Tiger Island Natural World

The Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Hiding deep in these forests

are some of the world's most elusive big cats...

..Sumatran tigers.

These tigers are in trouble.

As they stray into the world of humans,

many are killed or imprisoned.

TIGER ROARS

These are tigers accused of man-eating.

Their future is bleak.

TIGER ROARS FIERCELY

But a controversial millionaire might save them.

He is re-releasing tigers accused of man-eating.

The world's leading tiger expert, Alan Rabinowitz,

wants to investigate their impact.

The concept of rehabilitating conflict tigers,

especially man-eaters, is not something I've put much stock in.

It's a pretty scary concept,

that is somewhat equivalent to putting a murderer,

which you don't know if they are truly rehabilitated or not,

back into society, and hoping they won't kill again.

The experiment on Tiger Island

could mean new hope for the world's tigers,

or it could be a disaster.

The south-east Asian island of Sumatra

is home to some of the richest and most diverse tropical forests on the planet.

They house thousands of unique species...

MONKEYS CALL

..and rare animals threatened with extinction.

Here are the only great apes outside Africa - orangutans.

Isolated on islands, animals evolve differently.

The Sumatran tiger, the only remaining island tiger,

is now the smallest in the world.

It's rarely glimpsed in its natural habitat,

and virtually all film of it is taken in captivity.

The best images of it in the wild are captured on camera traps.

CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS

CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS

Genetically, it's very different from all the other tigers

throughout the tiger range.

It's been separated long enough,

probably over 10,000 years, from the mainland populations.

Alan Rabinowitz has spent his life tracking and studying big cats.

He's the Indiana Jones of wildlife protection -

the most renowned field biologist in the world.

Despite lots of effort, lots of good intent,

significant amounts of money, we're losing tigers.

Alan knows tigers well.

He's searched for them in India and Bhutan.

If we were to lose the Sumatran tiger,

we would lose a key portion of the tiger genome.

Tigers have already lost a lot of the genetic diversity

that they've had in the past.

We can't afford to lose the Sumatran tiger.

And now there may be fewer than 500 Sumatran tigers left.

Saving them is crucial.

Alan's home base is New York.

The non-profit organisation he heads

carries out big cat conservation across the globe.

We're in a horrific state with tigers.

Tigers are off the edge of the cliff, sliding downward.

Can we still save them and bring them back? Absolutely we can.

But we really are not playing with a lot of time.

The bold experiment in Asia by an eccentric millionaire

has grabbed Alan's attention.

The idea of trying to save tigers which have killed people,

I don't know what to say, it was not only intriguing to me,

it was pretty frightening.

I wanted to know more about this.

An internet search reveals that the self-made tycoon's scheme

excites controversy in the press.

Over the years, Alan's learned to take gossip and hearsay

with a pinch of salt.

What sort of person would risk releasing tigers blamed for deaths?

Alan wants to meet the maverick millionaire to decide for himself.

Tomy Winata and his many businesses, from finance to property,

thrive in a land where the forests are under threat.

In Sumatra, money grows on trees.

The pulp and paper industry, palm oil and coffee cultivation,

are all encroaching on the last remaining habitats

of Sumatra's rare tigers.

Forests are clear-cut. Farmland replaces tiger territory.

The big cats roam new fields, searching for prey.

Conflict ensues, and both sides suffer losses.

Across Asia, top predators are not natural neighbours.

The tigers become victims of a zero-tolerance policy.

CROWD SHOUTS

265 Sumatran tigers have been killed.

97 have been captured.

That's when the dilemma begins.

What do you do with a captured man-eater?

TIGER GROWLS

On his way to track Tomy down,

Alan stops off at Sumatra's Taman Safari Park,

a gaol for man-eating and conflict tigers since 1992.

Currently, 12 killer tigers are being held here indefinitely.

TIGER GROWLS

There's nowhere else in the world like this place -

Tiger Alcatraz.

GROWLING

TIGER GROWLS

The animals are imprisoned

to safeguard their valuable genes for the future.

Oh, man.

15 years ago, this was thought to be one way forward -

-keep captive and breed.

-Oh!

You too.

They're beautiful. Still mad at me?

Whoo! Sends shivers down my spine.

