Let Us Count Our Tigers

1. What they did

Saroj Choudhury, a forester and experienced tiger hunter in Orissa, India, argues that tigers are disappearing fast and that counting them is the first step to saving them. He draws on 34 years of his own experience, from boyhood hunting near Cuttack to two decades in the forest service, to describe how tigers use their territories, and sets out a simple, low-cost census method.

He describes:

• How tigers behave in their territories. Using man-eaters and cattle-lifters he had followed and shot, he describes regular rounds through a home territory, and the few cases where tigers left it.
• The “cooperation census”. Forest guards, other forest staff and local people search their own beats for tigers and fresh pugmarks during one week, record them on a standard counting sheet and log-book, and coordinators (Range Officers or Foresters) check for double counts. He led the first such count in Orissa in the first week of December 1966.
• A comparison with a lion census. He compares his method with a “direct visual count” of Gir lions described in an earlier issue of the same journal.

2. What they found

Tigers and their territories

• In the forests north of Cuttack, 4 to 6 tigers lived within 15 to 20 km of his village; at least 12 were killed there over 15 years without a lasting drop in numbers. Those forests and their tigers are now gone.
• Man-eaters do not avoid leaving pugmarks; they keep near paths and roads, where people are, and leave many tracks there.
• Tigers, man-eaters and cattle-lifters included, keep to a strong territorial habit with regular rounds. A family of four man-eaters at Bori stayed in their home forest even as food ran short.
• Exceptions: a starving tiger disabled by a porcupine travelled 50 km from his territory, and tigers displaced by deforestation in the Motu-Malkangiri area moved north into new forests.
• In the Ramgiri forests, where he had known of only three tigers in 1965 to 1966, he found nine in 1967 to 1968. While tracking the Gupteswar man-eater (30 human kills), he marked out the ranges of six other tigers and could still pick out the man-eater’s pugmarks among theirs. After shooting the man-eater he trailed it for 13 days, 30 km, to its remains.

The census

• The first week of December suits a count: dew and coarse, spiny or sticky ground plants push tigers onto footpaths, roads and open areas, where fresh pugmarks are easier to find, and local people are more willing to help.
• The census rests on two assumptions: tigers are strongly territorial and move methodically.
• Some tigers with large ranges were counted twice by forest guards far apart, mainly in Phulbani Forest Division. These were found on topographic maps with local knowledge and removed.
• The December 1966 count found 326 tigers in Orissa. After the result was publicised, tiger shooting (except of man-eaters) was stopped. He feared the 1968 recount would show fewer than 250, because of poisoning and the skin trade.
• The Gir lion census, costing an estimated Rs. 20,000 to 25,000 and using 300 to 400 live baits, found 162 lions (177 with pugmark counts added), close to the Forest Department’s earlier estimate of 160.

3. What they concluded

• No wild animal count is absolute. What matters is a cheap, repeatable measure that shows whether a population is rising or falling, and how fast.
• The cooperation census costs almost nothing, fits into forest staff’s normal duties, and gave about the same confidence as the costly direct count of lions.
• It should be repeated in all tiger areas of India every six months, in the first weeks of December and June (when tigers are easier to find near water holes), and the results shared widely to build public interest, including through youth camps.
• Local trackers are becoming fewer as tigers vanish; researchers and managers should work with them in the forest rather than theorise at their desks.

4. How tracking was or was not used

Tracking is central. The author tracked man-eaters and cattle-lifters by learning their regular patterns of movement (“anticipation-stalking”), followed one wounded man-eater’s trail for 13 days, and told individual tigers apart by their pugmarks even where seven tigers overlapped. The census itself relies on finding fresh pugmarks (and sightings), and he recommends measuring and drawing pugmarks and making a few plaster casts. The log-book records tigers seen, pugmarks seen and plaster cast numbers and sizes. He says distinguishing individuals takes some field practice, but can be learned by anyone with a little interest.

5. Tracker or observer certification

Reported but not validated. The author describes his own long experience and names skilled local trackers: his boyhood teachers Dina and Baraja, Langda of Malchama, old Makunda of Chhotkei (Angul Forest Division), and his cousin Nihar, “an equally efficient tracker”. Forest guards and local people did the census counts. No test of anyone’s tracking skill is reported.

6. Other technologies, skills or innovations

• A standard counting sheet: terrain, cover, prey, human and cattle competition, protection and local cooperation, plus questions about tigers known in neighbouring areas, how far away and of what sex.
• A week’s log-book (morning, afternoon and evening) recording tigers seen, pugmarks seen and plaster casts.
• Topographic maps to place counting sheets and remove double counts.

7. Implications for conservation (from the paper)

• Tiger numbers in Orissa fell drastically in the decade before 1970, through deforestation, settlement, hydroelectric projects, shooting and poisoning for skins. Isolated tigers may find no mates, so some areas will lose tigers altogether.
• Regular counts give managers the “grip” they need on population trends, and published counts can change policy, as when tiger shooting was stopped in Orissa.
• Local people’s knowledge and cooperation are essential and should be kept alive.