Rangers protect Sumatran tigers in Kerinci Seblat National Park

A team of highly-committed rangers protect Sumatran tigers and other key species across  Kerinci Seblat National Park in Indonesia. In the last 5 years, the number of snares discovered by the rangers has fallen by 56% because of intelligence-driven patrols, using best practice data collection and analysis techniques.

Landscape wide, the percentage of Tiger Protection and Conservation Unit (TPCU) patrols reporting tiger presence rose from 62% in 2020 to 68% in 2021 (the highest recorded) and the “Frequency of Encounter” with tigers that patrols recorded was stable at 1 tiger per 18.3km following three years of increasing encounter rates.  Evidence of two tiger family groups was also reported with a total of three new cubs.  A record 95% of patrols in the Core Area reported tigers present.

The number of tigers estimated to live within the park may well be increasing.  However, as the most recent report from the field team reminds us, COVID-19 has prevented the latest camera trap surveys from taking place which could back up this evidence.  Once the team are able to conduct the population monitoring survey, we can get a better understanding of this crucial population of Sumatran tigers.

1. Declining numbers of tiger snares

Last year we saw a 141% decrease in the detection rate of snares compared to the long-term park average. However, we cannot become complacent. A total of six ‘recently-active’ tiger snares were reported by rangers on patrols, two in the west of the national park and one in the east. Read more about how snares are indiscriminately killing tigers below.

2. Evidence of a decline in deer poaching and a gradual increase in prey numbers

The threat to key tiger prey species from poaching has fallen and remains low.

As a result, we are seeing an increase in the abundance of deer (primarily rusa sambar and muntjak) in the Tiger Core Area.  An increase in prey species is important to support a growing tiger population.  Only one ‘long’ snare line for deer was recorded and destroyed on an information-led patrol during the fasting month of Ramadan in 2021, a time of traditionally high poaching rates. Snares are also set to trap both deer and pigs by farmers who are losing crops to marauders. But traps are indiscriminate and tigers and other species can get caught in them causing life-changing injuries and often death.

3. Successful investigations and information-led patrols

Information-led TPCU patrols draw on support from forest-edge farmers and others within the local community. Using local knowledge is estimated to increase snare detection by up to 40% and plays an important role in investigating poaching and wildlife crime.  Investigations by this project have led to the arrest and prosecution of over 70 tiger poachers or traders in four provinces of Sumatra since 2000. Many investigations are carried out by painstakingly piecing together intelligence collected over a long period of time, involving many different stakeholders including the park edge and provincial police of the four provinces that border the park.

In 2021, more than 30 investigations were conducted; two of which secured first-hand evidence, with one of these investigations proceeding to an operation led by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry Law Enforcement. Formal, written warnings or verbal cautions and instructions to leave the national park were issued to 18 men during 12 patrols for a range of offences including illegal logging and hunting wild songbirds to supply the lucrative cagebird trade. Two chainsaws and a high-powered rifle, found in a forest-edge farmhouse, were confiscated while bird hunting equipment was confiscated from offenders encountered within the national park.

Protection of this National Park by the TPCU benefits not just tigers but contributes to the balance of a healthy ecosystem protecting all the plants and animals that share this habitat.