-Ooh!

-GROWLING

I've been around tigers a lot, in the wild and in captivity,

and this place is a little spooky.

To be surrounded by man-eaters, even with the bars between us,

it's a bit spooky.

But when Taman Safari is full, where can suspects go?

Tigers accused of terrible things...

CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS

..like this female, Panti.

When six people were killed in the north of Sumatra, panic broke out.

Hunters and their dogs rounded up 12 tigers.

Panti was among the suspects.

Some, or even all, were innocent.

GROWLING

The authorities had a dozen wild tigers on their hands,

and nowhere to keep them.

The captives were brought to this temporary holding centre.

In the months of delay that followed,

seven of the tigers died here.

Alan doesn't know it yet,

but Panti will be crucial in helping him discover

if suspected man-eaters can ever be safely released back into the wild.

PANTI GROWLS

LAUGHTER

Rich, well-connected, and with a secluded nature reserve,

Tomy Winata took in Panti and four other survivors.

He is the go-to-guy,

providing alternative accommodation for tigers.

What I've heard about at this project sounded different,

it sounded interesting, and it sounded particularly interesting

because it brings an outsider's approach, a businessman's approach,

a non-scientist's approach,

to a potentially very important tiger landscape.

The media spotlight is on Tomy - a man accused by the press

of shady underworld dealings is harbouring tiger murder suspects.

Instead of condemning them to life imprisonment,

Tomy is giving them a second chance.

First, he puts the prisoners into what he calls rehab,

until they're judged fit to return to the wild.

So far, he's freed five alleged man-eaters onto his land...

..including Panti.

He radio-collars them and monitors their movements...

..for good reason.

170 villagers live in the area where he releases these tigers.

Is it ever safe to release potential man-eaters near people?

That's Alan's big question.

And he has others about the man in charge.

Interestingly, the first thing I heard from the outside world

was that I should be very, very careful

about even thinking about coming here,

that I should be very, very careful about dealing with Tomy...

..because there were a lot of rumours

circulating about what could potentially be going on here.

The only way to find out is to meet the man himself.

Good to see you this morning.

That's a nice plane.

The best way to reach Tomy's private estate is by plane.

Tomy's plane.

He owns a charter company.

They fly a route Tomy's picked.

It's a short flight from Jakarta, Indonesia's capital city.

From 1996 on, Tomy helped the government protect

up to 170 square miles of land at the tip of southern Sumatra.

It's bounded by sea on two sides and a national park to the north.

When it rains, it's cut off by road.

A perfect private nature reserve.

So when you first came here, did it look like this?

Half.

Half?

Many people, all cut the forest?

Er, yeah, many people.

Alan is eager to find out what Tomy's really been up to.

Few visitors ever glimpse this reserve.

Tomy's own conservation guards keep intruders at bay.

Welcome to Tambling.

Uninvited guests are not welcome.

There are, however, the 170 residents.

The local village existed before Tomy started his project,

and it's still there.

Tomy releases his man-eaters within walking distance.

I don't have a very clear picture, as clear a picture as I would like

about what's going on in this village.

Alan is anxious to find out how local people react

to tigers in their fields.

CALLS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

Now, it's not a big village, it's not...

They're limited by where they can even perform their activities,

because Tomy zones where they can work and not work,

and what they, what they are able to be doing.

Hello.

Hello.

Can I ask them, if any of them,

when they work in this area, when they work in their plantations,

have any of them ever heard tiger sounds,

or seen any tiger track or seen any tigers in this area around the village?

What they mostly saw is the footprint, and then

sometimes heard the sound, but they never seen a real tiger before.

Have any of them ever had anything killed

that they think was killed by a tiger?

MAN SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

A long time ago, yes, they have found that,

for example, like a chicken or dog was killed by a tiger.

How long ago?

SHE ASKS HIM

One month ago.

One month ago. OK.

Are they afraid of the tigers here?

Are they afraid of the tigers in this jungle?

-Hi, Tomy.

-OK!

THEY LAUGH

I really wanted to pursue that line of questioning,

but everything got cut short, pretty much, when Tomy came over.

Because their attitude changed.

Clearly, clearly Tomy helped drive where the conversation was going.

