The population of Sumatran tigers – a critically endangered species found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra – may have increased despite living in a threatened UNESCO World Heritage Site, a study suggests.
The Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is the only extant sub-species of ‘Island tigers’, which includes the now-extinct Javan and Bali tiger.
This sub-species is genetically distinct from the other six sub-species of continental tigers.
Researchers, including those from Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), set 123 camera traps over a 1,000 square kilometre forest block located in a protection zone at the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park in Indonesia.
Results of the camera-trap study showed a Sumatran tiger population density increase to 2.8 tigers per 100 square kilometres in 2015 from 1.6 tigers in 2002.
Furthermore, the proportion of male and female tigers recently recorded was 1:3.
