The simple reason there's no tigers in Cambodia is that people killed them too extinction.

I wonder how many generations more, before people will not give a shit about wild animals and their conservation? It’s mainly the ‘old farts’ who champion wildlife and habitat conservation, when their generation have died out, who will pick up the torch?
I get the impression most of todays younger generation are so busy making tiktoks and living their lives through social media that they couldn’t care less about animals, unless of course it’s an “angry cat” or a miniature dog in fancy dress, if it hasn’t got it’s own YouTube channel or Facebook page it doesn’t exist. They wouldn’t know what wildlife conservation means, they’d probably think it’s a right wing political party.
I know they like to make a lot of noise about “climate change” but that’s mostly in order to get likes on social media, or some time off school. Most of them wouldn’t know where eggs or milk come from, much less anything about wild animals.

Tigers are extremely territorial, so they will fight other animals and even other tigers that invade their space. This problem has become more of an issue due to the reduction of their natural environment. A male may have a territory of up to 60 to 100 square kilometers, while females up to 20 square kilometers, but these numbers vary according to the habitat and the subspecies. As a result of territory reduction, their areas overlap having to venture into new zones to find food.
So overall if the tiger has its habitat and food, it would adapt well with the surroundings been offered, but has always with such large wild cats they need to be managed well in the wild areas that they will be living and hunting, even more so if its going to be open to tourism, such has the Indian parks of Jim Corbett and Ranthambore.

AndyKK wrote: ↑Sun Mar 13, 2022 2:36 pm Tigers are extremely territorial, so they will fight other animals and even other tigers that invade their space. This problem has become more of an issue due to the reduction of their natural environment. A male may have a territory of up to 60 to 100 square kilometers, while females up to 20 square kilometers, but these numbers vary according to the habitat and the subspecies. As a result of territory reduction, their areas overlap having to venture into new zones to find food.
So overall if the tiger has its habitat and food, it would adapt well with the surroundings been offered, but has always with such large wild cats they need to be managed well in the wild areas that they will be living and hunting, even more so if its going to be open to tourism, such has the Indian parks of Jim Corbett and Ranthambore.

So in an enclosure of less than one square kilometer, any more than one Tiger at a time will be asking for trouble, and any tiger in there is going to be walking laps or bumping into the fence every ten minutes.
Seems a bit pointless, other than serving as a ‘halfway house’ for individual tigers, rescued from cages and awaiting transfer to a wildlife reserve that’s actually large enough (which Cambodia does not have)

John Bingham wrote: ↑Sun Mar 13, 2022 3:11 pm

Chad Sexington wrote: ↑Sun Mar 13, 2022 11:44 am I wonder how many generations more, before people will not give a shit about wild animals and their conservation?

Going by the reaction to the lion being kept in BKK you have a point. Cambodians in general don't like forests. They are seen as wild, uncivilized and dangerous places. This is not so different than other regions, the plethora of old European folk tales with scary forests as their settings attest to this ( Peter and the Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood, Babes in the Wood, etc). Forest products were a major export item here going back at least to the times of Angkor. One reason for Thailand's vast wealth is the trade in forest products from Cambodia that went on for centuries. There was some brief respite during the wars, as infrastructure was destroyed and fighting, mines etc made some areas difficult to access. Democratic Kampuchea (Pol Pot) exported a lot of forest products too. Tons of elephant and tiger bones, hundreds of kilos of gecko skulls, various resins etc. Peacetime has allowed the country to redevelop. Every time a new road is built more and more people can access what were remote areas. The construction workers trap loads of wildlife and eat it or sell it. I don't see it getting any better. I've been to a vast "wildlife refuge" in Preah Vihear province. There was nothing but bare earth with the odd black stump sticking up from horizon to horizon.

Going back to the 12th century I would imagine that the former forests were abundant with wildlife, and the tigers would have roamed over their vast wilderness, they we're probably no doubt also hunted back in those days too, along with forest clearing for the timber and the agricultural land.
Today it could still happen if the forests are managed to an extent to preserve and also protect of rare and valuable wood's, cut and replanting forestry with softwoods in designated areas, specifically for building materials.
Yes, Mr Pot and his followers had a dream of what! Something that would never work nor be accepted by most counties of the world, gendercide kind of brings you trouble from all directions. Has for him pillaging the country's wildlife and exotica, I seem to remember when I was living in the far north along the Loas border above Preah Vihear forests sprawled has far has the eye could see, but come the genral election and government parties had to meet needs, and wood (timber) is a good commodity.
I have heard some of the quotes over the past years about European country cutting down their forests and selling the timbers, and now they tell us its wrong for us to do the same. There is an age difference such has when England was vastly forested.
But the underlying problem is that Cambodia is subsidised to protect its forests by many countries I am led to understand, also because they have the forest vastness, they sell other country's carbon credits.

