WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:04.120 Welcome. This is Marcia for RADIOI. Today I will be 2 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:10.080 reading National Geographic Magazine dated October twenty twenty five, which 3 00:00:10.119 --> 00:00:13.880 is donated by the publisher as a reminder. RADIOI is 4 00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:16.839 a reading service intended for people who are blind or 5 00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:20.239 have other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material. 6 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:24.199 Please join me now for the first article titled The 7 00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:28.839 Curious Case of the Tigers who Change their Stripes by 8 00:00:30.199 --> 00:00:36.640 prosanjit Ya Dove. A century ago, India's tigers or on 9 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:40.560 the brink of extinction. Slowly their numbers have rebounded, but 10 00:00:40.799 --> 00:00:44.439 that ecological success has prompted a dire new problem and 11 00:00:44.520 --> 00:00:47.640 a race to save many of them from genetic collapse. 12 00:00:48.759 --> 00:00:52.600 It took fifty days of searching before the jungle revealed 13 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:55.799 its biggest secret to us. Fifty days of jostling along 14 00:00:55.960 --> 00:01:01.479 gravel roads in the Similipal Tiger Reserve in India's eastern 15 00:01:01.560 --> 00:01:06.719 state of Odisha, scanning between trees in the semi evergreen forest, 16 00:01:07.079 --> 00:01:10.560 hoping for a glimpse of an evolusive tiger called T twelve, 17 00:01:11.079 --> 00:01:13.519 whose striking appearance has made him a symbol of a 18 00:01:13.560 --> 00:01:17.799 population at a perilous cross roads. My partner in the quest. 19 00:01:18.200 --> 00:01:22.480 Ragu Porti, a staffer with the regional forest department, had 20 00:01:22.519 --> 00:01:25.480 never set eyes on TA twelve. Most of his colleagues 21 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:28.480 had only ever seen the tiger in images from camera 22 00:01:28.599 --> 00:01:32.280 traps set up to study animal movements throughout the reserve. 23 00:01:32.799 --> 00:01:37.519 But actually laying eyes on Simla Pal's tigers lets forest 24 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:41.200 officials look for physical ailments that cameras may not capture, 25 00:01:41.599 --> 00:01:44.640 and also provides a reminder that there's a living, breathing 26 00:01:44.680 --> 00:01:47.840 purpose to the countless hours they spend patrolling in the 27 00:01:47.879 --> 00:01:52.760 sweltering heat. A documented sighting of T twelve would be 28 00:01:52.799 --> 00:01:56.680 particularly valuable since the reclusive ten year old tiger, the 29 00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:01.280 eldest male in Similipal, was right then at the heart 30 00:02:01.319 --> 00:02:05.280 of a plan to ensure the survival of future generations. 31 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:08.319 It was late in the afternoon of day fifty when 32 00:02:08.439 --> 00:02:10.879 in the blink of an eye, a dark shape dashed 33 00:02:10.919 --> 00:02:13.479 out in front of our pickup truck. I slammed on 34 00:02:13.520 --> 00:02:16.400 the brakes ahead of us. Spanning the width of the road, 35 00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:20.840 an enormous tiger stared back at Ragu and me. It 36 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:23.719 was an older male, clear from its size, and it 37 00:02:23.800 --> 00:02:27.039 had exactly the strange distinctive coat we'd been looking for 38 00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:31.919 it's black, Ragu said, in an insistent whisper. He pointed 39 00:02:31.960 --> 00:02:36.360 excitedly and repeated himself, it's black. The tiger T twelve 40 00:02:36.759 --> 00:02:40.159 had dark fur that draped over him like a ragged cloak. 41 00:02:40.639 --> 00:02:43.680 Slivers of orange peeked through along his body, with thicker 42 00:02:43.719 --> 00:02:47.840 patches appearing on his face and front legs. This uncanny 43 00:02:47.919 --> 00:02:51.479 widening of a tiger's black stripes, a rare genetic mutation 44 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:56.960 known as pseudo melanism, is shared among roughly half the 45 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:00.840 thirty or so tigers that roam the Similipal reserve and 46 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:05.199 its an indicator of a conservation's success story. Facing a 47 00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:09.879 potentially catastrophic complication because while the number of tigers in 48 00:03:09.960 --> 00:03:13.319 Similopol is more robust than it has been in decades, 49 00:03:13.759 --> 00:03:17.960 the reserve is geographically isolated from other tiger populations, a 50 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:22.159 tiger island, so to speak, with a dangerously dwindling gene pool. 51 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:26.000 But during the weeks that Ragu and I scoured