Transfering tigers between parks

Rushen sent me a link to this article today. www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/850640/...opulated-with-tigers
I was wondering what your thoughts are on this.
Gotta love the first comment under it, haha. In other words please remove all scary animals because we can not safely go to the waterfall.

I think it is not a bad idea, at least if they are sure that HKK is up to its current carrying capacity (based on prey availability and territory; surely more tigers could live there if there was more prey...).
Moving tigers around would bring new blood and strengthen populations (regardless if Khao Yai really still has a population...).
I am not sure if it only should be a one-way 'transaction'.
I have thought about this before and was thinking switching a male or two from one area with some others from a distant population would maybe strengthen the genes in both areas.
Then again, the stress this causes would maybe means it doesn't work at all.
I guess only young males that just left their mothers would be the best contenders as they are anyway under stress to find new territory, so for them it might not be a big difference if put in a totally different park.
But how do you catch exactly these young males?
And another risk is spreading diseases. But with the current low numbers, anything might be worth the risk to save the species and bring it back where it used to roam.

So in theory I like the idea, but in practise I am afraid it will be very complicated.
However, I am glad to see that they will study this, which I hope they will do thoroughly; and hopefully it will bring a brighter future.
Of course all this only makes sense if poaching is ruled out.
Then again. spreading the tigers into smaller populations throughout the country, will make it harder for poachers to find them... so that could be an advantage to 'save time' and hope that in the meanwhile the believes that tiger bones cure whatever problems, will disappear.

What are your thoughts on this?

Very interesting - I suppose it must be linked to the goals of the tiger action plan ( a doubling of tiger numbers).

My hope would be that they link it to an enormous public awareness outreach programme. I always think back to that "panda" tv channel were millions sat and watched a sleeping panda everyday - now if they could do something like that for tigers - just to help spread the message more of how fantastic Thailand's wild places and how in jeopardy their wildlife is. Something to make all Thai's feel proud of - their natural heritage.