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Hydroelectric Dams Take a Toll on Jaguars, Tigers and Lions

As reigning apex #predators of a variety of ecosystems, #bigcats like tigers, jaguars and lions are vital for ecosystem health. Yet forest loss for hydroelectric dam building is a real threat to these majestic big cats. Aside from depriving wildlife of a home, forest loss also contributes to #climatechange. It’s ironic then that hydroelectricity, which is being developed worldwide (especially in South American and Asian countries) as an alternative energy source to fossil fuels, is a big cause of deforestation. Alternative energy is important however shouldn’t come at the cost of species under threat. Better protections are urgently needed. #Boycott4Wildlife

Often lauded as a saviour for the #environment and #climate, hydroelectric dams threaten #bigcats: #jaguars and #tigers 🐯🐅 Better protection of forests is needed to ensure endangered big #cats are protected #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect.bsky.social https://wp.me/pcFhgU-9cr

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Written by Tara Pirie, Postdoctoral Researcher, People and Wildlife Research Group, University of Reading. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Big cats are among the most widespread top predators on Earth. Lions stalk zebra in the African savanna, tigers ambush antelope in the forests of Asia and jaguars hunt deer in the jungles of South America. They play an important role in ecosystems by regulating the numbers of these herbivores, in turn, reducing the deterioration of vegetated habitats and maintaining species diversity.

Ondrej Prosicky/Shutterstock

Tigers, lions and jaguars must cover large areas to find food, so they need a lot of energy. As with many large carnivores, big cats are under threat from habitat loss, which leaves them with less to eat. Their spread-out populations and slow reproductive rates make them particularly vulnerable. While the habitats in which big cats live range from boreal forests at high latitudes to tropical rainforests at the equator, the causes of habitat loss are largely the same: logging for wood and fuel, plantations, farming and urbanisation.

https://youtu.be/7VVv9oAtbVI

Aside from depriving wildlife of a home, forest loss also contributes to climate change. It’s ironic then that hydroelectricity, which is being developed worldwide (especially in South American and Asian countries) as an alternative energy source to fossil fuels, is a big cause of deforestation.

Building hydroelectric dams has caused extinctions and spread diseases in rivers globally, but the threat to ecosystems on land has largely been overlooked. In a recent study, researchers from China and Portugal investigated how existing and planned hydroelectric dams might affect two carnivores: the near-threatened jaguar (with an estimated global population of 173,000) and the endangered tiger (thought to number between 3,200 and 3,500 worldwide).

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The distribution of jaguars and tigers has shrunk 50% and 93% respectively, but the researchers found that hydroelectric plants pose a substantial risk of further declines. They found 164 dams that already intersect the jaguar range and 421 dams that do the same for tigers. This equates to one in five tigers that are likely to be affected by dams, compared with one in 200 jaguars. Since tiger numbers are already so low, this could have a considerable influence on the population’s capacity to recover and may even result in local extinctions.

A dam on the Narmada River in India, where the endangered Bengal tiger is native. Ankit K Sinha/Shutterstock

Damning developments for big cats

Large expanses of land are flooded to create reservoirs when building hydroelectric plants in low-lying, relatively flat areas. Although tigers and jaguars can and do swim, they mainly hunt species such as deer that live on land. Sites chosen for dams typically incorporate floodplains and areas along rivers that are important for both species, since they tend to contain lots of prey.

The flooded area will force both predators and prey into surrounding areas. If the vegetation here can support the influx of herbivores, tigers and jaguars will probably persist. But if it cannot, the predators may be forced further afield in search of food, potentially drawing them into conflict with people who may kill them.

Relatively pristine habitats are under threat. The number of hydroelectric dams is set to quadruple across the jaguar’s range with a further 429 planned, while 41 are expected where tigers roam. Aside from the direct loss of habitat, these new constructions can increase the presence of people in remote areas. Roads built to access new dam sites consequently open up areas that were previously impenetrable. Roads can be a barrier to some species and kill those that try to cross. Roads can also encourage new towns and villages, which divide the habitat further.

A road in Brazil which drives deep into jaguar habitat. Ricardo de O. Lemos/Shutterstock

Mitigating the damage

Where dams exist, the researchers suggest habitat loss could be limited by incorporating the surroundings into a protected area with suitable enforcement. Any new dams, though, especially in conservation areas or areas where top predators prowl, should be avoided. Sadly, most of the dams planned in Asia overlap with significant portions of the tiger’s range.

