NDTV follows the wandering tiger

Earlier this month, NDTV travelled to the Bhadra Tiger Reserve in north Karnataka to film the release of a captured wild tiger and it was an incredible sight indeed.

The tiger captured near Shimoga after it killed a man. Now, after a team of tiger researchers have studied images of the released animal, it turns out it had made a journey covering hundreds of kilometres - the first time such a long dispersal of a tiger has been recorded.

"When we ran the pictures of this tiger in our database, it popped up a match, and actually this was a young male that was camera-trapped by my team in February 2010 in one edge of Bandipur Tiger Reserve," said Ullas Karanth, Conservation Scientist, Wildlife Conservation Society.

"So, in the period, about one year and four months, he is dispersed, which is what they do at that age, moved across this highly-fragmented landscape and ended up near Shikaripura, which is a linear distance of 280 kms, he probably would have walked for longer. And going through the records of dispersals of tigers, including those based on telemetry, we find this is the longest recorded dispersal of a male tiger," Karnath added.

Ullas Karnath's team had shots of the right side of this tiger in Bandipur thanks to their camera trap. This was matched with the help of software with shots of the captured tiger. And with every tiger's stripes being unique this was an exciting discovery.

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"You know, tiger habitats are under threat, because of both development and rural use pressures and despite this eating away of their habitats, there is still room for tigers to move through and if we move in swiftly and protect the remaining corridors, I think we can maintain connectivity between major source populations," he said.

The information clearly shows how far a young male tiger will go for a viable place to live. It's up to us human beings need to make sure we don't make that task more difficult by further encroaching into their habitat.

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