He's their boss. He's their guardian.

Whether it's scared, whether it's self-protection,

they are very careful around him.

What was very obvious is that these people know about tigers,

and that tigers are either right around their village,

or even sometimes coming into their village.

What is fascinating information to me,

despite how that village

is just ripe for potential disaster, maybe, and everything,

but these animals have been set free since 2008,

and nobody is hiding this from us, we would know this,

there are not killings happening out there in this area.

The home of tiger only one kilometre, huh?

This is something interesting. No problem.

Well, that is interesting.

There is only, only below one, two kilo from here.

I know, that's kind of scary, Tomy.

It is interesting, and if that works, if it works, it's good.

The only thing I'm scared of is that some day maybe it doesn't work.

No-one of them complaining about the tigers fighting them.

I keep on coming back in my head to the same thing.

Do I think it's a good idea, under any circumstances,

to set free man-eating tigers?

GROWLING

This is a really different way of thinking for me,

because my mantra, and that of many people in my field has always been,

"If a tiger or any big cat has killed people,

"that you just don't set it free again."

It's just doomed to a life in captivity.

Tomy still has more captive tigers.

Alan is keen to discover which ones he might release.

TIGER ROARS

The teeth broken so this, this male one cannot release any more.

So this one killed only one person?

Five or six.

This one killed five or six? Oh, you can't set him free.

-Yeah, that, you're right.

-Yeah, that's it.

TIGER ROARS

If it killed five people, I wouldn't want him back in the forest, either.

-Heh!

-TIGER ROARS

-That's interesting. He comes at you when you turn your back, see?

-Yeah.

As soon as you turn your back.

When you look at him, he goes back, when you turn your back.

As well as the single female, Panti,

Tomy has released four males into his reserve.

Male tigers released into new territories

roam large areas looking for other males.

If they find one, they may fight to the death.

A winning invader also searches out cubs in their new zone,

and kills them, too.

Releasing female tigers that can have cubs

is a much better way to increase their numbers.

TIGER ROARS

-How many people did this one kill?

-Two or three.

This female, Salma, is also accused of man-killing.

These tigers have real personality.

This is natural energy of the tiger in the wild.

When you go to a zoo and you see tigers which are calm,

and they are sleeping, and they don't growl at the people,

those are pretty much broken-spirited tigers.

Those kind of tigers can't be re-introduced into the wild.

These tigers have not had their spirits broken.

This energy, this charging and backing off, that vocalisation,

it's them being a tiger,

it's being the strong, dominant predator in the forest,

and this is what they need in order to go back in the forest.

They need this spirit in order to survive.

SALMA ROARS

Salma's story is typical - caught, presumed guilty.

CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS, CROWD SHOUTS

She is supposed to have killed a family and scattered their remains.

Salma was trapped two and a half miles from the incident itself.

She was transported to a nearby zoo.

She became a star attraction,

and although she may be totally innocent,

rumours still spread that Salma had killed a large number of people.

With government cages full,

Salma was despatched to Tomy's for possible future release.

Two years later, she's still here.

She could be valuable in the wild.

She might breed with local males and increase tiger numbers.

It's in good shape, its teeth look in good shape

and it definitely has an incredible fighting spirit.

This tiger looks like it could be set back free in the wild.

Now, it's always a tricky thing. It should have a radio collar on it.

I've been told that every animal that's released gets a collar.

If the collar was put on and they followed it closely,

and if it started being a danger, you can go in and intercede.

But it's far from clear who decides if a tiger is freed.

For that female, who would make the decision

if and when she were to be set free?

At least we will make a recommendation to the government.

The government scientists... we make discussion.

Salma could be released if a good case can be made

to the government officials.

Females are the ultimate test of Tomy's experiment.

They are less likely to be driven off by resident males.

But to be successful, firstly, they mustn't kill anyone.

Next, they must find a new home and catch enough prey.

And finally, they must mate and raise cubs.

But is it a good idea to release any more tigers?

If there are too many close to Tomy's area,

will they become a danger to themselves and others?

There are, right now, three tigers in captivity,

and Tomy's said he's got word of up to five others out there

that he's being asked about.