One way to mitigate the damage from building new hydroelectric plants may be to do it on slopes outside of areas that are crucial for conserving tigers and jaguars. The amount of flooded area needed to produce electricity from these plants when they’re on a slope is smaller compared to those built on lower ground, reducing the overall damage to the surrounding habitat. But impact assessments would need to confirm the plant wasn’t simply creating new issues elsewhere.

Alternative sources of energy are important for a sustainable future, but their benefits should not come at a substantial cost to species already under threat.

Craig Jones Wildlife Photography – A Bengal tiger drinking at a river

Written by Tara Pirie, Postdoctoral Researcher, People and Wildlife Research Group, University of Reading. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

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#animals #bigCat #bigcats #biodiversity #Boycott4wildlife #cats #Climate #climateChange #climatechange #deforestation #environment #hydroelectric #JaguarPantheraOnca #Jaguars #predators #roads #TigerPantheraTigris #tigers

Palm Oil Detectives Jan 20, 2021

Tiger Panthera tigris

Tiger Panthera tigris

Endangered

Population: Around 3,900

Extant (resident): India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Russia

Tigers, primarily native to Asia’s tropical forests, have seen their habitats shrink dramatically over time. Notably, the Amur Tiger endures in Russia, and there have been sightings of these majestic creatures as high as 4,500 m in Bhutan. Tragically, fewer than 400 tigers remain in Indonesia, clinging to life in Sumatra’s dwindling forests. This decline is attributed to both rampant poaching and severe deforestation, especially for palm oil and pulp industries. As Asia continues to develop rapidly, the vast territories tigers need are shrinking, replaced by agriculture, commercial logging, and settlements. Moreover, tigers‘ prey faces threats from hunting and competition with domestic livestock. It’s time to act and use our wallet as a weapon: be #vegan #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

https://youtu.be/RfQDwtaIrvs

For 🇮🇩 Indonesia’s #tigers 🐅 fewer than 400 hang on to survival in rainforests of #Sumatra. Endangered by #poaching and #deforestation for #palmoil and timber. Boycott the brands sending them #extinct 😡🧐#Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-fT

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The mighty and majestic #tiger 🐅🐯 of #Sumatra are on the brink of #extinction from #palmoil and #mining #deforestation. Less than 400 remain alive! 😭Use your wallet as a weapon and fight for them #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife 🌴🔥🚫 @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-fT

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Tigers, the largest members of the cat family, are renowned for their majestic presence and striking orange coats with black stripes. They possess extraordinary strength and agility and maintain the balance of ecosystems as apex predators. With fewer than 4,500 remaining in the wild, tigers are classified as Endangered, facing grave threats from habitat destruction for palm oil, poaching, and human-wildlife conflict.

Their survival depends on urgent protection and animal advocacy. Protecting tigers ensures the preservation of the rich biodiversity within their habitats. Support their future by joining the #BoycottPalmOil and #Boycott4Wildlife movements.

Habitat

Tigers inhabit a wide variety of environments, including tropical rainforests, mangrove swamps, grasslands, and boreal forests. They require vast territories to hunt and breed, with males typically occupying larger ranges than females. Tigers are currently found in fragmented populations across Asia, with key strongholds in India, Sumatra, and Siberia.

These habitats are increasingly under threat due to deforestation, agricultural expansion, and infrastructure development, which have reduced their historical range by over 93%.

Diet

As apex predators, tigers primarily hunt large prey, such as sambar deer, wild boar, and buffalo. They are known for their stealth and strength, often ambushing their prey with a single powerful strike. Unlike other big cats, tigers can swim to catch prey, a unique skill that sets them apart.

In areas with reduced prey availability, tigers may hunt smaller mammals or livestock, which can lead to conflicts with humans.

Appearance and Behaviour

• Swimming Ability: Tigers are strong swimmers, often crossing rivers and lakes to hunt or cool off—an unusual trait among big cats.

• Individualised Stripes: Their stripes serve as camouflage and are unique to each tiger, making them distinguishable even in dense foliage.

• Vocal Range: Tigers have a wide vocal range, including growls, roars, and chuffs, used to communicate with other tigers.

• Apex Predator Status: As the top predator in their ecosystems, tigers help maintain balance by regulating prey populations.