the 52 00:03:26.039 --> 00:03:29.080 area for Tea twelve, work was under way elsewhere to 53 00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:31.879 find him a suitable mate. It was a crucial step 54 00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:35.719 in a targeted breeding program years in development, a mission 55 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:40.560 shared between conservation agents and a team of groundbreaking molecular 56 00:03:40.639 --> 00:03:45.240 ecologists and genetic experts, all working to save the tigers 57 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:51.120 of Similopol from inbreeding themselves out of existence. In many ways, 58 00:03:51.240 --> 00:03:54.240 India's tigers have faced the same challenges as big cats 59 00:03:54.599 --> 00:03:57.919 throughout the world have hunted to near extinction by trophy 60 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:04.000 hunters amid relentless habit destruction and fragmentation. In the nineteen seventies, 61 00:04:04.039 --> 00:04:08.159 alarm over the iconic species decline prompted the establishment of 62 00:04:08.159 --> 00:04:12.199 a state run reserve system, but the reserves lacked coordinated 63 00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:16.160 monitoring and enforcement until two thousand and five, when India 64 00:04:16.279 --> 00:04:22.399 created a dedicated central agency, the National Tiger Conservation Authority NTCA, 65 00:04:23.079 --> 00:04:28.439 which today hires and trains rangers, manages scientific oversight, and 66 00:04:28.519 --> 00:04:33.639 guides habitat preservation across fifty eight reserves. A key concept 67 00:04:33.759 --> 00:04:37.319 underlying the reserve system is that tigers are typically able 68 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:41.560 to travel between protected areas using what are known as 69 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:46.680 natural corridors patches of connecting forests and other prey abundant lands. 70 00:04:47.399 --> 00:04:50.000 There are a number of benefits to these corridors, but 71 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:53.720 the most important is that they encourage breeding among neighboring 72 00:04:53.839 --> 00:04:59.839 tiger populations, improving genetic diversity. Similopol, at a little o 73 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:02.600 over one thousand square miles, is one of India's largest 74 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:07.160 reserves and its closest neighboring ones. Set Kosia to the 75 00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:12.560 southwest and Sundarban to the east, are both more than 76 00:05:12.600 --> 00:05:14.759 one hundred miles away, which isn't too far for a 77 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:18.600 tiger to walk, but there are no tigers left in 78 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:25.639 sat Kosia and no adequate corridor connects Similipal and Sundarban. 79 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:30.839 The land between them is mostly urban or agricultural Kolkata 80 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:34.319 its suburbs and a vast area of rice fields with 81 00:05:34.519 --> 00:05:37.319 very little forest cover, which is where tigers prefer to 82 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:42.040 stay hidden. Dozens of towns and villages separate Similipal from 83 00:05:42.040 --> 00:05:46.279 its two neighboring reserves. As well. For tigers, there is 84 00:05:46.399 --> 00:05:50.399 just no easy way in or out of Similipol. When 85 00:05:50.560 --> 00:05:55.000 the NTCA surveyed wild tigers across India in two thousand 86 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:59.240 and six, Natalia was roughly fourteen hundred animals, down from 87 00:05:59.319 --> 00:06:03.680 an estimated forty thousand a century before. In Similopol, the 88 00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:07.600 population bottomed out at just four tigers in twenty fourteen, 89 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:11.199 only one of them mail, but in twenty fifteen a 90 00:06:11.279 --> 00:06:14.560 year or so before he died, the male fathered T 91 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:19.160 twelve with his strange, predominantly black coat, and T twelve 92 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:24.199 has since fathered male cubs of his own. India's tiger 93 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:27.279 population has begun to rebound over the past twenty years, 94 00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:30.560 thanks in large part to the conservation work of the 95 00:06:30.720 --> 00:06:35.480 NTCA and forest officials. As of a twenty twenty two estimate, 96 00:06:35.560 --> 00:06:39.800 the country is home to more than thirty one hundred tigers, 97 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:43.759 and as Similipoul's population climbed slowly but steadily over the 98 00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:47.519 past decade, the growing number of tigers at first seemed 99 00:06:47.560 --> 00:06:51.560 like a microcosm of the national success story. Soon though, 100 00:06:51.560 --> 00:06:54.879 the reserve's managers began noticing more and more young tigers 101 00:06:55.160 --> 00:06:58.560 sporting the same dark coat as T twelve. The mutation, 102 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:01.680 as far as both foresters and genetic scientists can tell, 103 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:06.160 is harmless, merely a cosmetic oddity caused by a random 104 00:07:06.199 --> 00:07:10.319 and naturally occurring quirk of DNA, but experts say it 105 00:07:10.360 --> 00:07:13.920 is also a tangible manifestation of a very real problem. 