturbance," observes WCS's Ginsberg, "but what they really need is cat food...
...most notorious man-vs.-cat calamity happened last October between Montecore, a 7-year-old white male tiger, and magician Roy Horn, half of the team Siegfried & Roy. Montecore turned on Horn during a performance, severely mauling him. Both man and tiger have retired, though they recently had a careful rapprochement at the magicians' wildlife exhibit in Las Vegas...