Land management could help humans and tigers live in harmony together.
The Nepal government has committed itself to doubling their tiger populations by the year 2022, a University of Maryland news release reported.
There were about 100,000 tigers at the beginning of the 20th century, now there may be as few left as 3,000. Tigers need extremely large hunting grounds to survive, but humans have taken over most of their former habitats.
Researchers noticed that an area near Nepal's Chitwan National Park where residents were allowed to harvest natural resources such as timber had less tigers inhabiting the space than nearby habitats.
"Many animals have their ranges extending outside of protected areas," conservation scientist Neil Carter said. "They don't know and they don't care where the border signs are. So areas outside protected areas are important as well."
Chitwan National Park was established for tiger protection, but some local residents rely on the park's resources. In order to benefit both humans and tigers officials created a "buffer zone," allowing people to have more access to what the area has to offer.
In order to see how the humans' presence affected the tigers, researchers set up motion-triggered cameras along tiger trails in park and snapped pictures of 17 big cats. The team also used satellite imagery to map out "forests, grasslands, and bare ground."
They found the tigers preferred to be in grassy areas that were near water, most likely because the water and tall grass attracts prey but allows the tiger's to easily hide during their hunt.
The team also looked at footage from 1989 to 2009 of the land-coverage around the park. Over those years the park provided a better habitat than the "buffer zone", but the tiger-friendly terrain in the park declined after 1999.
Outside of the park was a different story, from 1999 on the tiger's hospitable habitat increased. The improvement was apparent after the humans were given their buffer zone, and more control over the land.
"In Nepal, we're finding that there is this middle ground where you can have people using the land and still not only keep land from degrading, but can improve habitat quality," Carter said. "Policies in Chitwan's buffer zone, such as prohibiting livestock from freely grazing in the forests and community-based forest management, improved habitat quality."
In July, the Nepalese government proudly announced their tiger population had gone up 63 percent over only a period of four years, they said a decline in poaching could be a factor in the population boom.
"Park managers are doing a tremendous job of conserving tigers and their habitat in the face of relentless pressure from the human population," Carter said.