106 00:07:14.319 --> 00:07:17.600 If this mutation was able to pass so quickly through 107 00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:22.160 Similopaul's population, with all the tigers sharing very similar genetic 108 00:07:22.199 --> 00:07:27.160 makeup due to rampant inbreeding. Then so too could more 109 00:07:27.199 --> 00:07:31.600 serious abnormalities. Now, the task facing some of the some 110 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:36.160 of India's foremost tiger authorities has shifted from recovering tiger 111 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:39.639 numbers to breaking this cycle of inbreeding before it's too late. 112 00:07:40.759 --> 00:07:44.480 Playing genetic matchmaker for tigers is tricky. In order to 113 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:47.839 find the ideal breeding partners for T twelve in his offspring, 114 00:07:48.279 --> 00:07:51.800 the would be saviors of Simili Paul needed to understand 115 00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:55.759 the differences among not only the tigers that roam today, 116 00:07:55.759 --> 00:07:59.160 but also the tigers of the past. That's what led 117 00:07:59.240 --> 00:08:04.240 molecular collegist Uma Rama Krishnan not long ago into a 118 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:09.040 dimly lit trophy room in a grand home in Akhaltara, 119 00:08:09.480 --> 00:08:14.399 a small town in central India. Rama Krishnan, a National 120 00:08:14.399 --> 00:08:18.680 geographic explorer in the head of a lab at Bengaluru's 121 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:24.480 Bangalore National Center for Biological Sciences, was invited there by 122 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:30.560 an Anupam Singh Sisodia, whose family had since held the 123 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:34.440 role of chieftains across fifty one villages and the surrounding 124 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:39.159 forests and farmland, responsible for protecting the locals from dangerous wildlife. 125 00:08:39.639 --> 00:08:42.159 His family had done its share of hunting, and the 126 00:08:42.240 --> 00:08:45.360 room was full of mounted black bucks, sloth bears, and 127 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:49.480 four horned antelope collected between nineteen twenty and nineteen seventy. 128 00:08:50.039 --> 00:08:54.039 But laid out on a table before Rama Krishnan was 129 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:57.440 a set of tiger pelts, their massive heads intact and 130 00:08:57.480 --> 00:09:04.039 seemingly snarling. Killing problematic tigers Sisodia acknowledged was more of 131 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:08.000 a political necessity than a pleasure. Since two thousand and five, 132 00:09:08.440 --> 00:09:11.759 Rama Krishnan and her fellow researchers and students at the 133 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:15.279 lab have been collecting samples of tiger DNA in order 134 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:18.919 to build an extensive genetic map of the diversity among 135 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:23.200 India's tigers. She secured roughly two hundred and fifty specimens 136 00:09:23.480 --> 00:09:28.919 from historic estates like the Sisodias. She has plumed taxidermy 137 00:09:28.919 --> 00:09:32.480 collections at sites like the National History Museum in London, 138 00:09:32.919 --> 00:09:36.639 and ventured into Indian jungles to procure scat, blood, hair 139 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:42.759 and saliva from live tigers. All that evidence has given 140 00:09:42.840 --> 00:09:45.639 her critical insight into how the animals have changed over 141 00:09:45.720 --> 00:09:50.080 generations as they moved throughout the region. Closely inspecting one 142 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:53.600 of her tiger heads, Rama Krishnan slid her scalpel into 143 00:09:53.639 --> 00:09:57.480 the eighty something year old pelt. Practiced and precise. She 144 00:09:57.600 --> 00:10:01.240 sliced off a small piece the sample into a vial 145 00:10:01.320 --> 00:10:03.879 and held it up. This is the real treasure, she said. 146 00:10:04.559 --> 00:10:09.000 When Ramakrishnan first began building her DNA database, her goal 147 00:10:09.159 --> 00:10:12.279 was to answer questions about tigers that couldn't be answered 148 00:10:12.279 --> 00:10:16.399 by observing them in the field. As their population was decimated. 