Tigers are uniquely recognisable by their bold stripe patterns, which are as individual as fingerprints. Their muscular builds, powerful limbs, and retractable claws make them adept hunters and swimmers, setting them apart from most other big cats. Unlike lions or cheetahs, tigers are solitary by nature and fiercely territorial.

Their physical features include a robust skull, long canine teeth, and strong jaw muscles designed for gripping and tearing prey. Tigers are also among the few big cats that enjoy water, often cooling off in rivers and lakes. Their signature behaviours include scent marking, vocalisations such as roars and chuffs, and stealthy stalking of prey.

Reproduction & Mating

Tigers reach sexual maturity at around 3-4 years of age. Breeding typically occurs year-round, but more frequently during the winter months. After a gestation period of approximately 100 days, females give birth to 2-4 cubs in secluded dens.

Cubs are dependent on their mothers for the first 18 months, learning essential survival skills like hunting. Only about half of all cubs survive to adulthood, as they face threats from predators, disease, and starvation.

Threats

Habitat Destruction: Deforestation for palm oil agriculture, timber logging, and development fragments their habitats, isolating populations.

• Poaching: Tigers are hunted for their skins, bones, and other body parts, often sold illegally for traditional medicine or as luxury items. Organisations like EIA directly combat this illegal trade.

• Prey Depletion: Overhunting of herbivores reduces food availability, impacting tiger populations.

• Human-Wildlife Conflict: As human settlements expand, conflicts arise, often leading to retaliation killings of tigers.

The last of Indonesia’s tigers—now fewer than 400—are holding on for survival in the remaining patches of forests on the island of Sumatra. While poaching claims most tigers each year, deforestation remains a serious threat.

Sumatra has lost more than half of its forests in the last 40 years, primarily due to conversion for palm oil and pulp plantations. Poaching for illegal trade in high-value Tiger products including skins, bones, meat and tonics is a primary threat to Tigers.

Asia is a densely populated and rapidly developing region, bringing huge pressures to bear on the large wild areas required for viable Tiger populations. Conversion of forest land to agriculture and silviculture, commercial logging, and human settlement are the main drivers of Tiger habitat loss. With their substantial dietary requirements,

Tigers require a healthy large ungulate prey base, but these species are also under heavy human subsistence hunting pressure and competition from domestic livestock.

Tigers are classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, with fewer than 4,500 individuals remaining in the wild. While conservation efforts have stabilised some populations, habitat loss and poaching continue to pose significant challenges. Collaborative international efforts are crucial to ensuring their survival.

The last of Indonesia’s tigers—now fewer than 400—are holding on for survival in the remaining patches of forests on the island of Sumatra. While poaching claims most tigers each year, deforestation remains a serious threat.

IUCN RED LIST

Tiger Panthera Tigris

Support Tiger Protection

• Boycotting palm oil and other products linked to deforestation.

• Contributing to organisations that protect tiger habitats and combat illegal poaching and animal trafficking like Traffic and EIA.

• Raise awareness about the critical importance of tigers in maintaining healthy ecosystems by joining the #BoycottPalmOil and #Boycott4Wildlife movement.

Further Information

Britannica. (2024). Tiger. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/animal/tiger

Goodrich, J., Wibisono, H., Miquelle, D., Lynam, A.J., Sanderson, E., Chapman, S., Gray, T.N.E., Chanchani, P. & Harihar, A. 2022. Panthera tigris. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T15955A214862019. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T15955A214862019.en. Accessed on 20 December 2024.

Panthera. (2024). Tiger. Retrieved from https://panthera.org/cat/tiger

Dalida Innes Wildlife Photography

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#bigCat #Borneo #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #carnivores #deforestation #EndangeredSpecies #extinct #extinction #feline #Malaysia #mining #palmoil #poaching #predator #predators #SouthEastAsia #Sumatra #tiger #TigerPantheraTigris #tigers #vegan #wildcat

Palm Oil Detectives Aug 23, 2025

Protecting India’s Tigers Saves One Million Tonnes of CO2

#India‘s fifty year long Project #Tiger has been a successful conservation project. A new research study finds that protecting tigers and their rainforest home has additional benefits to #carbonemissions, saving 1 million tonnes of CO2 from being spewed into the atmosphere. Conserving tigers as an iconic and legendary species is deeply ingrained into the world’s collective imagination. #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife

