Living habitats of tigers in the Central Highlands have been endangered and the number of tigers is declining rapidly, thanks to man-made influences and climate change. Tigers even have vanished in some forests.
The life of tigers closely attaches to forests and natural conditions of the region. Due to their natural hunting instinct, tigers rarely live in herds but solitary.
In Province of Dak Lak, tigers once densely ranged in jungles in the areas of Yok Don, Buon Don, Ea Sup, Cu Yang Sin (Krong Bong District), Nam Kar (Lak District), Buon Za Wam (Cu M’ga District), Ea So (Ea Kar District) and some forests in districts of M’Drak, Krong Nang, Ea H’leo. However, their living habitats were narrowed significantly as a result of the change of natural environment and human activities.
Furthermore, many people have long appreciated products from tigers as tiger-bone glue for medical purposes, skins and claws for interior decoration. Tigers, therefore, have been illegally hunted over the world.
Tigers and many other wildlife species had been found in the jungle of Nam Kar Reserve 20-25 years ago, but tigers are no longer seen there nowadays. The same situation happened in primitive forests in Cu M’Gar, Krong Nang, Ea H’leo, Buon Don, Ea Sup Districts.
Signals of tigers were found by scientists over 10 years ago in the Ea So Natural Reserve. Thanks to illegal hunting and deforestation, the number of rare species of this Reserve including gayal, bison is now very few, while tigers and swamp deers all disappeared.
According to scientists, there are only some tigers living in Yok Don and Cu Yang Sin National Parks. Nonetheless, these few numbers are under threat of climate change and development activities of human, narrowing their habitats and survival. Tigers in the Central Highlands in particular and the whole nation would extinct unless forest management is improved.
By T.P (TITC)
Source: TTXVN