And he's justifiably concerned about knowing

how many could be released in here safely,

and when that time is going to come that there's going to be one

that maybe they did something wrong, and things don't go well.

Alan is becoming frustrated by the lack of hard facts.

The worst thing an expert can do,

a true scientist can do, is make your mind up on too little data.

Let me tell you that straight off.

I am not going to be pushed into making my mind up

if I feel I don't have all the facts.

Clearly, the cats have been, have been collared upon release,

because there are videos of them.

Show me the collaring data, show me the GPS data.

Unfortunately, the data from the collars is missing.

The most valuable tiger Tomy's released is the female, Panti,

because she's old enough to breed.

Finding her would be a significant advance.

The five tigers released so far are not alone.

Before we released the tiger...

Tomy believes there were already many other tigers on his reserve.

Between 20 and 30?

Yes.

But when your men go out on patrol,

do they write down every time they see tiger tracks?

Yeah, they make a photo.

Yes, we do, and we have a document photo, picture document.

INDISTINCT

Alan would like to collect data of his own, and share his findings

with Tomy, to help decide whether it's a good idea to release Salma.

I can give the permission. But one thing I want condition.

Everything you get you put on the table. We share together.

Absolutely.

Because I know sometimes they put in the back pocket and keep quiet.

I know. That's been a big problem.

This is happening with me, I look at and I get a problem with me.

It happens in every country too. You know, it's a real problem.

Many, many times scientists or other people come,

and they get the research and they take it away.

I also don't know why.

HE LAUGHS

Alan needs to know

if any tigers Tomy's freed recently remain close to the village.

Resident tigers haven't troubled people,

but more incomers might tip the balance.

Alan is on the look-out for any clues to the tigers' whereabouts.

This is a well-marked tree.

-Well marked tree, huh?

-Yeah.

A tiger has been paying a visit to Tomy's HQ.

Well, the tiger walks along this road...

Look at that, the same species of tree. It's always that way.

-The tigers pick a certain kind of tree.

-Oh, yeah?

We definitely have a tiger living in this area.

It's a good opportunity for Alan to start to collect his own data

by mounting camera traps he's brought with him.

OK, she's ready to go.

If Alan can capture any tigers on film,

he'll be able to cross-reference their stripe pattern

with photos of the released tigers.

CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS

No attacks have been reported.

If Alan finds released tigers still here, among people,

it will strengthen Tomy's case

that it is possible to rehabilitate these tigers.

All right. Sure would be nice seeing a tiger in this.

Alan has four more camera traps,

so the search continues for more tiger tracks

along a shoreline path not far from the village.

What's that over there?

Good eyes.

Huh?

Does look like tiger. Good eyes. You got good eyes, huh? Tomy spotted it.

See that track?

It's last night, it's not, it's not sharp enough, you know,

sometimes when we see a track, when they're fresh fresh, they're very,

very sharp, and then overnight, it get a little more round, you know?

Ah!

Those are nice tracks.

Boy, oh boy, these are not old.

Huh?

These are very fresh, very sharp.

Yeah.

This morning, huh?

It could be this morning, because usually in sand,

the sand, if there's any kind of wind, the track's not that sharp.

You know, we should put up a camera trap right here.

Any tiger in this area is going to walk this trail,

for lots of reasons, but most importantly,

the habitat on both sides is very rough, it's very thick.

So any tiger in this area is going to come along this road.

I think there's a really good chance

of getting a tiger in this camera trap.

Now, there's not a lot of great places to put it,

but a good place looks right here, if we look up this road.

Alan's hoping to see a tiger using this path,

ideally one of the five released so far.

All right. Let's see what happens, what we get here.

Any more tigers freed would need plenty of prey.

But is there enough in Tomy's forests?

Alan can see the reserve is well stocked.

Sometimes the deer come across.

You see them swim?

We've seen lots and lots of sambar deer.

There's wild water buffalo, there are signs of wild pig,

so, clearly, a very beautiful piece of tiger habitat is being protected.

Having said that, I'm less sure about exactly how and why

they're going about this so-called conflict tiger rehab programme.

The rehab programme is still a mystery to Alan.

In the wild, tigers must be able to hunt and kill live prey.