149 00:10:16.679 --> 00:10:21.000 Tiger's loss not only territory, but also substantial genetic diversity. 150 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:26.440 Historic historical DNA offered important clues about what else might 151 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:30.960 exist within the gene pool. Her research became ever more 152 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:35.080 relevant in twenty seventeen when the antca alarmed by the 153 00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:39.399 dark coated tigers in Similopaul, asked her to formally study 154 00:10:39.480 --> 00:10:43.559 the reserve's tigers. The forest officials clearly saw that the 155 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:48.159 impacts of the reserve's isolation were becoming measurable. They hoped 156 00:10:48.320 --> 00:10:52.360 Ramakrishnan could both verify the genetic culprit and help them 157 00:10:52.559 --> 00:10:56.279 find a solution. Once she took a closer look at 158 00:10:56.320 --> 00:11:01.320 the animals sequestered within the reserve, Ramakrishnan quickly realized that 159 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:05.600 the recessive pseudo melanism gene was spreading through the population. 160 00:11:06.120 --> 00:11:09.080 The genetic isolation on display, she said, was a ticking 161 00:11:09.159 --> 00:11:12.919 time bomb. Left unaddressed, it could prove devastating to the 162 00:11:12.960 --> 00:11:17.440 reserve's tigers. It's impossible to know precisely what other maladies 163 00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:22.879 genetic mutations among big cats might introduce, But when Rama 164 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:26.960 Krishnan and her colleagues analyzed a genetic mutation data set 165 00:11:27.320 --> 00:11:31.679 for the closest available comparison domestic cats, they found that 166 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:36.000 these not so distant cousins faced issues like retinal atrophy, 167 00:11:36.200 --> 00:11:41.440 kidney disease, and hyperthyroidism, and with female tigers averaging litters 168 00:11:41.480 --> 00:11:44.200 of two to three cubs every two to three years, 169 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:48.360 health issues can quickly and dramatically compound. We're still trying 170 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:51.039 to understand the full impact of this inbreeding, she says. 171 00:11:51.440 --> 00:11:54.360 But when thing's for sure, there's no upside to this 172 00:11:54.440 --> 00:11:59.000 kind of genetic erosion. Given Similopaul's lack of connection to 173 00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:04.679 other reserves, Rama Krishnan's recommendation was that wildlife managers identify 174 00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:08.440 a few tigers from a separate reserve and translocate them. 175 00:12:08.799 --> 00:12:12.960 Once in Similipol, the tigrises the forest managers elected to 176 00:12:13.080 --> 00:12:17.720 move females would hopefully reproduce with T twelve or with 177 00:12:17.799 --> 00:12:21.440 his male offspring, which have begun to claim pieces of 178 00:12:21.480 --> 00:12:24.600 T twelve's territory as they mature and have cubs of 179 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:28.879 their own. This Rama Krishnan said would begin the overdue 180 00:12:28.919 --> 00:12:34.120 effort to diversify the reserve's genetic pool. By comparing Similipol 181 00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:37.759 tiger DNA to the array of records in her data set, 182 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:40.840 she found that the most genetically diverse tigers with the 183 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:44.559 lowest chance of more negative genes showing up in any 184 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:49.960 future offspring, were located in a reserve called Todoba Anddari 185 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:54.320 in the dense Tik forests of the district of Chandrapur, 186 00:12:54.879 --> 00:12:59.840 halfway across India. Of course, Ramakrishnan knew that identifying their 187 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:03.679 right reserve is one thing. Actually moving a three hundred 188 00:13:03.679 --> 00:13:07.679 pound wild animal hundreds of miles across the country is another. 189 00:13:08.440 --> 00:13:15.600 One morning last fall, Ravikante Cobro Cobragade stood up from 190 00:13:15.639 --> 00:13:17.639 his spot in the open air back seat of a 191 00:13:17.679 --> 00:13:23.919 two door Maruti Gipsy and looked out onto the Chandrapur landscape. 