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A critically significant field project staffed solely by Indonesian
park rangers is still underway; the long-term  monitoring
of a known population of wild Sumatran tigers in Way Kambas National
Park using infrared cameras. Tigers are still being photographed,
and our long-term profiles on individual tigers are increasing
in knowledge. The Sumatran Tiger Trust, (South Lakes Wild Animal
Park, United Kingdom), and The Tiger Foundation (Vancouver, BC,
Canada) support the project.
This critical component of the Sumatran Tiger Project involves
the training and facilitation of PHKA forest rangers to independently
manage and implement a long-term remote camera monitoring study
for the tiger and its prey. This has been initiated in Way Kambas,
maintained by a team of rangers from the national park office,
and coordinated by a national park staff member currently working
with the project.
 The
monitoring system has been completely installed within the park,
consisting of 12 Trailmaster active-infrared remote cameras. These
have been housed at strategic locations throughout the park in
steel reinforced cages, with deep concrete foundations. Early
field trials have lead to the revision of prototype housing models
on several occasions, and the current model is further protected
by barbed wire, in order to prevent elephants from uprooting them.
Films are checked and batteries reinstalled on a twice-monthly
basis, and photographs are reported monthly to the chief of the
national park. All data is registered into a primary database,
to which both the Sumatran Tiger Project and the national park
have access.
Considerable success has been achieved during the last period,
with several new tiger individuals recorded. This includes photographic
evidence of a healthy litter of three cubs. The cubs were first
photographed at 6 months of age (see photograph at top right)
and then captured on film again and identified through stripe
patterns about one year later at 18 months of age (see photograph
at bottom left).
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