Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) Tourist Guide


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THE AMAZING SURVIVAL OF A PRECIOUS TIGER CALLED ‘PHET’

Text & Images : Tom Paine

Today there are few tigers left in SE Asia. A century ago there were about 100,000 Indo-Chinese tigers in Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. Today, some specialists put the population at less than a 1,000 - perhaps about 500 in Laos (mostly in the south), Cambodia and Vietnam combined.

These magnificent beasts have sadly been hunted to the verge of extinction. Poachers vastly outnumber forest guards and wildlife protection officers. So every tiger that is saved from the poachers is an important victory.

This is the story of one little tiger cub that thwarted the predatory designs of poachers and Chinese traders to survive in the rural precincts of the ancient royal capital of Laos, Luang Prabang. Her name is Phet (the Lao word meaning Diamond)

If you head for the Kuang Si Waterfall about 20 kms from Luang Prabang you maybe surprised to see a special forest enclosure with notices about a tiger..this has become Phet's sanctuary.

Now a fully-grown six-year-old tigress, her story starts as a wee malnourished tiger cub back in the year 2000.Her mother had been killed by poachers on the Plain of Jars, and the carcass sold to Chinese businessmen to be mutilated for traditional medicinal preparations fetching a high price in China.

However, genuine practitioners of Chinese traditional medicine have let it be known that all the alleged benefits of consuming crushed tiger bone and alcohol-laced tiger's penis and other parts, can be readily obtained from plants and herbs, thus ending the so-called conflict between Chinese herbal medicine and the survival of the tiger.

Early days

The Lao authorities eventually arrested poachers with the three tiger cubs, two males and the female. Phet had only seen seven days in this cruel world before becoming orphaned in the most traumatic way.

The stressed tiger cubs were rescued and taken to the Livestock and Fisheries Office in Luang Prabang. Efforts to save Phet nearly ended in tragedy. "Phet nearly died," said Somphong Pradichit the deputy director of the Forestry Department in Laos. "We gave her milk but it was difficult for her to digest. We asked a friend at a European Union project to search the Internet to get advice."

The advice came from Britain's Care for the Wild International, which told the forestry service how to help Phet and then started a long-term project to re-house and feed her. The expertise and care of both local and international specialists were able to save Phet, but not her two brothers.

Oliver Bandmann, a farang born in Bangkok who has lived in Luang Prabang since the late 90s, also helped to nurture Phet in the early days. Renaissance-man Bandmann, launched the first natural papermaking enterprise in the town and his products are exhibited and sold at the Baan Khily Gallery. He also introduced the technique of making paper from elephant dung, and launched an elephant hospital project in Sayaboury province.

Attempts at bottle feeding her two brothers failed and they died but Phet was made of sterner stuff. From a playful tiger cub with a few years she quickly grew and by 2003 even a teenage tigress strolling along by the side of Oliver Bandmann in the streets of Lung Prabang caused alarm to passing motorists. He recalls drivers suddenly screeching their brakes in panic upon their first sighting of Phet strolling along the road taking her daily exercise. A summit meeting of the " Friends of Phet" was convened to deal with the fact that she was now too big to roam around the streets of the ancient royal capital.

A decision was taken by the local authorities in concert with `Care for the Wild International' to build a forested enclosure where the growing tigress could enjoy far more space and vegetation than in a normal zoo, but still it was the end of her carefree life as a tiger cub growing up in Luang Prabang.

Bandmann expressed his sadness in 2006 that though Phet was now six years old and fully grown, she was sorely frustrated by being alone and lacking a male tiger. This writer was approached to check out zoos that might be willing to help her out with a suitable striped companion and potential mate.

Not quite a typical journalistic assignment though it was, I gave it a bash. I happened to be in Ho Chi Minh city on a rather different mission - asking Vietnamese officials whether they would expel two US corporations with offices in Saigon - Dow Chemicals and Monsanto; given that these two companies had been the subject of a lawsuit in US courts and inflicted untold suffering on the civilian populations of Southern Vietnam during the war.

Both stand accused by the victims of Agent Orange of crimes against humanity for the manufacture of the deadly herbicide, which was sprayed in enormous quantities by the US airforce as they attempted to flush the elusive Vietcong guerillas from their leafy jungle strongholds.

The lethal dioxin content of these herbicides leads to a variety of cancers and monstrous new-born deformities.

Back to finding soul-mates for a lonely tigress. Local journalists arranged a meeting for me with the director of the Saigon Zoo. I gave her coordinates to make contact with Oliver in Luang Prabang who was close to the local wildlife authorities. However the Saigon director instead of offering to supply a male tiger to be sent to Lao, got totally the wrong idea in her head and emailed Oliver about when Phet - that had never been behind bars - could be transported to the Saigon zoo? What was worse was the dear fellow blamed me for offering to render his lovely Laotian tigress into Vietnamese bondage!

Phet played an important part in triggering the establishment of the provincial Committee for the Rescue of Confiscated Wild Animals, which ties together a powerful alliance drawn from the top officials of the forestry department, the culture and propaganda department, the tourism office and the international cooperation office.

The Laotian Wildlife Protection Department's efforts are now backed by government laws - in line with international agreements - forbidding the killing of endangered species or the trading in them. But the rest - the wild pigs, for example, like rabbits in England - are fair game.

Many rifles and guns were confiscated. Some families kept back guns or made new ones, although it is now illegal to own or carry a gun. "We couldn't control them all, and hunters still come in from provinces where the guns have not been collected, but it has helped," says Pradichit.

Not only tigers are endangered species in Laos. The "Land of a Million Elephants", as Laos was known, has no more than 400 left in the wild and the Mekong's Irrawaddy dolphins face extinction by the end of this decade.

The other rescued animal at Luang Prabang is a young bear, kept by a farmer who shot her mother after she attacked him. She is in as pitiful a condition as Phet was when she was rescued, and an Australian bear charity has offered to find the cash for a compound next to Phet. At the moment she is being kept in a small run next to the government's guest house - used for top officials when they visit the town. "People do not like her to be kept like this but it is the best we can do for her," says Pradichit. "If we released her, she would be killed. People eat bears and any other animals. They do not see why they cannot take anything from the jungle. We are telling them at public meetings and we are telling the children in schools that wildlife must be protected. The children understand but older people don't care."

So there is still only one tiger at Kaung Si. It is with some regret that I have to report that this has been one assignment I've failed to accomplish. Today you can visit the still-lonesome Phet in her Kuang Si sanctuary, nevertheless well taken care of in terms of food, and space. Additionally, Phet's keeper plays with her every day.

But her sexual urges and fulfillment as a full-grown lady are still unrequited, with no male tiger solution in sight.

Phet can never be returned to the wild: she cannot hunt and, because she likes people, she would be easy to kill. But she has become an important symbol of the worldwide tiger conservation campaign, and her story can help to inspire visitors young and old to do their bit to protect one of the most magnificent of all the inhabitants of the jungle.