India’s tigers seem to be a massive success story — many scientists aren’t sure

Researchers question official figures showing a sharp rise in the tiger population, and the country’s plans to protect the species.

  1. Gayathri Vaidyanathan
    1. Gayathri Vaidyanathan is a science journalist in Bengaluru.

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

    A tigress leads her three cubs through a hole in a fence to feed.

    Central India — The Maruti Gypsy 44 sped along a jungle track, jolting us out of our seats. We had signed up for a wolf safari, but the trip leader had another quarry in mind. The vehicle barrelled towards a pungent smell on a hillside — a fresh tiger kill.

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    Nature 574, 612-616 (2019)

    References

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    2. Gopalaswamy, A. M., Delampady, D., Karanth, K. U., Kumar, N. S. & Macdonald, D. W. Methods Ecol. Evol.6, 1055–1066 (2015). ArticleGoogle Scholar
    3. Gopalaswamy, A. M., Karanth, K. U., Delampady, M. & Stenseth, N. Chr. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/708628 (2019).
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