Study: Tigers take the night shift to coexist with people
Phys.org summary of some research out of Michigan State University:
Conventional conservation wisdom is that tigers need lots of people-free space, which often leads to people being relocated or their access to resources compromised to make way for tigers.
[Neil] Carter spent two seasons setting motion-detecting camera traps for tigers, their prey and people who walk the roads and trails of Chitwan, both in and around the park. … Carter’s analysis of the thousands of images show that people and tigers are walking the same paths, albeit at different times. Tigers typically move around at all times of the day and night, monitoring their territory, mating and hunting. But in the study area, Carter and his colleagues discovered that the tigers had become creatures of the night. The camera’s infrared lights document a pronounced shift toward nocturnal activity.
Both Colin and I rep the Year of the Tiger, so we have a soft spot for the big stripey cat things, but this is some legitimately neato science stuff. There’s still a ton we haven’t figured out about conservation yet.