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THE AMAZING SURVIVAL OF A PRECIOUS TIGER CALLED ‘PHET’
Text & Images : Tom Paine
Today there are few tigers left in SE Asia. A
century ago there were about 100,000 Indo-Chinese tigers
in Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia.
Today, some specialists put the population at less than
a 1,000 - perhaps about 500 in Laos (mostly in the
south), Cambodia and Vietnam combined.
These magnificent beasts have sadly been hunted to the verge
of extinction. Poachers vastly outnumber forest guards and wildlife
protection officers. So every tiger that is saved from the poachers is an
important victory.
This is the story of one little tiger cub that thwarted the
predatory designs of poachers and Chinese traders to survive in the rural
precincts of the ancient royal capital of Laos, Luang Prabang. Her name is
Phet (the Lao word meaning Diamond)
If you head for the Kuang Si Waterfall about 20 kms from
Luang Prabang you maybe surprised to see a special forest enclosure
with notices about a tiger..this has become Phet's sanctuary.
Now a fully-grown six-year-old tigress, her story starts as a
wee malnourished tiger cub back in the year 2000.Her mother had been
killed by poachers on the Plain of Jars, and the carcass sold to
Chinese businessmen to be mutilated for traditional medicinal preparations
fetching a high price in China.
However, genuine practitioners of Chinese traditional medicine
have let it be known that all the alleged benefits of consuming crushed
tiger bone and alcohol-laced tiger's penis and other parts, can be
readily obtained from plants and herbs, thus ending the so-called conflict
between Chinese herbal medicine and the survival of the tiger.
Early days
The Lao authorities eventually arrested poachers with the
three tiger cubs, two males and the female. Phet had only seen seven days
in this cruel world before becoming orphaned in the most traumatic way.
The stressed tiger cubs were rescued and taken to the
Livestock and Fisheries Office in Luang Prabang. Efforts to save Phet nearly
ended in tragedy. "Phet nearly died," said Somphong Pradichit the deputy
director of the Forestry Department in Laos. "We gave her milk but it
was difficult for her to digest. We asked a friend at a European Union
project to search the Internet to get advice."
The advice came from Britain's Care for the Wild
International, which told the forestry service how to help Phet and then started a
long-term project to re-house and feed her. The expertise and care of
both local and international specialists were able to save Phet, but not her
two brothers.
Oliver Bandmann, a
farang born in Bangkok who has lived in Luang Prabang since the late 90s, also helped to nurture Phet in
the early days. Renaissance-man Bandmann, launched the first
natural papermaking enterprise in the town and his products are exhibited
and sold at the Baan Khily Gallery. He also introduced the technique of
making paper from elephant dung, and launched an elephant
hospital project in Sayaboury province.
Attempts at bottle feeding her two brothers failed and they
died but Phet was made of sterner stuff. From a playful tiger cub with a
few years she quickly grew and by 2003 even a teenage tigress
strolling along by the side of Oliver Bandmann in the streets of Lung
Prabang caused alarm to passing motorists. He recalls drivers suddenly
screeching their brakes in panic upon their first sighting of Phet strolling along
the road taking her daily exercise. A summit meeting of the " Friends of
Phet" was convened to deal with the fact that she was now too big to
roam around the streets of the ancient royal capital.
A decision was taken by the local authorities in concert with
`Care for the Wild International' to build a forested enclosure where the
growing tigress could enjoy far more space and vegetation than in a normal
zoo, but still it was the end of her carefree life as a tiger cub growing up
in Luang Prabang.
Bandmann expressed his sadness in 2006 that though Phet
was now six years old and fully grown, she was sorely frustrated by
being alone and lacking a male tiger. This writer was approached to check
out zoos that might be willing to help her out with a suitable striped
companion and potential mate.
Not quite a typical journalistic assignment though it was, I gave it
a bash. I happened to be in Ho Chi Minh city on a rather different mission
- asking Vietnamese officials whether they would expel two US
corporations with offices in Saigon - Dow Chemicals and Monsanto; given
that these two companies had been the subject of a lawsuit in US courts
and inflicted untold suffering on the civilian populations of Southern
Vietnam during the war.
Both stand accused by the victims of Agent Orange of
crimes against humanity for the manufacture of the deadly herbicide, which
was sprayed in enormous quantities by the US airforce as they attempted to flush the elusive Vietcong guerillas
from their leafy jungle strongholds.
The lethal dioxin content of
these herbicides leads to a variety of cancers and monstrous new-born deformities.
Back to finding soul-mates for
a lonely tigress. Local journalists arranged a meeting for me with the director of
the Saigon Zoo. I gave her coordinates to make contact with Oliver in
Luang Prabang who was close to the local wildlife authorities. However the Saigon
director instead of offering to supply a male tiger to be sent to Lao, got totally
the wrong idea in her head and emailed Oliver about when Phet - that had never
been behind bars - could be transported to the Saigon zoo? What was worse
was the dear fellow blamed me for offering to render his lovely Laotian tigress into
Vietnamese bondage!
Phet played an important part
in triggering the establishment of the provincial Committee for the Rescue of
Confiscated Wild Animals, which ties together a powerful alliance drawn from the top officials of the forestry
department, the culture and propaganda department, the tourism office and the
international cooperation office.
The Laotian Wildlife Protection Department's efforts are now
backed by government laws - in line with international agreements - forbidding
the killing of endangered species or the trading in them. But the rest - the
wild pigs, for example, like rabbits in England - are fair game.
Many rifles and guns were confiscated. Some families kept
back guns or made new ones, although it is now illegal to own or carry a
gun. "We couldn't control them all, and hunters still come in from
provinces where the guns have not been collected, but it has helped," says Pradichit.
Not only tigers are endangered species in Laos. The "Land of
a Million Elephants", as Laos was known, has no more than 400 left in
the wild and the Mekong's Irrawaddy dolphins face extinction by the end
of this decade.
The other rescued animal at Luang Prabang is a young bear,
kept by a farmer who shot her mother after she attacked him. She is in as
pitiful a condition as Phet was when she was rescued, and an Australian
bear charity has offered to find the cash for a compound next to Phet. At
the moment she is being kept in a small run next to the government's
guest house - used for top officials when they visit the town. "People do not
like her to be kept like this but it is the best we can do for her," says
Pradichit. "If we released her, she would be killed. People eat bears and any
other animals. They do not see why they cannot take anything from the
jungle. We are telling them at public meetings and we are telling the children
in schools that wildlife must be protected. The children understand but
older people don't care."
So there is still only one tiger at Kaung Si. It is with some regret
that I have to report that this has been one assignment I've failed to
accomplish. Today you can visit the still-lonesome Phet in her Kuang Si
sanctuary, nevertheless well taken care of in terms of food, and space.
Additionally, Phet's keeper plays with her every day.
But her sexual urges and fulfillment as a full-grown lady are
still unrequited, with no male tiger solution in sight.
Phet can never be returned to the wild: she
cannot hunt and, because she likes people, she would be easy
to kill. But she has become an important symbol of the
worldwide tiger conservation campaign, and her story can help
to inspire visitors young and old to do their bit to protect one
of the most magnificent of all the inhabitants of the jungle.
Text and Images © Tom Paine 2007
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