February 2013 - Faculty of Health and Life Sciences - Oxford ...

Tiger Conservation into the21st CenturyOpen Lecture SeriesMain Lecture Theatre27 February 6.00pmProfessor Stewart Thompson’sinaugural Professorial LectureIt is not easy to see a tiger – even if you arelooking in the right place! At the start ofthe 20th century there were an estimated100,000 worldwide. Today, although theactual number is subject to disagreementbetween tiger range Governments, tigerbiologists and Forest officials, there isconsensus that this number is somewherebetween 3 - 5,000.Some tiger biologists prefer to think ofthem as having sub-species – of the ninesub-species they recognise, three, arealready gone, with a fourth functionallyextinct. Others believe there are only twoforms – the ‘nominate’ (typical) and the‘Sunda Islands’ (Indonesian) tiger. Whilstthis lumping versus splitting debate hassome conservation implications, the factremains that whichever way we look at it –tigers are in big trouble.Today wildlife conservation has movedaway from a species-centric to alandscape or ecosystem approach.Modern tiger conservation centres aroundthe identification, maintenance andprotection of “Tiger Conservation Units”or “Critical Tiger Habitat”. One recentpiece of research identified 160 distinctlandscapes where tigers are found. Ofthese 60% were calculated to be unviable,with the vast majority of the 160 havingfewer than 25 breeding adults. Perhapsthe most sobering aspect of this workJ. Patrick Fischerwas the conclusion that as few as six tigerlandscapes exist that have more thanthe minimum number of breeding adultspopulation biologists consider necessaryto ensure a viable population in perpetuity.At face value tigers have scores of friends.There are numerous NGO’s pouringmillions of pounds into their conservationannually. Add to this the multi-million dollartourism industry that surrounds them andclearly they are of major economic andsocial importance. The recent decisionto close all Indian tiger reserves to tourismwas met with outcry from the tens ofthousands of individuals who rely, directlyor indirectly, upon them for their livelihood.The tiger tourism industry rallied round andthe decision was reversed, but for howlong? For many observers the removalof tiger tourism will be their death knell.Therefore developing an understanding oftourism impacts to both tigers and humansis vital if tigers are to have a chance ofsurvival into the 21st century and beyond.Conservation biologists are firmly of thebelief that we are at a cross-roads forthe world’s tigers. Current protectionmechanisms are not working and a newapproach to tiger conservation must bearrived at and quickly! Without this newapproach the price will be the loss ofthe tiger and the admission that we didnot have the ability to save the planet’smost iconic species. As part of theOpen Lecture series Stewart Thompsonwill therefore explore a number of keyquestions linked to how best we canprotect and expand their remainingpopulations and asks what chance dotigers have in their remaining strongholds?Forthcoming EventsBrookes Science Bazaar, 16 March 2013:https://shsc-int.brookes.ac.uk/blogs/outreach/?p=157deadline for online activity registration is 7 January 2013.Attention: We only called it ‘Science Bazaar’ because ‘Evidence based Research Bazaar’ isn’t catchy.ALL researchers from FHLS are invited to run an activity based on their research field.Darwin, Sex and Sexual Selection, 27 March 2013 at 6pm:The Faculty Annual Research Lecture by Professor Tim BirkheadPlaces can be booked at www.brookes.ac.uk/about/eventsAmazing Acts Festival, 7-10 May 2013:https://shsc-int.brookes.ac.uk/blogs/outreach/?p=176registering expression of interest now.Please have a look and if you have any questions or would like to discuss ideas, drop Anne Osterriederan email.Statslink and Mathslink Short Courses for ResearchersStatistical Methods for Data Analysis 2, 11 and 12 June 201310 Research News