tailieunhanh - bbc wildlife magazine 2010 phần 5

Tham khảo tài liệu 'bbc wildlife magazine 2010 phần 5', ngoại ngữ, ngữ pháp tiếng anh phục vụ nhu cầu học tập, nghiên cứu và làm việc hiệu quả | scampers 01 Four spotted deer - the favourite prey of local tigers - eat fallen leaves as a rhesus monkey A leopard cat -tigers aren t the only carnivores in these forests. The Sundarbans mangroves support a local population STOP THE BOAT Montu swings the craft round and rams her prow up the bank. Grabbing my stout stick and pepper spray 1 jump down into the knee-deep tidal mud and come to an abrupt halt. A flurry of red fiddler crabs dart into their holes. I peer ahead through the trees for any sign of movement. Adrenalin surges through my veins as images of outstretched claws and all-too-sharp fangs flash through my mind. My stick suddenly feels more like a twig. If there was a tiger in there would I even know before it pounced Could I pull the safety cap off my pepper spray in time or would panicked fumblings be the death of me And would it even work against 120kg of rippling muscle After all this is the fate of about 50 people a year in the Sundarbans region - and I m no less edible. The difference is that I ve chosen to enter this mangrove forest whereas the desperately poor Bangladeshi villagers who risk everything to search for firewood fish and honey here have no other option. Tigers have attacked people in this region for as long as the locals can remember. Records over the past 100 years or so show an overall decrease in tiger-related deaths though the underlying reason for this trend is unclear. Even so Bangladesh remains one of the world s hotspots for human-carnivore conflict and the issue is at the forefront of tiger conservation here. TRACKING TIGERS My legs pull hard against the sucking sludge as I stagger awkwardly towards my target a set of what appear to be tiger trades pugmarks leading up the bank and disappearing among the spiky mangrove DID YOU KNOW New data suggests that the Sundarbans supports 32 tigers per 100km2-the highest tiger density known. Next in the list is Chitwan NPin Nepal with 18 tigers per 100km2. roots jutting from the forest