Tigers in Thailand

Nikola Chavkoski

Nikola Chavkoski

Well-Known Member
Thailand is a very beautifull country. Remarkable nature and culture and friendly people. I was there in April/May 2022 and I want to go again. When I first think of Thailand, I associate it with animals like tigers, elephants and gibbons.

Thailand's forests are home of two free-roaming tiger subspecies; The Indochinese tiger is dispersed in several subpopulations in Eastern Thailand and in Western Thailand along the border with Myanmar. The southernmost distribution of the Indochinese tiger probably is Kaen Krachang National Park on the isthmus of Thailand (an Indochinese tiger was caught on camera trap in the park, ~1 year ago:
).

Additionaly, Indochinese tiger was caugh on camera trap on several occasions in Eastern Thailand, like the next one:
(forest complex Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai National park) and in Western Thailand:
(Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary)

The Malayan tiger, also calls Thailand home. It is certainly (or it was 11 years ago) present in the southern Thai province of Yala to the border with Malaysia, whose forest is continuous with the forest of northern Malaysan province of Perak, that contains Malayan tigers. A fatal tiger attack on human, occured there 11 years ago: Thailand News: Phuket: Thai man killed in suspected tiger attack


It is not clear, whether there are still tigers in the outstanding Khao Sok National park, that is located in southern Thailand, further south to Kaen Krachang NP past the isthmus of Thailand and probably the northernmost distribution of the Malayan tiger. A camera trap set up in the park, caught animals like Malayan tapir, elephants and sun bears, but no tigers:

I have only been to Khao Sok NP from these, and I passed close by Kaen Krachang NP in Petchaburi province, with wonderfull scenery: Log into Facebook | Facebook
 
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But Thailand is also home to a lot of captive tigers, whose genetics are not investigated. To be honest, I have visited the Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai and took a picture with a live tiger inside enclosure; I was very curious for places like that. The experience was very frightening and I only last 3-4 minutes in the enclosure, beside a live adult tiger: Log into Facebook | Facebook ; Log into Facebook | Facebook . I got pale skin of stress of fear, like never before. We were told, only to touch hind parts of the tiger, and never front parts like neck, head or front paws. I was accompanied by two keepers, inside the enclosure.

I am not necesarly against such facilities; After all, tigers there looked well cared for, living in green ( Log into Facebook | Facebook ) quite spacious enclosures ( Log into Facebook | Facebook ) and they keep some tiger genetic pool per se. They said, their tigers are Bengal tigers ( Log into Facebook | Facebook ; Log into Facebook | Facebook ), but who knows, when they are not geneticaly tested. And at the time, they had around 25 tigers on the site. They also, as I understood, are taking care of more than 100 tigers from closed tiger temple near Kanchanburi, and operate another Tiger Kingdom on Phuket Island.

Places like Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, makes an excellent job by rescuing tigers (and other animals) living in small cages in closed zoos or other facilities, and provides them with spacious green enclosures. I visited this facility only briefly: Log into Facebook | Facebook ; Log into Facebook | Facebook , it is located in Petchaburi province in the vicinity of the Kaen Kracheng NP, in a tropical forest and in part, in a Thai savanah.

Visiting national parks and some facilities, means you contribute to in situ conservation, because you need to pay for entrance to national parks in most cases.
 
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TinoPup said:
Any place that lets you pet tigers, especially adults, is not taking care of their animals. They are drugged and abused.
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I don't think they drug them; They looked normaly physiologicaly and behavioraly, pretty aware to surrounding, with head up, laying, watching and hearing. They are just used to people, since they are young tigers (2-4 years old) hand-reared from cubs. And you can't play or "pet" with the tiger, but only take a photo or video beside a live tiger. And accessable tigers were only the young and male tigers, they said. Females and older male tigers were not used for such purpose, cause are agressive, but they had both female and older male tigers.

