Tigers Declared 'Functionally Extinct' in Cambodia

[Andrew_NZP]

Tigers Declared 'Functionally Extinct' in Cambodia

Tigers are “functionally extinct” in Cambodia, conservationists conceded for the first time on Wednesday, as they launched a bold action plan to reintroduce the big cats to the kingdom’s forests.

Cambodia’s dry forests used to be home to scores of Indochinese tigers but the WWF said intensive poaching of both tigers and their prey had devastated the numbers of the big cats.

The last tiger was seen on camera trap in the eastern Mondulkiri province in 2007, it said.

“Today, there are no longer any breeding populations of tigers left in Cambodia, and they are therefore considered functionally extinct,” the conservation group said in a statement.

Tigers Declared 'Functionally Extinct' in Cambodia : Discovery News

Cambodia to Bring Wild Tigers From Abroad in Fight Against Extinction

A plan to fight the extinction of wild tigers in Cambodia would require importing the big cats from abroad, in what conservationists say would be the first transnational tiger reintroduction.

The last tiger seen in the wild in Cambodia was in its east in 2007, Un Chakrey, communications manager for the conservation group WWF-Cambodia, said on Wednesday. Poaching and the loss of habitat have wiped out tigers in Cambodia, and the species is considered functionally extinct there, with no breeding pairs, WWF-Cambodia said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/07/world/asia/cambodia-tigers.html?_r=0

 

[Arizona Docent]

Tiger trouble in Cambodia

Bad news from Cambodia:
Tigers Now Considered ?Functionally Extinct? in Cambodia

 

[Swampy]

"The tigers would most likely come from India, though Thailand and Malaysia are other possibilities, Mr. Un Chakrey said. They could be introduced as soon as 2020, he said."

Surely Thailand would be the only suitable option, given subspecies distributions? Or are wild tiger numbers too low nowadays to worry about preserving genetic integrity of subspecies?

 

[Pleistohorse]

I'm no geneticist, but being that mainland Tigers had a pretty continuous range from Pakistan to Korea 200 years ago...