Photographic database informs management of conflict tigers

Abstract

The increasing interface between people and wildlife contributes to human-wildlife conflict in many conservation landscapes. In India animals suspected to be involved in conflict are often captured and translocated to different locations or zoological parks. A key concern in the capture of so-called problem animals has been the identification of individuals involved in conflict. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) India Program, in collaboration with research partners, has aided government officials in this matter through its research on tigers in the Malenad Tiger Landscape, south-west India. As part of a research programme initiated in 1991, WCS India has formulated a protocol for individual identification of tigers, based on their stripe patterns. Using pattern-matching software that aids quick and reliable identification of tigers from photographs, a photographic database has been developed, with >750 individually identified tigers from 16 protected areas and elsewhere in India.