192 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:27.480 The wildlife veterinarian turned his attention to his a shooter, 193 00:13:28.120 --> 00:13:32.399 A J. Marathe, who was cradling a tranquilizer gun and 194 00:13:32.480 --> 00:13:35.399 gestured to a young tigris just up ahead. I can 195 00:13:35.480 --> 00:13:37.879 see her. She is sitting in that bush ahead, looking 196 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:43.759 at us, Cobragade said. The tigris, later named Jumuna, was 197 00:13:43.799 --> 00:13:46.240 twenty eight months old and had spent all her life 198 00:13:46.360 --> 00:13:50.600 in or near the Tadoba Reserve. Her youth meant she 199 00:13:50.679 --> 00:13:54.080 hadn't yet established territory there, and crucially, she had no 200 00:13:54.200 --> 00:13:57.240 history of conflict with humans. Both of these things made 201 00:13:57.240 --> 00:14:03.879 her a prime translocation candidate. Translocation work, particularly for animals 202 00:14:03.879 --> 00:14:07.559 as large and territorial as tigers, is highly sensitive under 203 00:14:07.600 --> 00:14:12.200 any circumstances, and in India's tiger reserves it requires a 204 00:14:12.279 --> 00:14:16.639 large number of verifications and approvals before it can proceed. 205 00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:20.720 High on the list of consideration is whether an area 206 00:14:20.759 --> 00:14:24.879 identified as having candidates has a population healthy enough to 207 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:29.120 withstand losing breeding age females. In Tadoba, this is not 208 00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:32.600 a concern. Although the reserve is two thirds the size 209 00:14:32.679 --> 00:14:36.240 of Similipal, it is home to roughly ninety five tigers, 210 00:14:36.600 --> 00:14:42.679 and it is no tiger island. Natural corridors connect to 211 00:14:42.799 --> 00:14:49.200 Doba to the umrad Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary around forty miles 212 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:54.960 to the north, the Nawagioan Nagzira River Reserve seventy miles 213 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:58.919 to the northeast, and the Kawal Tiger Reserve seventy miles 214 00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:03.120 to the southwest. Tadoba's tigers regularly venture out in search 215 00:15:03.159 --> 00:15:06.159 of more forested space, and as their numbers have swelled 216 00:15:06.159 --> 00:15:09.080 over the past decade, all their movement has meant that 217 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:12.799 tigers and people in the surrounding mosaic of forests, villages 218 00:15:12.799 --> 00:15:15.120 and farm lands have had to learn how to live 219 00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:19.120 alongside one another. Again, most important for Tea twelve and 220 00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:22.600 his kin, the network of connected reserves has allowed for 221 00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:28.000 a constant exchange of tiger jeans. Jamuna would be the 222 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:32.000 first of two Tadoba tigers translocated to Similipal in a 223 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:35.240 matter of weeks, with others to potentially follow in the 224 00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:38.840 coming months and years if the experiment went well. But 225 00:15:38.960 --> 00:15:41.960 first she needed to be sedated. Is the dark ready, Sir, 226 00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:45.960 asked Marath. Maratha. The tigris rose from her spot in 227 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:48.799 the bush and marched closer to their vehicle. When she 228 00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:52.120 was around five yards away, Maratha calmly removed the safety 229 00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:55.000 key from his dart gun, brought the scope to his 230 00:15:55.080 --> 00:15:58.159 eye and took the shot. The pink tailed projectile land 231 00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:02.440 landed in Jamuna his thigh, prompting a lar loud growl 232 00:16:02.519 --> 00:16:06.320 that aqued across the landscape. As she bounded away, She 233 00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:09.480 made it about two hundred yards before the tranquilizer took 234 00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:12.600 its toll. The team found her laid out in a meadow. 235 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:16.759 It took seven men to carefully slide Jamuna onto a 236 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:21.519 stretcher and move her into the shade. Cobragade checked her 237 00:16:21.559 --> 00:16:24.360 for injuries and drew a blood sample. After he fixed 238 00:16:24.399 --> 00:16:27.399 a GPS collar around her neck, the team moved her 239 00:16:27.480 --> 00:16:30.639 into a metal cage aboard a truck. Once safely inside, 240 00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:34.200 Jemuna was given a revival drug. Within minutes, the men 241 00:16:34.240 --> 00:16:37.519 heard rustling and banging the sound of her nails scratching 242 00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:41.320 against metal, followed by a roar. The road trip to 243 00:16:41.360 --> 00:16:45.080 deliver Jamuna to Similipol took twenty eight hours. The truck 244 00:16:45.159 --> 00:16:48.120 was joined by a small convoy of support staff. The 245 00:16:48.200 --> 00:16:51.480 route had been carefully mapped to circumvent major cities and 246 00:16:51.559 --> 00:16:56.240 other areas where loud noises could cause Jimuna distress. Every 247 00:16:56.240 --> 00:16:58.559 few hours, the vehicles pulled over for a while to 248 00:16:58.639 --> 00:17:02.000 allow her to rest. Finally, the door opened and Jemunah 249 00:17:02.120 --> 00:17:05.359 leaped through the gate leading into her new home, a 250 00:17:05.400 --> 00:17:08.519 two and a half acre enclosure in Similopol, where she 251 00:17:08.599 --> 00:17:13.359 spent almost two weeks acclimating. After that, the gate opened 252 00:17:13.400 --> 00:17:16.079 once more, this time with no cage on the other side, 253 00:17:16.440 --> 00:17:18.799 she was set free into the territory of t twelve. 