Caged tigers fed on dead meat can lose the ability to hunt.

Tomy's attempting to keep the cats wild,

so he feeds captives like Salma live prey.

What Alan observes leaves him in shock.

I have to admit the pig slaughter was a bit distasteful to me.

Today when they fed these tigers, and just kind of said,

"OK, now we are going to show you part of our rehab programme."

And, basically, the rehab programme is dumping sickly-looking pigs,

just into the tiger cages, and letting the tigers go at them.

TIGER GROWLS

That's not a rehab programme.

It raised a lot of questions in my mind.

The process of how they were feeding,

what they were feeding, just didn't look right to me.

A small pig won't keep an adult tiger going for long.

In the wild, tigers usually stalk more substantial prey,

like sambar deer, far into the forest.

If tigers can't find food easily, or are youngsters,

they may gravitate towards farms.

That's where they often run into trouble - snatching domestic animals.

Tomy has another young female among his captives.

She was found loitering near a village.

But there's no proof that she had killed.

They estimated it could be two, two and a half.

It looked even younger than that, and now I'm sure it is.

PIG SQUEALS

It kind of went at it, backed off, it grabbed it, let it go.

It squealed, it dragged it to a body of water,

kind of dunked it a few times, swatted it around, let it go.

-How long have you had this tiger?

-August last year.

And does she play with the animals this way all the time?

Yeah, her habit is like that.

-Every time?

-Yeah.

She's really young.

I don't think she totally knows how to kill prey.

This is a really young tiger.

Of course, that was the behaviour of a cub.

That was the behaviour of a tiger that had not broken away yet

from its mother, had not yet become a full adult tiger on its own.

No, she never kill it. She like to keep it alive when she eats it.

That's because she doesn't know how to eat.

This animal is really young.

I don't think she's been fully taught by her mother

how to kill prey.

'You never want to watch an animal be slowly tortured before it's eaten,'

but it was the natural process of a young tiger, playing with the prey.

Usually, it would usually be with its mother, playing,

stalking, jumping on prey until it eventually kills it.

That's how a tiger learns how to hunt.

So, in actuality,

one thing that I did see today with this particular young captive tiger

didn't seem to be bad at all.

If you don't go through that process we watched today,

then there's no way that young tiger could ever be set free.

It would just have to be put in a captive enclosure or put to death.

Instead, this young tiger that can just about kill a baby pig,

but probably wouldn't kill a human,

might be another candidate for release.

For evidence that Tomy's released tigers

haven't lost the ability to hunt,

Alan needs to find out if prey is being taken locally.

Capturing a tiger with a kill on his camera trap is a long shot.

OK...

But it's worth a check, nonetheless.

Meanwhile, Tomy's team finds other proof.

Alan!

Tiger faeces contain evidence of their last victims.

Oh, look at that, this has, I think that's sambar deer here.

See, the reason it's so soft is because most of it is meat.

When they eat the meat...

This tiger just dumped here,

because this sun has not dried out one bit.

It's not got any influence of the sun. This tiger is very close.

The only fresher it could be is if it were steaming.

I wouldn't want to be walking in a forest where man-eaters have

been released and not have a man with a gun with me.

I'd feel much better - in fact, I'd feel better

if that gun was out of that bag, frankly.

The amount of time it takes him to get that gun out of the bag...

Even if you shot it point blank, while it was dying,

it would still kill you first.

Ooh, you smell that?

Hmm.

Smells like a kill.

I don't like what I smell.

Smell it?

It probably ate, it's probably dumped,

it's probably walking around and it's going to probably come back.

Boy, there was a flash of orange -

I thought for sure it was the tiger lying there.

The last tiger kill I found, in India,

the tiger was right nearby, it came right at me.

I was on an elephant, fortunately.

We got a kill. Smell this!

We got a kill over here, it smells like a kill.

Come here.

No, I can smell it.

-Oh, yeah.

-You smell.

It might have stashed it there. It might be right here.

The tiger could be in this area right now,

laying over its kill, wondering when we are going to go away.

Is this tiger one of Tomy's alleged murderers?

Stay near the guy with the green bag.

The camera trap may hold some clues.

The first trap...

..is a trap put right near a very fresh tiger track,

along a sandy road by the beach.