World Tiger Day: The cats have gone extinct in 3 southeast Asian countries; here is why
Poaching and habitat loss largely responsible for the development according to experts
By Rajat Ghai
Published: Friday 29 July 2022
[excerpts]
As the world celebrates yet another World Tiger Day July 29, 2022, there is sobering news. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently confirmed that the tiger has gone extinct in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The reasons, according to tiger experts, are poaching and habitat loss.

“The last time a tiger was seen in Cambodia was 15 years ago, with a camera trap. It is therefore almost certain that there are no tigers in Cambodia anymore,” Niels Debonne from the Institute for environmental Studies (IVM), Amsterdam, told Down To Earth.

Debonne said tigers were hunted in Cambodia for their body parts to be used in traditional Chinese medicine. In addition, their prey such as deer, wild cattle as well as others had been hunted excessively by people to feed themselves during the Khmer Rouge period as well as in later years of instability.

In Cambodia, another major factor besides poaching has been habitat loss. “Cambodia has, on paper, one of the largest shares of protected areas in the world. However, protection levels are weak, partly due to corruption. In fact, large parts of Cambodia’s parks have been sold to agribusiness investors,” Debonne noted.

The Eastern Plains, a tropical dry forest, was the stronghold of the tiger in Cambodia. “Much of it is still there, although many parts have also disappeared due to agribusiness development. However, it is nowadays largely empty of life,” he added.

Tiger comeback
Cambodia has lost its tigers but not hope. In late September 2017, the country’s powerful Prime Minister, HE, a former Khmer Rouge commander, announced that tigers will be reintroduced to the country with the help of the World Wide Fund for Nature.

“It is interesting to see that Cambodian policy makers are very invested in their plans to reintroduce tigers. In a country that has many issues, this issue is somehow still very high on the agenda, in the top levels of government,” Debonne said.

But it is not going to be easy. Debonne had authored a paper in 2019 where he had talked about how one branch of the Cambodian government was setting up protected areas and reintroduction plans, while another was selling off the same land to agribusiness investors.

“I believe Cambodia has actually made significant progress to improve their governance. They have stopped granting any more agribusiness concessions and have taken a more aggressive stance against agribusinesses in protected areas,” he said.

But other issues remain. Can Cambodian policymakers find the political will and funding to stop the poaching of prey animals? Will local populations accept the reintroduction (and the risks that tigers also pose to humans and livestock)?

“In short, I believe tiger reintroduction is possible but before you reintroduce any animal, you should be certain that you fixed all the issues,” Debonne noted.
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/wil ... -why-84030

Cambodian youths join int’l tiger conservation summit
Ry Sochan | Publication date 29 July 2022 | 15:32 ICT

The two youths who attended the attended the virtual summit – which is organized every 12 years during the Lunar Year of the Tiger – were Long Sapor and Man Fayanin. WWF-CAMBODIA

Two Cambodian youths attended the International Tiger Youth Summit on July 28 and pledged to participate in tiger and wildlife conservation in Cambodia’s natural forest habitats. The summit was organized by WWF-India and WWF-Tigers, according to a WWF-Cambodia press statement.

The two youths who attended the attended the virtual summit – which is organized every 12 years during the Lunar Year of the Tiger – were Long Sapor and Man Fayanin. They summit brought together young people from 13 tiger range countries, including Cambodia, to highlight the importance of securing forest habitats and prey for tiger conservation.

“Without waiting any longer, we need to mobilise more participation from young people in Cambodia to support tiger conservation efforts by the government, WWF and other partners,” said Sapor.

She said wildlife deserves to be protected just like humans. Young people have to join hands to protect them and be their voices before they go globally extinct.
“I wish to see tigers make a return to the Kingdom. I would be proud to tell my kids I played a small part in this great effort,” she added.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... ion-summit

India to Help Tiger Reintroduction in Cambodia
AKP Phnom Penh, November 15, 2022 --

The Republic of India will help restore the wild tiger population in Cambodia through reintroduction of the big cats and provision of cooperation so that they can live in natural forests.

The Cambodian Ministry of Environment and the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Changes last week reached a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation in Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Wildlife Management Recovery Strategy of Tiger and its Habitat.

The MoU was inked between H.E. Say Samal, Cambodian Minister of Environment and H.E. Ms. Devyani Khobragade, Ambassador of India to Cambodia who represented the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Changes, under the witness of Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo HE, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, and H.E. Jagdeep Dhankhar, Vice-President of the Republic of India, during their bilateral meeting held on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summits and Related Summits in Phnom Penh.

The MoU is aimed to promote biodiversity conservation by focusing on the preservation and restoration of tiger population in Cambodia, especially in key landscape areas, including the Cardamom Mountains and the Eastern Plains, said the Ministry of Environment.

Reintroduction of tigers, sharing and exchange of skills and good practices, and promotion of sustainable biodiversity management are also part of the MoU, it added.

According to WWF, in Cambodia, the last Tiger was photographed by camera trap in 2007 in Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary of Mondulkiri province. In 2016, wildlife scientists declared the big cat is functionally extinct in the Kingdom.

By C. Nika
AKP