csmonitor.com - The Christian Science Monitor Online
 

Making the world safe for big cats

Explorer Alan Rabinowitz creates havens for tigers, jaguars, and leopards.

(Photograph)
An expeditionary force:Alan Rabinowitz treks around the world in his study of and conservation work with wild cats. The scientist, who is based at the Wildlife Conservation Society, a part of the Bronx Zoo where he posed here with a Siberian tiger, is credited with bringing unlikely partners together for conservation in various nations.
Seth Harrison/The Journal News

Page 1 of 3

Alan Rabinowitz was on a routine mission deep inside a Burmese jungle when news reached him about the attack. In a nearby camp of rattan gatherers a juvenile elephant had just been set upon by a tiger. The intrepid wildlife expert from New York decided to investigate.

Sure enough, the still-jittery elephant calf had rake-style claw marks on its flank. Mr. Rabinowitz peeled off from his obligatory government escort to track the attacker. Near a bank of thick undergrowth, he had "a gut feeling," he says. "I was looking at the jungle and sensed a presence in there watching me. I don't think it was intuition; it was knowing my animal so well."

He threw a rock into the tall grass. Suddenly there was a mighty rustle, followed by the receding sound of a large animal sprinting through the forest. Closer inspection revealed the fresh pug marks (paw prints) of a tiger having lain in wait.

Rabinowitz was relieved – but not for the reason you or I would have been: He was glad the tiger was there. "When we start bringing the number of tigers up," he says, "they're bound to have run-ins with people." And that's great, he adds, because friskier tigers may testify to a beleaguered species on the rebound – even if that causes problems for villagers in the area.

"I didn't go to Myanmar [Burma] to help people," says Rabinowitz, director of science and exploration for the Wildlife Conservation Society based at the Bronx Zoo who recently passed through Bangkok, after spending two months in Myanmar. "I went there to save tigers."

And save them he does. Ironically, though, that invariably entails helping people. Take Ah Puh, a Lisu hunter expert at trapping tigers in remote northern jungles of Burma. The area is populated by impoverished ethnic minorities who often exchange exotic animal parts with Chinese traders for their most prized commodity: salt.

As recently as the 1980s, dozens of tigers were poached every year in Burma's forests; today, only around 80 remain, Rabinowitz says. They, too, are doomed, he adds, unless locals like Ah Puh endorse his message of wildlife conservation.

So, hiking into backwoods hamlets, he told tribesmen (through interpreters) about the long-term ecological benefits of livestock husbandry over traditional ways of hunting. He then gave them fast-breeding piglets.

Page 1 | 2 | 3 | Next Page

Get Monitor stories by e-mail:
(Your e-mail address will be protected by csmonitor.com's tough privacy policy.)
Photos of the Day
The best photos from May 14, 2008.

CAMPAIGN '08 Patchwork Nation
The American voter beyond red and blue

BOOKS When innocence and guilt intertwine
Past and present overlap in Louise Erdrich's lyrical new novel.

Daily podcast

Monitor Reports

Pat Murphy hosts today's podcast with Monitor reporters from around the world.


Today

Pat Murphy

Today's podcast features a report on Burmese cyclone survivors, Iranian influence in Iraq, President Bush's trip to Israel and a new law affecting taco trucks in Los Angeles.






Today's print issue
Today's Issue of The Christian Science Monitor