Hello everyone—welcome back to my “On Assignment” posts and greetings from Sumatra where I am beginning a tiger story for National Geographic Magazine (NGM).

Across its Asian range, the tiger is in serious straits. In 2008, India’s Wildlife Institute unveiled a grim report that documented a stunning 60 percent drop in tiger numbers in the country over the previous five years—an all-time low. Tigers have completely disappeared from two parks, Sariska and Panna, though biologists are trying to relocate tigers back into these areas.

But there is hope. In most media coverage, the vast majority of tiger range has not been discussed—and tiger populations still exist in areas across Asia. To save them we need to protect large landscapes throughout their range. Not just in the traditional sense of creating national parks and protected areas (which are extremely important but cannot alone sustain these wide-ranging predators), but also finding areas that tigers can move through to mate and hunt.

A program began in 2006 to put forward a new conservation strategy. Tigers Forever (TF) is a joint project between Panthera, a New York-based big cat conservation organization and the Bronx-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). The project spans eight countries; in a nutshell, its goal is a 50 percent increase in tiger numbers over 10 years in habitats that are large enough to support tiger populations. It begins with enforcement of hunting and poaching, not just of tigers but also their prey. With food and protection, they will multiply.

My first destination for this story is here on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra. Three sub-species of tiger once existed here in healthy numbers, but today the Sumatran tiger is the only one left. The type of problems faced by tigers everywhere is magnified here on the island where tigers clash with a growing human population and development. There is a strong conservation initiative in place that has logged some successes—and some setbacks.

Just before we arrived, a small Sumatran tiger cub was caught in a snare that local people had set to catch wild pigs that come out of the forest to eat their crops. But snares do not choose which animal to catch. They catch everything. This cub was trapped for three days and eventually had to have its limb amputated, a terrible situation for this animal and for Sumatran tigers in general, for this is an all too common occurrence. We are leaving now to see the cub and check on its situation. I will have more info in a day or so.

But getting here was enough to drive even a seasoned traveler over the edge. Though my mantra is that every problem has a solution, and failure is not an option, this one was tough. When we arrived at Newark it didn’t look like we were going to get on the plane with our 24 bags of equipment because our layover in Hong Kong exceeded the computer program’s allowed six hours, though we had been assured by the connecting airline that up to 24 hours was OK. There is absolutely no way I wanted to deal with or see those bags again until we landed in Jakarta—and the story budget could not absorb an additional excess baggage charge, no way no how. After three hours at the counter—a new record for me—with the amazing help of the check-in staff at Continental, we got it all worked out! With that many bags, I went to the airport five hours early: knowing problems may occur means I always allow for plenty of extra time.

This story needs to bring to light both the incredible strides that have taken place in tiger conservation and the incredible challenges that lie ahead if we are to protect the tiger. Part of the equation is creating a new conservation paradigm where local people and communities that live beside these predators gain some real benefit for protecting them.

To learn more about tigers and conservation, go to www.panthera.org.

Photo of cub in snare courtesy WCS Indonesia

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