The perfect spot for tigers...

Highest tiger density on Earth

April 2010: The highest density of wild tigers to be found anywhere in the world is at Kaziranga National Park in India, according to a new study.

THRIVING: A Bengal tiger - Kaziranga boasts 32 tigers per 100 sq m. Picture: lookinglost.com

Using the ‘camera trap' method of tiger estimation and covering an area of 144 sq km of the central and western part of the park, researchers estimate there are 32 tigers per 100 sq km of park area. The previously highest recorded density of tiger in a wildlife park was 19.6 tigers per 100 sq km recorded in the Corbett Tiger Reserve in Northern India. Thirty-nine individual tigers, including a one-year-old cub, were photographed in the study area during the 50-day photo-trapping exercise.

It is unlikely that all of the tigers in the area were photo-trapped, so using a scientific method known as capture recapture, it is estimated that as many 47 tigers were in the study area. Cubs below one year of age were eliminated from the density analysis.

The research was a joint project between Aaranyak, a society for biodiversity conservation in North-East India and the Assam Forest department and was carried out between January and March 2009.

An abundance of prey

The latest study confirms the belief that Kaziranga's alluvial grassland provides optimal habitats for tigers. Earlier, Karanth and Nichols (1998) had indicated that tigers attained their highest possible density in Kaziranga. But the present study goes far beyond previous research, recording almost twice the density of tigers in the park compared to the estimates made at the end of the 1990s.

One of the key reasons for the high tiger density in Kaziranga is an abundance of prey animals including hog deer, sambar, swamp deer and wild buffalo.

The study team comprised members of Aaranyak and officials and staff of Kaziranga National Park. The Aaranyak's team worked under the supervision of Dr Bibhab Kumar Talukdar with park staff coordinated by director S. N. Buragohain. Aaranyak's biologist M. Firoz Ahmed led the Aaranyak team in the field.

The study was made possible by funding to Aaranyak from the UK's David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation and The Rufford Small Grants Foundation.