But I only visited the Tiger kingdom. Surely there are more, smaller facilities with tigers across Thailand, whose procedures may not be acceptable.
 
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Drugged doesn't always mean barely conscious. An adult tiger doesn't behave like that, even hand-reared. A reputable place doesn't put their tigers in that sort of position to begin with (or themselves in that legal position without being sure nothing will happen).
 
Nikola Chavkoski said:
When entering the park, we signed an insurrance, in case of something happen
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Everywhere does those. I've had to do them for most bts things I've done, even if I was never in the same space as animal, much less a deadly one. It's questionable whether they hold up in court, and they certainly don't say anything about if the facility feels safe or not.
 
TinoPup said:
Drugged doesn't always mean barely conscious. An adult tiger doesn't behave like that, even hand-reared. A reputable place doesn't put their tigers in that sort of position to begin with (or themselves in that legal position without being sure nothing will happen).
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It's really not fair to the tiger. If a tiger grabs an arm and doesn't let go, there's going to be an expectation that the park will be willing to use deadly force to save the person. Tiger gets killed for being a tiger in a situation that could have easily been avoided. And these sorts of interactions don't benefit the tigers in any way.
 
Certainly I won't do it again; Entering enclosure with tiger, is very stresfull and obviously dangerous. But it was my first time, so I did it. You can also observe them like in a ordinarly zoo, you don't need to get into enclosures.
 
Nikola Chavkoski said:
Certainly I won't do it again; Entering enclosure with tiger, is very stresfull and obviously dangerous.
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Similar story with your current profile picture with the cobra I'm guessing?

Nikola Chavkoski said:
But it was my first time, so I did it.
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Just because opportunity is there doesn't mean one has to do it. The tigers are definitely drugged and as I assume you paid entrance fee and additional fee for the experience that is directly supporting animal abuse. You mention you were curious about such facilities and not necessarily against them - pretty strong hints you're up for whatever experiences you can get and possibly not so skeptical of the danger or ethics as you imply.
 
Great Argus said:
Similar story with your current profile picture with the cobra I'm guessing?

The tigers are definitely drugged and as I assume you paid entrance fee and additional fee for the experience that is directly supporting animal abuse.
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I can't say they were druged, because they looked physiologicaly and behavioraly normal to me, with heads postured upp, I also observed they were moving in the enclosure shortly after I leaved it.

But what if I take a photo of me, with a tamed koala for example, or touching a tamed elephant? For a life-lasting memory. Or holding a (venomous) pet snake? Taking photo with wild animal upclose, does not automatically means it is animal abuse?

Maybe they had only 3-4 realy tame tigers, approachable by people. That does not mean they are abused. If they are druged, yes. But we don't know for sure. The facility looked more or less like most zoos to me, animals well cared for and in suitable enclosures, and not like amusement park. And I think they were called by the government, to take care for tigers from the closed infamous tiger temple. As I understood.

We think we seen other facilities world wide, playing with or training captive tigers (Australia Zoo? Or maybe I am wrong), and taking photos with them, it is not only in Thailand?
 
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All animals are not equal. For situations with non-deadly animals, it depends more on the situation. Is the koala constantly in photo-ops, or is it maybe half an hour a week? Do they stop if the koala appears agitated or doesn't want to participate? Are they cancelled if the koala shows any sign of illness? Tigers do not want to be in that sort of situation.
 
I have done the Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai as well, and there is no doubt that those animals are sedated. It was about 7 years ago and all of the adults were clearly drugged. The cubs did not seem to be, but cubs are not adult tigers. The experience was incredible, if conflicting now and then. Given the animal welfare issues that I now know (but did not at the time), I don't think that I would recommend it.
 
