Tiger Response Team Gets Training in Handling Local Tigers

Wildlife conservationists from WCS and other organizations are training Russian scientists and managers in the Russian Far East to handle Siberian tigers that sometimes venture too close for comfort. Reacting to an increase of tiger/human encounters the Russian Far East, staff from WCS, the Hornocker Wildlife Institute and Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo recently joined forces to train Russian conservationists and wildlife reserve personnel on the basics of animal immobilization and appropriate response to "Problem tigers". The program consisted of on-site training in the Russian Far East, combined with continued extensive training back in the U.S.

Dr. Bob Cook, chief veterinarian of Wildlife Health Sciences and vice president of the Wildlife Conservation Society, helped demonstrate a series of wildlife veterinary techniques during an intensive five-day training course. In June, in Sikote-Alin Reserve, Russia, co-instructors included Dr. Doug Armstrong of the Henry Doorly Zoo, Dr. Kathy Quigley of the Hornocker Wildlife Institute and Dr. Dale Miquelle, Country Program Coordinator for WCS in Russia.

The workshop participants then traveled to the wildlife rehabilitation center outside of Khabarovsk, to provide participants hands-on experience with a captive tiger and three Asian black bears. Some 20 Russians from "Tiger Response" teams and various wildlife reserves participated in the program, learning how to set traps, use darting equipment and handle the animals in the process.

A follow-up program, conducted during the first two weeks of September at the Henry Doorley Zoo, and in the Rockies, has just been completed. This component allowed Russian specialists to obtain invaluable hands-on training in immobilization of tigers and exposed them to a series of programs to learn how U.S. wildlife managers from Yellowstone National Park and Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks deal with carnivore problems. WCS and HWI gratefully acknoledge the support of the New York based Trust for Mutual Understanding for the support of this project.

According to WCS researchers, the need for tiger handling skills in local communities is growing due to a variety of factors. Primarily, the tiger's habitat is becoming increasingly fragmented from human development, bringing humans and tigers into more frequent contact. The hunting of tiger prey animals by community members is another problem for tiger conservation, since the cats often augment their prey items with livestock predation when usual prey species are unavailable. And poaching attempts sometimes result in maimed tigers incapable of hunting their natural prey.

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