In a significant step toward wildlife conservation, Cambodia has initiated the installation of 410 camera traps in the Cardamom Mountains to monitor and facilitate the restoration of its tiger population. The initiative, launched on Saturday, aims to reintroduce tigers into their natural habitat within the Tatai Wildlife Sanctuary.
According to Khvay Atitya, spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment, the cameras will be positioned at one-kilometer intervals across a 90-hectare protected zone. “The camera traps will monitor wildlife, particularly prey species such as deer and wild boars,” Atitya told Xinhua. “This will help us analyze if there are enough diets for tigers, which are planned to be imported from India.”
Tigers in Cambodia were declared “functionally extinct” in 2016 by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), with the last confirmed sighting captured by a camera trap in 2007 in the Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary of Mondulkiri province. The decline was primarily due to poaching and habitat loss.
The current project is a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife Alliance, and other conservation organizations. By covering both the dry and rainy seasons over a three-month period, the collected data will provide a comprehensive understanding of the ecosystem’s capacity to support a sustainable tiger population.
The reintroduction of tigers is not only a symbol of Cambodia’s commitment to biodiversity but also a crucial move to restore the ecological balance in the region. Success in this endeavor could serve as a model for wildlife conservation efforts across Asia, offering hope for other countries facing similar challenges.
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Wildlife cameras deployed in Cambodia to help restore tiger population
cgtn.com
