New Straits Times
12-13-2007
Saving tigers from extinction
Byline: Ellen Whyte
Edition: Main/Lifestyle
Section: Tech & U; Outlook
Column: Study smart
YAWNING and figuring out what to do during the long holidays? Make a difference and use your wits to save one of Malaysia's most interesting and endangered species: the Malayan tiger.
There are only 500 Malayan tigers left, from a worldwide tiger population of less than 3,000. In other words, the tiger will die out completely in the wild within 50 years unless we stop killing them.
"Poaching, for local consumption as well as to be smuggled out of the country for the exotic meat and traditional medicine trade, is the main problem," says Loretta Ann Soosayraj of MYCAT, the Malaysian tiger conservation group. "Habitat loss and fragmentation is still of grave concern, but poaching has the capacity to cause the greatest amount of damage in a short period of time."
RACE AGAINST TIME. MYCAT will be running Race Against Time: Tiger Day on Sunday at Zoo Negara.
And celebrity tiger ambassadors Ning Baizura and Vince Chong will attend and launch the new Tiger Crime Hotline, a 24-hour line for the public to report crime against tigers and tigers' prey. The hotline at 019-3564194 will be available from Sunday.
Wildlife experts will discuss how they check on tigers, what you can do to help, and what sort of studies you should take to pursue a career as a wildlife expert. Who knows, you may become an international tiger expert and ambassador for the big cat, just like how the Crocodile Hunter was for crocs and Austin Stevens is for snakes.
NATIONWIDE CALL. If you're not in the Klang Valley, don't worry. MYCAT plans to conduct more targeted outreach programmes in locations known as wildlife trade hotspots. Meetings have already been held this year in Kahang, Johor, which neighbours the Endau- Rompin National Park.
Depending on funding availability, MYCAT hopes to conduct more Race Against Time programmes in Zoo Melaka and Zoo Taiping.
There is much you can do, even if you can't get to the zoo for the meeting. "The first step is to learn more about tigers from reliable sources and more importantly, the threats which are endangering tigers today," Loretta says.
"Share your knowledge with others and activate more young people like yourself to take action and speak up. It is no longer enough to have raised awareness; there must be action.
"Talk to your parents and grandparents. Explain to them how they can help reduce the trade in tigers and tigers' prey by not buying and consuming medicines which claim to be made from tiger parts, by not eating tiger meat and by not eating wild pig and deer meat to ensure tigers have sufficient food to survive on."
MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Talk to friends, organise an awareness day, set up a MYCAT club at school, build a Web site devoted to our national big cats, or raise funds to save the tiger. Whatever you do, the best way to persuade people to do the right thing is to be fully informed.
Find out more about the Malayan tiger from MYCAT at http:// www.mns. org.my/artabout.php?aid=40. It has great wallpaper for your PC, e-cards to send to friends over the holidays, fact sheets, colouring activities and other fun stuff. There are also links to partner organisations such as the Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia, Traffic Southeast Asia, which tries to stop poaching, the Wildlife Conservation Society and WWF- Malaysia.
For a snapshot of tiger conservation all over the world, visit Save the Tiger Fund at http://www.savethetigerfund.org and Wildlife Defenders at http://www.defenders.org/wildlife_and_habitat/wildlife/ tiger.php. Statistics here are useful for presentations or adding more punch to Web sites.
Up-to-date news articles from all over Asia are hosted at Tigers in Crisis at http://tigersincrisis.com. This site is useful for compiling statistics and adding new information to your Web site or blog. It also offers free images.
If you have relatives who believe in the healing powers of tiger meat and parts, read up on how traditional Asian medicine is killing tigers and other wildlife at http://www.worldwildlife.org/trade/ tcm.cfm. The Wildlife Trade FAQs links are also rich in numbers and other details.
Then move on to http://tinyurl.com/yuz8nl/ to learn how pig bones and other commonly available products can be used as substitutes.
Finally, convince people to save the tiger by reading up on eco- tourism. If we have tigers in our forests, visitors from all over the world will come to see them. They'll pay money to stay in hotels, buy souvenirs and otherwise spend money. For an overview of how this works, go to http://travel.howstuffworks.com/ ecolodge4.htm.
With all the facts at your fingertips, you can use this holiday to make a difference. Have fun!
