BANGKOK — A video camera in the jungles of Indonesia has captured the first known footage of Sumatran tiger cubs in the wild, boosting efforts to conserve the endangered species, a conservation group said Thursday.
The video shot in October by the World Wildlife Fund on the island of Sumatra shows two 1-year-old cubs and their mother approaching and sniffing the camera before moving on.
WWF’s tiger research team set up four video camera traps along known tiger routes that allow the animals to move between two protected areas in central Sumatra, the Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve and Bukit Tigapuluh National Park.
Ian Kosasih, WWF-Indonesia’s forest program director, said the images showed the need to turn the corridor into a protected area.
“When these cubs are old enough to leave their mother, which will be soon, they will have to find their own territory,” Kosasih said in a statement. “Where will they go?”
Sumatran tigers are on the brink of extinction because of rapid deforestation, poaching and clashes with humans. Their numbers have dwindled to about 400 from about 1,000 in the 1970s, the WWF estimates.