254 00:17:19.640 --> 00:17:23.240 When it comes to restoring diversity among India's wild tigers, 255 00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:28.440 one critical step remained solely under nature's control. Mating and 256 00:17:28.519 --> 00:17:32.880 tigers engage in selective courtships before they breed, so in November, 257 00:17:32.960 --> 00:17:35.799 less than a month after Jamuna was released into the reserve, 258 00:17:36.200 --> 00:17:40.640 a second female tiger from Tadoba called zee Nott, was 259 00:17:40.680 --> 00:17:45.079 sedated and transferred to an enclosure in Similopol. Whereas Jamuna 260 00:17:45.160 --> 00:17:49.079 settled into the Similopol landscape with relative ease, the stress 261 00:17:49.119 --> 00:17:51.799 of the relocation took a greater toll on ze Noot, 262 00:17:52.279 --> 00:17:56.279 and she quickly wandered beyond the reserve's borders. The forest Department, 263 00:17:56.359 --> 00:17:59.279 not wanting her to stray too far, sent a team 264 00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:01.880 out a tranquil her and bring her back to spend 265 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:05.359 several more weeks in an enclosure to acclimate before she 266 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:10.559 was released into T twelve's territory. Both she and Jamunah 267 00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:14.000 wore GPS collars so that forest officials could track their 268 00:18:14.039 --> 00:18:18.000 movement and behavior. Knowing where the tigers were, forest officers 269 00:18:18.039 --> 00:18:21.400 on the ground used night vision cameras to observe them 270 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:24.319 from a safe distance. They kept a close eye on 271 00:18:24.359 --> 00:18:27.119 the pair to see whether either of them would cross 272 00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:30.839 paths with T twelve or other males, but the observers 273 00:18:30.880 --> 00:18:35.359 only saw Jemuna and zeenat alone. Tiger courtship, by contrast, 274 00:18:35.480 --> 00:18:39.039 is conspicuous. A pair of mating tigers might spend weeks 275 00:18:39.079 --> 00:18:42.880 together walking through the forest and vocalizing. Yet, as the 276 00:18:42.920 --> 00:18:48.119 tigres's established territory in Similapal, forest officials never saw any 277 00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:50.880 evidence that they so much as had contact with T 278 00:18:50.880 --> 00:18:54.839 twelve until one night in May. Reviewing the feed from 279 00:18:54.839 --> 00:18:58.640 a mounted camera that takes thermal and visual images, the 280 00:18:58.680 --> 00:19:02.359 forest department captured footage of Xenot with T twelve. It 281 00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:07.119 was unmistakable evidence their mating ritual had begun. The courtship, 282 00:19:07.240 --> 00:19:11.079 citing signaled that the genetic rescue mission, if not yet 283 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:15.279 an outright success holds promise. Meanwhile, this summer, as the 284 00:19:15.319 --> 00:19:19.920 teams behind the translocation awaited Xenot's first litter of cubs, 285 00:19:20.200 --> 00:19:24.240 the work continued. Rama Krishnan and her students collected more 286 00:19:24.279 --> 00:19:28.759 hair and scat samples left behind by Similo Paul tigers 287 00:19:28.799 --> 00:19:33.200 to better understand the genetic variation within the population. Officials 288 00:19:33.240 --> 00:19:36.480 are hopeful that Jamuna will eventually find a mate, and 289 00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:39.720 everyone working in Simila Paul is eager to see whether 290 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:44.319 Xenot's cubs are born with T twelve's pseudo melanism. It's 291 00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:47.839 not yet decided whether or when the reserve will receive 292 00:19:47.960 --> 00:19:51.920 more translocated tigresses, or how many more might be needed 293 00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:56.960 to introduce sufficient genetic variability, but until a quarter links 294 00:19:56.960 --> 00:20:02.279 Similo Paul to other populated tiger reserves, more translocations could 295 00:20:02.519 --> 00:20:07.880 be the only viable option looking ahead, Similipaul Field director 296 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:14.000 Prakash Chand Gogginini said his personal hope is that Samilopaul's 297 00:20:14.039 --> 00:20:17.599 tigers can become a source population that helps return the 298 00:20:17.640 --> 00:20:21.920 species to places like the near Pye sat Kosia Reserve. 