Recent Innovations
New and innovative measures to respond to human-tiger conflict challenges continue to be developed:
- In 2011, ‘Taser’, an American company, launched a new taser gun specifically designed for use with wildlife. Aimed as an alternative to lethal force the gun has been deployed on charging bears and elk, with reportedly good effect. However, there is some controversy over this approach, and it’s likely the prohibitive cost of this technology will prevent its wider uptake.
- In 2017 a UK based team won an WWF award to develop novel monitoring technology for conflict. The new system uses infrared technology to recognise an approaching animal from its heat pattern. The idea being that sensors could be deployed around villages and farmsteads to alert inhabitants if a tiger was approaching.
- In 2018 colleagues in Indonesia published a paper describing the integration of socio-ecological information to better understand HTC tolerance and risk. They argue that by using this information to target their resources they can respond more effectively to conflict situations and hopefully reduce the number of tigers killed due to conflict. The paper is open access and full details can be found here.