Bomb The Tigers?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on February 10th, 2009
Indonesian authorities are setting off blasts and may use traps to stop tigers terrorizing a forest village in West Sumatra, provincial conservation agency head Indra Arinal said. What could be the results?
Three endangered Sumatran tigers have been devouring livestock in the village of Halaban since last week.
The agency is trying to scare off the animals by setting off explosions in gunpowder-filled metal pipes, but may have to resort to trapping them, Mr. Arinal said. Will humans and other animals be injured by such actions?
“If the tigers keep creating conflict to the village, then we have to use traps and relocate them,” he said.
Two women were trampled to death by a pair of elephants in Aceh province in January 2009, after the animals entered an illegally cleared field from nearby jungle.
Such conflicts are a rising problem in Indonesia – which has some of the world’s largest remaining tropical forests – as human settlements encroach on natural habitats.
A man was also reportedly killed by two tigers on Sumatra island last month.
There are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, according to environmental group WWF, quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Network.
But will setting off explosions bring unwanted consequences to the human’s actions? More than tigers live in the bush. Could they flush out some Orang Pendeks? What impact does this have on the local cryptids?
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Good question Loren…..If OP does indeed exist that probably won’t help efforts to locate OP, just drive the cryptid creature further and deeper into the jungle, what’s left of it anyway…
Great…more habitat destruction to “save” humans from contact by “wild” (read: native) animals. Brilliant. I have always subscribed to the philosophy that those “attacked” by wild animals put themselves in the situation in the first place. I refuse to feel sorry for them.
tropicalwolf,
Pressure from growth in human population and the desire to improve the quality of life of families by exploiting native natural resources have reduced the fauna and flora of industrialized wealthy nations. And now that developing countries seek to follow the same path, is the west really entitled to say “Sorry, we care more about your tigers and pandas than about your poor families striving to make a living and give a better opportunity to their children”?
It is my belief that social programs aimed to improve the lives of villagers in the 3rd world will in the end also help to preserve these endangered species. That’s why you now see Jane Goddall more interested in finding solutions to empower and educate women in Africa, than studying her beloved chimpanzees: because she knows that if the quality of life of those villages doesn’t increase, it translated to the extinction of indigenous species.
The preserving of those beautiful animals should never come at the expense of human poverty and multi-generational suffering. Poverty is the worst kind of tyranny that exists.
good reponse red_pill_junkie, there are never easy anwsers to problems like these but solutions that help both humans and nature with the least amount of negative impact are certainly desired.
red_pill_junky- Great post! Well said, sir.