299 00:20:22.440 --> 00:20:26.240 That might happen with the help of a translocated Similopaul tigris, 300 00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:30.880 or perhaps via new quarters, even if the latter are 301 00:20:30.920 --> 00:20:35.759 still likely decades away. Witnessing all of this firsthand, seeing 302 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:39.119 the pitfalls that India's tigers face as they begin to 303 00:20:39.160 --> 00:20:43.160 make their comeback returns me to certain moments from my childhood. 304 00:20:43.559 --> 00:20:46.359 I grew up on a farm not far from Chandrapur, 305 00:20:46.519 --> 00:20:49.680 where my life revolved around animals and jungles. For better 306 00:20:49.799 --> 00:20:53.200 or for worse. Naming pet dogs was painful as leopards 307 00:20:53.200 --> 00:20:56.119 regularly took them away, and every now and then we 308 00:20:56.160 --> 00:20:59.519 would encounter a pug mark similar to a leopard's, but 309 00:20:59.640 --> 00:21:03.119 much better. The air would fill with fear and excitement 310 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:06.240 at the realization we were sharing space with the true 311 00:21:06.319 --> 00:21:11.119 apex predator. The experience of living alongside something that powerful 312 00:21:11.119 --> 00:21:14.240 and elusive shaped how I saw the forest and my 313 00:21:14.400 --> 00:21:17.200 place within it. I never came across a tiger at 314 00:21:17.240 --> 00:21:20.039 our farm, but I often dreamed of it. In the 315 00:21:20.119 --> 00:21:23.720 years since, I have seen, studied, and photographed countless tigers, 316 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:26.000 but none of them looked like what I saw that 317 00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:29.160 day in Similopaul. While sitting in the idling truck with 318 00:21:29.319 --> 00:21:33.359 Ragu locked in a momentary steering contest with t twelve 319 00:21:33.880 --> 00:21:36.759 I didn't reach for my camera, I didn't move. There 320 00:21:36.759 --> 00:21:40.279 stood a black tiger, a testament to human's best intentions 321 00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:44.400 gone wrong. In the best case scenario. For Samilopaul, this 322 00:21:44.559 --> 00:21:47.720 will someday be a rare and unforgettable creature, one that 323 00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:52.200 inspired a new discipline for safeguarding the species. In that moment, 324 00:21:52.359 --> 00:21:54.680 for four seconds in the roadway, it felt like a 325 00:21:54.720 --> 00:21:58.200 miracle of nature. Then, without a roar or a snarl, 326 00:21:58.559 --> 00:22:02.160 T twelve took a few powerful strides and vanished into 327 00:22:02.200 --> 00:22:07.319 the thick evergreen forest, bringing tigers together. After being decimated 328 00:22:07.319 --> 00:22:11.279 by hunting and habitat destruction, India's tiger population has begun 329 00:22:11.319 --> 00:22:15.279 to recover in protected reserves, but in less connected areas 330 00:22:15.319 --> 00:22:19.799 like Similopol, sometimes called tiger islands. In Breeding has become 331 00:22:19.880 --> 00:22:24.880 an issue for reserves like Tadoba and Dari. Interconnected habitats 332 00:22:24.920 --> 00:22:28.799 and wildlife corridors help diversify the population and may offer 333 00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:33.519 a solution for tiger islands. Landscape of the tiger forests 334 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:36.720 provide spaces for tigers to rest and breed along with 335 00:22:36.759 --> 00:22:42.720 ample prey. Although agricultural lands interrupt forest cover, tigers can 336 00:22:42.759 --> 00:22:46.240 move across them between reserves, but highway and urban areas 337 00:22:46.519 --> 00:22:52.039 remain difficult barriers the benefits of linked reserves. In reserves 338 00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:56.440 with good connectivity, like Toadoba, tigers roame hundreds of miles 339 00:22:56.759 --> 00:23:01.720 along corridors to find mates among neighboring populations the pitfalls 340 00:23:01.720 --> 00:23:05.440 of a Tiger Island. Tigers and reserves with no populations 341 00:23:05.480 --> 00:23:09.200 to mix with have limited mating options. In Similopaul, this 342 00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:12.039 has led to the rapid increase of a coat color 343 00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:17.480 mutation the power of moving tigers. Given Similopaul's isolation from 344 00:23:17.559 --> 00:23:21.759 linked reserves, forest officials have begun to translocate tigers four 345 00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:25.279 hundred and fifty miles from Totoba to the Tiger Island 346 00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:31.440 in eastern India. Next. Can We Save the orbiting Treasures 347 00:23:31.480 --> 00:23:35.799 of the Space Race? By Brian Kevin. As human made 348 00:23:35.839 --> 00:23:40.400 objects proliferate proliferate