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Lack of cat food has also been a problem for tigers in the Russian Far East. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, government controls on hunting practices evaporated, unemployment soared, and villagers in the region began to overhunt the boar and red deer that tigers depend on. "It's like Montana in the '20s. Everybody has a gun, and they're poaching on prey, and occasionally on tigers too," says John Seidensticker, chairman of Save the Tiger. With the help of $2.2 million from ExxonMobil, the group targeted local hunters as well as poachers seeking tiger parts for the Chinese-medicine market. (Parts of a single tiger go for about $70,000 today.) The WWF meanwhile is working with hunting societies to devise management plans that enable communities to hunt the deer and boar yet sustain the tigers' food supply. "The prey populations should come back quickly if the females are protected," says Sybille Klenzendorf, who runs WWF's tiger program in the region.
CAT-FRIENDLY COMMUNITIES
In 1999 Russian biologist Eugene Koshkarev hiked through the snows of Sarychat Ertash Park, a 12,000-ft.-high reserve in the Tien Shan mountains in southern Kyrgyzstan, looking for snow-leopard tracks. He found none but spotted five traps for the animals. The snow leopard is another creature that suffered after the breakup of the Soviet Union. As the economy and law enforcement deteriorated, poaching shot up in Kyrgyzstan. The snow leopard population declined 80% in the 1990s. Sadly, most of the poachers in Sarychat Ertash were park rangers, whose monthly salaries of $14 were not enough to feed their families.
In response, the International Snow Leopard Trust (I.S.L.T.) set up a handicrafts project with the women villagers in Ak-Shyirak and Inilchek, the two gateway communities to the park. The women, many of them married to park rangers, make felt bags and hats that are sold in zoo stores in the U.S. The proceeds supplement the wages of the rangers. In addition, if an entire year goes by without a snow leopard being killed, the villagers receive a bonus. Last year each family received $97 from the I.S.L.T., including a $22 bonus. Although the solitary cats are rarely seen, the rangers are finding regular scrapes and tracks, and the I.S.L.T. estimates there are six to 10 snow leopards in the 277-sq.-mi. park.
If people in poor countries can be enlisted in saving big cats, so can cat lovers in wealthier lands. Laurie Marker of the Cheetah Conservation Fund has borrowed the idea of "dolphin friendly" tuna to help protect cheetahs in Namibia. This year ranchers who raise their cattle without harming the speedy cats will begin exporting "cheetah friendly" beef to the European Union. The beef will be certified by the Conservancy Association of Namibia as coming from farms that use cat-smart management.