Cover Image: Tiger in Rajasthan, India by Craig Jones Wildlife Photography

The growing population of #India’s mighty #tiger 🐯🐅is lauded as a conservation success story. However more remains to be done to safeguard India’s #forests #animals and #mangroves for the future 🙏🇮🇳🪷 #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8V5

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Good news 📰 #Tigers 🐯🐅🧡 have increased in population in #India 🇮🇳 due to successful #conservation. Extending these protections to areas where #palmoil encroaches on #rainforest #ecosystem is essential. #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8V5

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Written by Simon Evans, Principal Lecturer in Ecotourism, Anglia Ruskin University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Tiger by Dalida Innes Wildlife Photography

The year 2023 coincided with the 50th anniversary of India’s groundbreaking Project Tiger, an innovative programme designed to rescue the country’s iconic big cat from the precipice of extinction. In April, as part of these celebrations, prime minister Narendra Modi announced that tiger numbers in India have now surpassed 3,000, representing more than 70% of the wild tigers in the world.

From an initial investment in 1973 of just nine dedicated tiger reserves, India now protects 54 such areas. It adds up to an area in excess of 75,000 sq kilometres, or about 2% of the country.

Now, new research in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution has identified a link between tiger conservation and the fight against climate change. Tigers are very adaptable and the exact same subspecies, the Bengal tiger, can be found scattered across India in jungles, mangroves and so-called “dry forests”. These habitats might seem very different, but the common link is of course lots of trees.

According to the authors of the new study, the strict protection provided within India’s network of tiger reserves has avoided huge amounts of deforestation. And by preserving forests that would have otherwise been chopped down, between 2007 and 2020, tiger protection may have contributed to over 1 million tonnes of avoided carbon emissions.

A million tonnes of carbon might sound like a lot, though it won’t put a huge dent in climate change. India alone emits about 2.7 billion tonnes each year (albeit very little per capita). But that isn’t the point.

India’s tiger reserves are spread across most of the country. India National Tiger Conservation Authority, CC BY-SA

In a monetary sense, that avoided deforestation and saved carbon can be equated to US$6.24 million (£5.06 million) in direct carbon offsets and, if wider “ecosystem services” such as watershed management and the provision of fuel and firewood are considered, this figure could rise to as much as US$92 million (£75m). The authors of the new research suggest that this could be a gamechanger for tiger protection, as it could be funded through carbon offset schemes.

There are critics who view India expanding its tiger reserves as an economic extravagance, one that brings the animals into conflict with humans and criminalises local communities (some of whom have been moved out of reserves) for living as they have always done. But in a neoliberal world where everything has a price tag, the future of vulnerable wildlife often depends on its ability to justify its own survival. And if carbon storage can be added to the list of reasons to protect tiger habitat, this in turn may provide fresh impetus for conservation.

Strolling into Tadoba reserve in central India. RealityImages / shutterstock

Still lots of habitat left

Even after centuries of deforestation and an expansion of farmland to feed a billion people, there still seems to be land available. In a recent interview in The Hindu newspaper the prominent tiger biologist Ullas Karanth made it clear that India has the potential, on paper at least, to quadruple its wild tiger numbers over the longer term. According to Karanth, there is still an estimated 380,000 sq kilometres of potential habitat available, just 20% of which is currently under strict protection and containing tigers.

Pilibhit Tiger Reserve along the border with Nepal, one of 54 reserves in India. Sourabh Bharti / shutterstock

The loss of their forests is still the main reason why tigers are threatened. But this meant there are habitats available that have been emptied of tigers by hunting, and which cannot be colonised by new populations since there are no safe “wildlife corridors” connecting one patch of forest to another.

If these vacant forests were given their proper value and managed with both (reintroduced) big cats and the climate in mind, India could further cement its position as the world leader in tiger conservation. Eventually it could start exporting surplus tigers to repopulate sites in neighbouring countries where Bengal tigers have declined (the many tigers in captivity, especially in the US, are too used to humans to be released into the wild).

This is a win-win situation. It would also help India to re-establish its green credentials during an era in which the country’s emphasis on development and business has conflicted with parallel efforts to protect its natural environment.

Written by Simon Evans, Principal Lecturer in Ecotourism, Anglia Ruskin University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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