EXPLOITING THE TIGER

INTRODUCTION
According to its own website 1 , the Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery in Kanchanaburi, Thailand
- widely known as the Tiger Temple and founded in 1994 - acquired its first tiger cubs in 1999/2000. Reportedly, the
animals were brought to the Monastery by police and other people who had rescued them from tiger poachers. Since
then, more tigers have arrived from other sources (as discussed in this report), and have been bred at the Temple.
Others have apparently left the Temple at various times.
The Temple is open to visitors, who pay an entrance fee, and actively seeks donations to fund its activities. Tigers are
put on display for visitors in a dedicated area adjacent to the Temple. This is known as the ‘Tiger Canyon’, which has
developed into a successful tourist attraction on the basis of the Temple’s humane claims. Boosted by the screening of
promotional material about the Temple on the television channel ‘Animal Planet’ (filmed in December 2003 2 and
shown around the world on the Discovery Network), tourist numbers grew substantially, with estimates averaging
100 - 300 visitors a day. In early 2008, a volunteer estimated more than 880 visitors on one particular day.
Conflicting reports began to emerge from people who had visited the Temple, and from others who had worked there
as volunteers. Whilst some reports were supportive of the Temple's work (e.g. www.tigertemple.co.uk) many others
raised serious concerns about the way the tigers were housed and treated; some also raised questions about some
of the animals’ origins.
Various people provided information to Care for the Wild International, which prompted further concerns. CWI therefore
undertook its own investigations between 2005 - 2008 with the help of individuals who enlisted as volunteers at the
Temple. This report summarises the findings of that investigation. CWI's SE Asia representative to the Temple also
made formal visits to the Temple in November 2006 and January 2007, to discuss the concerns with the temple
management, but they were not open to positive dialogue.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Wild Population - Numbers & Distribution
Less than a century ago, tigers (Panthera tigris) occupied much of Central and East Asia. This range has now
dramatically diminished, so that the species now exists only in isolated populations from India to Southeast Asia and
Sumatra, and a few scattered in China and the Russian Far East (see Fig. 2).
Fig. 2. Tiger range, past and present. Source: Save the Tiger Fund
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