in space, a coalition of scientists and 349 00:23:40.519 --> 00:23:44.519 historians have floated retrieving some of the most important In 350 00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:50.400 one view. Vanguard I is space junk, an antennaied aluminum 351 00:23:50.400 --> 00:23:54.279 ball that Soviet leader, the Kita Khrushchev dismissively compared to 352 00:23:54.319 --> 00:23:57.640 a grapefruit. The United States launched it in March nineteen 353 00:23:57.680 --> 00:24:01.079 fifty eight and the satellite returned radio signals until May 354 00:24:01.200 --> 00:24:05.640 nineteen sixty four. Defunct since it's the oldest human made 355 00:24:05.680 --> 00:24:09.799 object in orbit, but to space historian Matt Bill that 356 00:24:09.960 --> 00:24:12.440 grapefruit is one of the most precious objects of the 357 00:24:12.480 --> 00:24:15.640 early space age, deserving of a place in the Smithsonian 358 00:24:16.160 --> 00:24:19.519 and scientists he says, could glean much from it about 359 00:24:19.640 --> 00:24:23.079 long term exposure to space. Billy, along with a few 360 00:24:23.480 --> 00:24:26.559 like minded engineers and historians, made this case at a 361 00:24:26.599 --> 00:24:31.200 recent conference of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 362 00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:35.359 presenting detailed plans for a hypothetical mission to de orbit 363 00:24:35.880 --> 00:24:39.839 Vanguard one and bring it home. The idea has turned heads, 364 00:24:40.119 --> 00:24:43.480 not least for challenging a preference for n C two 365 00:24:43.559 --> 00:24:48.759 preservation that's increasingly enshrined in heritage fields, including the burgeoning 366 00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:52.880 discipline of space archaeology. Old satellites need to be left 367 00:24:52.920 --> 00:24:55.680 where they are, says Alice Gorman, who sits on the 368 00:24:55.680 --> 00:25:01.000 International Council on Monuments and Sites Aerospace Committee. They're safer 369 00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:03.640 in orbit, she says, where they belong to no one 370 00:25:03.759 --> 00:25:07.200 nation and can be studied via photography and other remote 371 00:25:07.480 --> 00:25:11.759 sensing methods. But space is getting crowded. Bill notes more 372 00:25:11.799 --> 00:25:15.400 than fourteen thousand satellites orbit the Earth, to say nothing 373 00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:18.680 of debris. He and his co authors frame their technical 374 00:25:18.720 --> 00:25:23.000 paper as a thought experiment, should we ever consider nabbing 375 00:25:23.160 --> 00:25:28.480 historically significant satellites which might merit consideration. They offer eleven 376 00:25:28.519 --> 00:25:32.240 more candidates, each a national first or a pioneering mission, 377 00:25:32.559 --> 00:25:36.960 and all conceivably retrievable. Billis says, if one dreams big. 378 00:25:38.079 --> 00:25:42.920 Vanguard on US launched on March seventeenth, nineteen fifty eight, 379 00:25:43.400 --> 00:25:47.200 low Earth orbit, the second U S satellite in orbit. 380 00:25:47.480 --> 00:25:50.839 The first Explorer one burned up upon re entry in 381 00:25:50.920 --> 00:25:55.079 nineteen seventy. Its most distinguished contribution was to confirm, via 382 00:25:55.279 --> 00:25:59.319 variations in its orbit, that Earth was less round than supposed. 383 00:25:59.480 --> 00:26:07.200 Bulging around the equator Luna ie USSR January two, nineteen 384 00:26:07.240 --> 00:26:11.640 fifty nine, solar orbit, a yoga ball to Vanguard's one 385 00:26:11.759 --> 00:26:17.640 grapefruit and the first spacecraft to escape Earth's gravity. The 386 00:26:17.720 --> 00:26:20.279 Soviets aimed for the Moon and missed by some thirty 387 00:26:20.279 --> 00:26:24.200 seven hundred miles. Luna one became instead the first spacecraft 388 00:26:24.200 --> 00:26:28.839 to settle into orbit around the Sun. Pioneer four US 389 00:26:29.079 --> 00:26:33.200 March three, nineteen fifty nine solar orbit. Like Luna On 390 00:26:33.400 --> 00:26:37.160 the first American craft to travel around Earth's orbit, also 391 00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:40.119 blew its objective, passing too far from the Moon to 392 00:26:40.200 --> 00:26:44.119 photograph it as planned. It returned good data, though on 393 00:26:44.200 --> 00:26:50.480 the Earth's encircling radiation belts. Tiros Ie US April one, 394 00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:56.440 nineteen sixty Low Earth Orbit. Today we take weather observation 395 00:26:56.559 --> 00:26:59.799 satellites for granted, but when Nassau sent up its first 396 00:26:59.839 --> 00:27:03.599 time tamped at one, a flying Ladies hatbox, as one 397 00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:07.599 Newsrael called tiros one, just how useful it would be 398 00:27:07.720 --> 00:27:13.680 for forecasting was still an open question. Telstar US July tenth, 399 00:27:13.759 --> 00:27:17.920 nineteen sixty two. Low Earth Orbit, the first ever active 400 00:27:18.039 --> 00:27:23.759 communications satellite, sporadically relayed TV images across the Atlantic until, 401 00:27:24.039 --> 00:27:27.359