Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Massachusetts
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Sumatran tiger populations in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (BBSNP) on Sumatra, Indonesia continue to decline, mainly due to human induced factors such as direct hunting of tigers, prey depletion, and habitat destruction. Using photographs of tigers taken with camera traps, we evaluated tiger abundance in the park based on capture-recapture methods. Our study is the first to quantify the pattern of crop raiding by sambar deer, wild pigs, muntjac, and pig-tailed macaques. We found that the abundance of tiger and sambar deer were significantly correlated. Among environmental variables, elevation was the best predictor of the distribution of tigers and their prey.