Ha! First photo! You beautiful beast, you.

Look at that, look at that, you're kidding me.

Walks right up in front of that camera.

It knows it's got to mark this area because we've been there.

Look at that. It squats, scrapes.

What beautiful marking behaviour!

This is a great shot.

This is not common to be so, so lucky.

Just walking by.

Boy, this clearly is a road that these tigers like to use.

What we're going to have to do now, we have some really

clear footage of the marking pattern of at least this tiger.

Ah! Turned, came right back the other way.

That's perfect, we have both sides,

we have striped patterns on both sides.

Now we go to Trap Five.

This is the trap that we put on the scraped tree,

right before the rehabilitation centre

with the captive man-eating tigers.

Oh, look at that! Oh, a tiger in broad daylight!

Look at that one. This is, this is interesting.

A tiger has come right up to the trap, and is sniffing.

This...

I think that this tiger might want to scratch its tree,

and instead it's encountered our trap.

Oh, that's a beautiful shot,

great shot of the striped patterns on its left side.

That is beautiful.

And like a tiger, it just sniffs it and walks off,

right past the camera, in the direction of the rehab centre.

Really interesting.

Alan's traps also show it's not just a tiger highway.

Humans are sharing the same routes.

Now, this data is potentially very, very important for this area.

A tiger with its own home range, marking a tree,

and not attacking passers-by.

But is it a tiger Tomy's set free?

What we have to do now is match these stripe patterns

of the tigers in these photos

with the stripe patterns of the five tigers they've released.

Could this be Panti,

the lone tigress that survived the tiny holding cages?

With the computer, I could take that shot, I can blow it up,

and I've got this very distinctive, kind of, dark, black mass.

Then what I did is I compared several photos

that they had taken of Panti.

Beautiful, beautiful female.

That looks surprisingly like that other female we got that photo of.

I go back to that photo, it looks, it looks very similar.

Fortunately they also got the other side of Panti, Panti running off.

So you compare that to the other side of that same animal,

and sure enough, using both sides,

looks like that female, Panti, that was released.

Looks in beautiful shape, maybe even have gained a little weight,

and she's roaming in the forest.

This is evidence, that they have not been able to show me yet,

that one of their released tigers

has actually really settled in this area long term, marks,

does everything normally, and is doing well.

Panti has made her home here, living alongside Tomy's workers,

and leaving them well alone.

Photographic evidence of a successful reintroduction

is a breakthrough for both Tomy and Alan.

But for Alan, the lack of other scientific data is a big issue.

The very first thing I, as a scientist, asked for, was the data.

Frankly, I have been shown nothing. I have been shown nothing.

So I want to talk to the people who are responsible

for determining how and if these animals get free.

And I want to find out where the hell the data is.

All roads seem to lead to the government's own centre.

They should know what's going on.

CAR HORNS BEEP

Hello? Hello?

Tony Sumampau is the scientist in charge.

Hello.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-Nice to see you.

-How are you?

Good.

It looks from the films that all of them had GPS collars.

That's true, yeah.

But nobody can show me any data.

The person who hold the data is all gone now.

So somebody took the data away?

They don't know where they are putting the data.

But we still keep some of the data, if you want to have a look,

-I can show it to you.

-I would like to see that.

This is our data centre.

Oh, very nice. This is the data centre.

Alan is eager to examine any data to discover

what he can about the tigers' movements after their release.

How far do they roam? Where do they go?

Have they settled near the villages?

This is the release site.

Now, over what time period is that?

Because that doesn't look like six months of data.

The one thing the data reveals is that the released tigers

spent a lot of time close to the village.

Ah, this second release...

At the start of the project, villagers' livestock went missing.

But that soon stopped. The data reveals why.

After a few weeks, the tigers roamed further afield,

and probably caught their own prey.

Tomy hopes the tigers released on his land

will move away into the neighbouring national park and beyond,

along green corridors, to the north.

-But do you think there could be connections all the way from Aceh?

-Yes.

Do you think tigers could make their way all the way through?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

The Northern Province of Aceh

still contains relatively untouched wilderness.

So tigers should be safer here.

But poachers catching animals for food or the black market

lay traps that snare indiscriminately.