Maybe they stopped to drug them since then, things are evolving; Maybe they are responsible now; I was there last year. I didn't see any cubs. But I realy enjoyed the park; It is like a zoo, with only tigers and some cheetahs: Log into Facebook | Facebook .At the end of Chiang Mai city, a truly tropical zoo, with lush tropical vegetation, and walking paths for visitors ( Log into Facebook | Facebook ) and you are surrounded with tigers from every side - enclosures with tigers.
Log into Facebook | Facebook
 
Nikola Chavkoski said:
Maybe they stopped to drug them since then, things are evolving; Maybe they are responsible now; I was there last year. I didn't see any cubs. But I realy enjoyed the park; It is like a zoo, with only tigers and some cheetahs: Log into Facebook | Facebook .At the end of Chiang Mai city, a truly tropical zoo, with lush tropical vegetation, and walking paths for visitors ( Log into Facebook | Facebook ) and you are surrounded with tigers from every side - enclosures with tigers.
Log into Facebook | Facebook
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The first thing on their website is a video with people petting adults, holding up their tails, etc. And then a guy feeding a white tiger while petting its head. You pay more for the white tiger. There is nothing reputable about any of that, at all.
 
The 'Western Forest Complex' is one of the largest protected areas in Southeastern Asia. It stretches in western Thailand, in north-south direction across border with Myanmar and encompasses several national parks and protected reserves in Thailand and one in Myanmar. This complex is the most important area for the last remaining Indochinese tigers.

In Thailand, it includes many parks, among other Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife sanctuary, Mae Wong National park and the Kaeng Krachang NP as the southernmost park.

There (in Kanchanburi province) was located the Tiger temple. From where it has sourced its tigers, is question? Maybe most were wild caugh Indochinese and breed intensively in captivity?

......

Meanwhile, in the extreme South of Thailand.... (areas not so commonly visited by international tourists like other parts of Thailand)..

,provinces that are most likely to host free ranging Malayan tigers, are Yala and Narathiwat. The Bang Lang NP is located in Yala province and its old tropical forests are continuous across border into Royal Belum NP in Malaysia (state of Perak).

Some photos of southern Thailand (province of Surat Thani) taken from a plane: Log into Facebook | Facebook
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**Thailand is probably the only country in the World (or perhaps the one from only two, the other beeing China - and China may actually has three subspecies) that has free roaming tigers from 2 different subspecies.**
 
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A visit to Safari Bangkok. You need to pay two times, if you want to do the safari drive (that only lasts 25 minutes) with the zoo safari bus into the savanah section (including tigers in a large enclosure) and if you want to see the zoo proper itself, a more classical zoo setting with other 'non savanah' animals, like the non-human primates. And it is not cheap (one ticket for the safari was around 30 euros, and then when I wanted to go in the other part, the zoo proper, there was again entrance and again I needed to pay around 30 euros for a ticket, and I didn't).

The tigers pictured from the bus, through the glass window. They fit excelently into the enclosure, a feeling like you are seeing a wild tiger in an 'Asian tropical forest and savanah complex': Log into Facebook | Facebook
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Additional info: I have realized that I am born on the International Tiger Day (29th of July) :) and on the day of the tiger from the Chinese zodiac, but the year of snake.
 
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Nikola Chavkoski said:
Maybe they stopped to drug them since then, things are evolving; Maybe they are responsible now; I was there last year. I didn't see any cubs. But I realy enjoyed the park; It is like a zoo, with only tigers and some cheetahs: Log into Facebook | Facebook .At the end of Chiang Mai city, a truly tropical zoo, with lush tropical vegetation, and walking paths for visitors ( Log into Facebook | Facebook ) and you are surrounded with tigers from every side - enclosures with tigers.
Log into Facebook | Facebook
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To be clear, I am not judging you for going there and participating - I have done it myself. But the tigers are drugged, there is just no way around that. An adult tiger, no matter how tame it may seem, is always HIGHLY dangerous and potentially unpredictable, espeically when surrounded daily by people that it does not know and that it does not know how they are going to act around it. If they were not sedated there would absolutely be incidents. Leaving the ethics aside, it does us well to at least recognize and understand what we are participating in when we choose to do so.
 
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