http://www.theage.com.au/world/indonesias-tigerwhisperer-works-his-magic-in-the-forest-20100528-wlic.html
Indonesia's tiger-whisperer works his magic in the forest May 29, 2010 Magician Sarwani Sabi is the conservationists' latest weapon in the fight for a species whose habitat is shrinking. If the magic works, Indonesia's tigers will burn bright, reports Tom Allard from West Aceh. AS CONFLICT between villagers and the endangered Sumatran tiger becomes increasingly common, Acehnese authorities have turned to a novel solution, hiring a full-time pawang harimau, or tiger magician, to commune with the magnificent beasts and encourage them to return to the forests. Using chants and incantations while holding an amulet, Sarwani Sabi says he can talk to tigers and persuade them to leave the villages they now frequently visit to find food as their forest habitat diminishes. ''I just go to where the tigers have been and wait there and pray,'' says the sprightly 70-year-old farmer and father of 10. ''Then, if I see the tiger, I will start talking to them.'' Watching Mr Sarwani communicating with tigers at close quarters when they are often distressed or hungry is extraordinary, says Abu Bakar Chekmat, head of Aceh's Natural Resources Conservation Agency and Mr Sarwani's boss. ''I don't really know how he does it. Perhaps it doesn't make sense but that's the knowledge he has,'' he says. ''If the tigers are guilty, he will catch them. If they are not, they will go away . that's his wisdom.'' By guilty, Mr Abu Bakar means inclined to attack humans. For it is on this topic, that Mr Sarwani talks to the tigers. The ''good tigers'', he says, agree not to eat humans and head back to the forest. This happens in most cases, he says, and they never return. The ''bad ones'' refuse to leave. Only then will Mr Sarwani set a trap, using a live goat or dog as bait. The tigers are then taken into the agency's care to be released into the forest. Only 500 Sumatran tigers remain in the wild, roaming the forests of Indonesia's large northern island but under siege as logging reduces forests and poachers seek pelts and body parts to use in medicine. About 154 tigers live in Aceh, the province on the island's northern tip and this year alone there have been seven instances of tigers coming into villages searching for food. According to Mr Abu Bakar, the end of the long-running civil war between separatists and the Indonesian military has increased contact between tigers and humans. ''People left their plantations and gardens because of the fighting. They then became the habitat of the tigers. After the peace deal the contacts have intensified as people returned,'' he says. Even so, deforestation is by far the biggest contributor to human-tiger conflict. Mr Sarwani has been a tiger magician since the age of 15, learning the techniques from his grandmother and father. ''Some say I have magic powers,'' he says. ''But I say these powers come from Allah. There is a verse in the Koran about taming animals and I use that, and other things.'' Mr Sarwani has been called in to communicate with 70 tigers in his career, usually working free of charge. He is one of the last practitioners of an art that has been passed through the generations. Ads by Google [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
