Tiger Image Wins BBC Wildlife Camera Trap Photo
by Baron Halpenny, LincsMag Editor-in-Chief.
Date: 01 December 2010
A fantastic photograph of two Malayan tigers staring into a camera-trap that was placed inside a Peninsular Malaysia forest in September 2009, has won first prize in a global camera-trap photo competition run by BBC Wildlife Magazine, in association with the World Land Trust.
Okay, I may have been biased in wanting to pick the Wolf photograph (pictured), but that’s generally due to my love of wolves, involvement in wolf conservation groups and my being brought up in an area where wild wolves roamed.
That said, the winning photograph, which I show here, is indeed a fine one and a worthy winner.
The photo of a female tiger and her offspring beat hundreds of other entries to win the USD 2,000 as the Overall Winner of the competition, plus an additional USD 1,000 in the Best Animal Portrait category. The winning image is published in the December issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine and also features online at bbcwildlifemagazine.com along with a wonderful collection of other photographs.
A Rare Photograph
When asked about the winning photograph, Mark Rayan the WWF-Malaysia’s Tiger Monitoring Unit Head, had this to say, “This photo of a female tiger and her offspring in the same frame is quite rare because the female tiger typically walks in front, followed by her offspring. As camera-traps have a delay between each photo, the female tiger tends to be photo-captured first, while her offspring might be missed altogether.”
The competition received more than 700 entries from all over the world. Launched in April this year, the competition aimed to celebrate the extraordinary images of wildlife captured through minimal disturbance to them and their habitat.
The winning photo was taken on 12 Sep 2009 at three o’clock in the afternoon in the Temengor Forest Reserve, an area in the far north of the Malaysian peninsula where selective logging is still being carried out. The tigress, the team discovered, is one of the breeding resident females in the area.
WWF-Malaysia
Rayan has also made it clear that the prize money from the photograph will be used to help with the vitally important research that they are doing. “The prize money will be used to purchase satellite imagery for a habitat suitability analysis to complement our research, and possibly additional camera-traps to get more amazing tiger photos,” he said.
Indeed, I for one would look forward to seeing more amazing photographs like the winner and hopefully such exposure (excuse the pun) will help to stimulate public interest in the important environmental issues especially in protecting endangered species like the tiger.
Because the winning photograph was unique, the photo created quite a stir among WWF staff and local conservation partners when it was first shown around, and that was the main reason Rayan said he entered it in the competition.
WWF-Malaysia has been working in one of Malaysia’s priority areas for tiger conservation, the Belum-Temengor forest complex since 2007. WWF’s Wildlife Monitoring Unit is currently conducting research on tigers and their prey to determine their conservation status, and to provide management recommendations to ensure the long-term survival of tigers in the area.
According to Rayan, it is currently thought that the offspring of this female have already dispersed to establish their own territory. “This is based on the last dozen photographs taken of these individuals in the last two months of our camera-trapping assessments, where the female tiger and her offspring were no longer photographed together.”
Rayan says that winning the competition has boosted the team’s spirits in conducting research in the dense jungles of Malaysia, and they rightly deserve credit for their fine efforts.
International Tiger Forum
The prize was announced before the International Tiger Forum, also know as the Tiger Summit, that was hosted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and took place in St. Petersburg, Russia from November 21 to November 24, 2010.
Also at the Tiger Summit was Hollywood star DiCaprio who just managing to make the meeting after not one, but two flight problems. In the first flight scare DiCaprio was one of more than 200 people aboard a Moscow-bound Delta airlines flight that had to return to New York's John F Kennedy airport when there were reports of a flash in one of the engines of the departing plane.
Undaunted the actor then took a second flight, this time by private jet, but this had to land in Finland for refuelling because of strong winds that it encountered.
The International Tiger Forum seeks to bring together the 13 countries that still have wild tigers, as well as other countries and international partners to sign a pledge on cooperation for tiger conservation, in addition to launching a global tiger recovery programme that seeks to double the big cat’s numbers in the wild by 2022.
Destined To Succeed
DiCaprio donated one million dollars (£630,000) to the cause and earned high praise from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for not just his donation but also his sincere efforts to attend the meeting despite the setbacks.
He certainly has my respect and it’s good to have such high profile people helping focus attention on these important matters. As Vladimir Putin said regarding DiCaprio, "If wildlife and tiger conservation is in the hands of people with such character, we are destined to succeed."
I sincerely hope so, because we have only one Earth and we have to not just look after it, but respect it and the creatures and plants that we share it with.
