The image, captured in February of this year, hits a raw nerve as it is estimated that there are less than 150 Malayan tigers left in the country. In the 1950s, there were 3,000.
The people behind this image, taken at the Belum-Temengor Forest Complex in the north of Peninsular Malaysia, are wildlife photographer Emmanuel Rondeau and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Speaking with FMT Lifestyle via Zoom, Rondeau, 39, who lives in the French Alps, said he set up eight high-definition camera traps for five months in the hopes of capturing the image of the elusive Malayan tiger.
“I would never have been able to make an image like this without the collaboration between the field scientists of WWF and the Orang Asli anti-poaching team who know the forest by heart,” he said.
The Orang Asli work with WWF-Malaysia to patrol the forests where they remove snares and collect data on poaching activities, among others.
According to Rondeau, he faced many challenges – both expected and unexpected. “I’ve worked in the Amazon several times. I knew working in the rainforest is very difficult for the electronics because of the humidity and the heat.
“One thing I didn’t think about before was the leeches here. I think the leeches love French blood!” he said with a laugh.
While one camera stopped working because of the humidity, another was smashed to smithereens by an elephant! Thankfully, Rondeau had spares.
By the time the image of the Malayan tiger was captured, Rondeau had already returned to France. It was Muhammad Imran Najmi Mohd Hamri, a field biologist with WWF-Malaysia who changed the batteries for the camera traps, who relayed the good news to him.
“It’s difficult for people outside to realise that to get such an image, it took many, many months of work,” he said, adding that it was a “huge relief” to see proof of the existence of a Malayan tiger.
Over the months, they also captured images of black and clouded leopards among a host of other wildlife.
Rondeau, who has had an affinity for nature since childhood, said: “One thing that struck me about Malaysia was that although it’s smaller than countries such as the US and Russia, in the same country, you have cities like Kuala Lumpur and intact forests only a drive away.
“Malaysians are very, very lucky to still have pristine forests like this with tigers, elephants, sun bears, black leopards. Do everything you can to protect it because this is incredibly rare.”
Azlan Mohamed, 41, manager of Tiger Protection and Monitoring with WWF-Malaysia, said it was hard to describe just how happy he felt upon seeing the image of the tiger.
“Snares have significantly contributed to the decline of the tiger population across Malaysia,” he said.
He added that the Orang Asli anti-poaching team deployed in 2018 by WWF-Malaysia in partnership with Maybank has reduced the number of snares in the Belum-Temengor Forest Complex by approximately 90%.
Commenting on the recent human-tiger encounters in Malaysia, Azlan said that one of the reasons why tigers were forced out of their forest habitats in search of food include the declining number of large prey such as sambar deer due to poaching activities, among others.
Also, the number of wild boars, also another prey, has recently plummeted due to African swine fever.
“That’s why tigers go out to seek alternative food sources, including domestic livestock. Two key priorities that need to be addressed are safeguarding human lives and increasing the prey abundance so tigers have food to survive.”
He added: “We have lost our Sumatran rhinos. We don’t want the same fate for our tigers. I hope we can save the tigers so that future generations can see tigers in the wild, not only from photos or in zoos.”