Amateur footage records a tigress caught in a deer trap.

She struggles against the wire noose for three days.

Unable to free herself, eat or drink.

Eventually, she dies a slow and painful death.

To protect Tomy's tigers,

remote guard posts line the border of his land.

The guards need regular deliveries of vital supplies.

They are the front line

in defending Tomy's conservation efforts across the reserve.

The red packages contain food, and money, for the guards.

RADIO COMMUNICATION

The national park that borders Tomy's estate

is where Tomy hopes his tigers will migrate.

It should offer plenty of prey and territory for its new arrivals,

but illegal logging in the park is taking an unexpected toll.

This is the border?

The difference explains why Tomy protects his assets

with an iron fist.

Oh!

So is there mining going on in there now?

THEY LAUGH

That's right!

Boy! You must be under a lot of pressure to open that up.

Really?

THEY LAUGH

Tomy is definitely charismatic,

and I like him a lot, so far. I like him personally.

He and I, I don't know if this is good or not,

he and I seem to have very similar character traits in many ways.

How much money have you spent in this area?

Over 20 million.

-More than 20 million US dollars.

-Yes.

That's quite impressive.

If you calculate with my time and my people's time, you times three.

That isn't even including your time!

TOMY LAUGHS

That's...

That's not an outrageous amount of money.

To me, that's not an unreasonable sum.

If you were to say that globally,

in order to really bring back tigers well,

that we need somewhere in the area of 30 to 50 million per year

to save the tiger as a species.

Is that an unreasonable figure?

I don't think so.

Not if we really care about what we say with the tiger.

We just... Governments and people and organisations have not been

putting their money where their mouth is, that's the problem.

-There's no protection.

-Yes!

-That's why everything is dying.

This activity, now we do, is how to protect.

Tomy's reserve is better protected from logging

and poaching than some areas inside the neighbouring national park.

It's crazy how so many rumours, about why the...

I don't understand why the people...

You have also heard the rumours?

Yeah! As soon as people found out I was coming here,

they started telling me rumours.

Very easy, very easy.

Like Salma, Tomy's scheme may not be as dangerous

as its critics make out.

Alan's findings - the safe area, the rich prey,

the lack of incidents - may all help her return to the wild again.

SALMA GROWLS

And there's news of the released female Alan's identified - Panti.

She's seen with a wound to her paw.

A wounded tiger is a dangerous tiger.

Tomy's team take her back into captivity to let her paw heal.

Their reward is unexpected. She gives birth to a litter of cubs.

CUBS GROWL SOFTLY

This, more than any other evidence, proves,

as long as they are in protected areas,

tigers previously caught up in conflict can be released

without problems, and breed.

Panti's cubs are doing well,

and soon they and their mother will be released again.

Then they will be free to roam the forests made safe from humans,

made safe by Tomy.

So clearly, something nice is happening in Tambling.

And Tomy is trying to do the right thing,

and I think he actually has done the right thing,

whether by serendipity or by design. I think it's a mixture of both.

People can say a lot of things about Tomy, but clearly he's

taken his little piece of real estate in this large landscape,

and he has gone a long way to addressing the number one problem

in tiger conservation, and that's humans,

and that's people living in a place, degrading habitat,

and killing the tigers, and killing prey.

Now, many, many scientists say,

"Wait a second, these people know nothing about science,

"there's probably another agenda."

Well, I think that often, there's always another agenda,

even with scientists.

But with some of these businesspeople,

they're people who have a hobby, who love nature, like Tomy.

They want to do, do something right, want to do something nice.

MUSIC: "Care 4 U" by Example

# You can blame me, try to shame me

# And still I'll care for you

# The world may think I'm foolish

# They can't see you

# Like I can

# Oh, but anyone

# Who knows what love is

# Will understand. #

There is still so much wild land,

still so much wilderness on that huge island,

that it appears that the Sumatran tiger could have a really good shot.

Seeing what's possible, seeing the numbers of tigers,

females with cubs, in this tiny little place,

seeing what's possible there

gives me a lot of hope on the rest of Sumatra.

I think the Sumatran tiger probably has a better shot

than most other races of tigers in the world.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd