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Rare creature was elusive for years. Then it reappeared on trail camera — with cubs

Years after a female tiger was spotted on trail cameras in the Umphang Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand, her life remained a mystery.

The tiger, known as F22, was first spotted in 2022 and excited researchers hoping to restore the local tiger population, according to an April 1 Facebook post from the Thailand Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.

However, after the hope she sparked, F22 all but disappeared and wasn’t spotted by wildlife officials.

Then, in December, patrol officers discovered tiger tracks, according to the department. A large set of footprints was followed by two smaller sets near the border of Umphang Wildlife Sanctuary and neighboring Thung Yai Naresuan East Wildlife Sanctuary.

These tracks belonged to a mother, wildlife officials said, so park officers installed additional camera traps in the area to try and identify the furry family.

The cameras took photos from January through March, and the images were recently downloaded, officials said.

On Feb. 15 and 16, a mother tiger and her two cubs appeared in the images, and wildlife officials identified the mother as F22, according to the post.

The mother tiger was guiding her cubs in a straight line, wildlife officials said, and all three animals appeared both strong and healthy. Experts believe the cubs are somewhere between four and six months old.

Not only did the cameras pick up the tiger family, but also other wildlife that call the sanctuary home, according to the department.

Images showed a leopard, a pack of wild dogs, herds of sambar deer, gaur (a large bovine), muntjacs (a small deer species) and wild boars, officials said.

The diversity of life in tandem with the tiger sighting suggests the ecosystem is thriving, and conservation efforts have been so far successful, according to the department.

Wildlife officials will continue to monitor the tiger family as the cubs grow, according to the post, and as they eventually contribute cubs of their own to the Thailand tiger population.

Tigers are endangered globally, with fewer than 4,000 mature adults estimated to still be living in the wild, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.

They are found throughout Asia, reaching as far west as Turkey and Syria, across to India and China, and south into Malaysia, according to the Red List.

Tigers typically live with their mothers until around two years of age, later becoming solo hunters, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Individual tigers have expansive territories that they mark and establish as their own to hunt, the WWF says.

Umphang Wildlife Sanctuary is in northwestern Thailand, just east of the border with Myanmar.

ChatGPT, an AI chatbot, was used to translate the Facebook post from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.