(Copyright 2007)
Saving tigers from extinctionEllen Whyte
New Straits Times
12-13-2007
Saving tigers from extinction
Byline: Ellen Whyte
Edition: Main/Lifestyle
Section: Tech & U; Outlook
Column: Study smart
YAWNING and figuring out what to do during the long holidays? Make a difference and use your wits to save one of Malaysia's most interesting and endangered species: the Malayan tiger.
There are only 500 Malayan tigers left, from a worldwide tiger population of less than 3,000. In other words, the tiger will die out completely in the wild within 50 years unless we stop killing them.
"Poaching, for local consumption as well as to be smuggled out of the country for the exotic meat and traditional medicine trade, is the main problem," says Loretta Ann Soosayraj of MYCAT, the Malaysian tiger conservation group. "Habitat loss and fragmentation is still of grave concern, but poaching has the capacity to cause the greatest amount of damage in a short period of time."
RACE AGAINST TIME. MYCAT will be running Race Against Time: Tiger Day on Sunday at Zoo Negara.
And celebrity tiger ambassadors Ning Baizura and Vince Chong will attend and launch the new Tiger Crime Hotline, a 24-hour line for the public to report crime against tigers and tigers' prey. The hotline at 019-3564194 will be available from Sunday.
Wildlife experts will discuss how they check on tigers, what you can do to help, and what sort of studies you should take to pursue a career as a wildlife expert. Who knows, you may become an international tiger expert and ambassador for the big cat, just like how the Crocodile Hunter was for crocs and Austin Stevens is for snakes.
NATIONWIDE CALL. If you're not in the Klang Valley, don't worry. MYCAT plans to conduct more targeted outreach programmes in locations known as wildlife trade hotspots. Meetings have already been held this year in Kahang, Johor, which neighbours the Endau- Rompin National Park.
Depending on funding availability, MYCAT hopes to conduct more Race Against Time programmes in Zoo Melaka and Zoo Taiping.
There is much you can do, even if you can't get to the zoo for the meeting. "The first step is to learn more about tigers from reliable sources and more importantly, the threats which are endangering tigers today," Loretta says.
"Share your knowledge with others and activate more young people like yourself to take action and speak up. It is no longer enough to have raised awareness; there must be action.
"Talk to your parents and grandparents. Explain to them how they can help reduce the trade in tigers and tigers' prey by not buying and consuming medicines which claim to be made from tiger parts, by not eating tiger meat and by not eating wild pig and deer meat to ensure tigers have sufficient food to survive on."
MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Talk to friends, organise an awareness day, set up a MYCAT club at school, build a Web site devoted to our national big cats, or raise funds to save the tiger. Whatever you do, the best way to persuade people to do the right thing is to be fully informed.
Find out more about the Malayan tiger from MYCAT at http:// www.mns. org.my/artabout.php?aid=40. It has great wallpaper for your PC, e-cards to send to friends over the holidays, fact sheets, colouring activities and other fun stuff. There are also links to partner organisations such as the Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia, Traffic Southeast Asia, which tries to stop poaching, the Wildlife Conservation Society and WWF- Malaysia.
For a snapshot of tiger conservation all over the world, visit Save the Tiger Fund at http://www.savethetigerfund.org and Wildlife Defenders at http://www.defenders.org/wildlife_and_habitat/wildlife/ tiger.php. Statistics here are useful for presentations or adding more punch to Web sites.
Up-to-date news articles from all over Asia are hosted at Tigers in Crisis at http://tigersincrisis.com. This site is useful for compiling statistics and adding new information to your Web site or blog. It also offers free images.
If you have relatives who believe in the healing powers of tiger meat and parts, read up on how traditional Asian medicine is killing tigers and other wildlife at http://www.worldwildlife.org/trade/ tcm.cfm. The Wildlife Trade FAQs links are also rich in numbers and other details.
Then move on to http://tinyurl.com/yuz8nl/ to learn how pig bones and other commonly available products can be used as substitutes.
Finally, convince people to save the tiger by reading up on eco- tourism. If we have tigers in our forests, visitors from all over the world will come to see them. They'll pay money to stay in hotels, buy souvenirs and otherwise spend money. For an overview of how this works, go to http://travel.howstuffworks.com/ ecolodge4.htm.
With all the facts at your fingertips, you can use this holiday to make a difference. Have fun!
(Copyright 2007)
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