MALAYSIA'S LAST TIGERS

A DOCUMENTARY BY NUVISTA MEDIA

The Malayan tiger is one of the most elusive animals in the Malaysian rainforest. A definitive new survey is being carried out by Malaysia’s Department of Wildlife and

National Parks to find out how many tigers still survive in the wild and where. The survey is so ambitious, that it requires many different experts and organizations to be

brought together to carry it out.


We will follow Hazril Rafhan, Head of the Department of Wildlife’s Tiger Unit into the pristine rainforest of Taman Negara - Malaysia’s oldest protected area. In contrast, we will follow the NGO Pelindung into the logged forest of the Main range. Can tigers survive here too?

A SWAG Fundraising Event

@ The Projector


Benefitting the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MYCAT) and Rimau in support of their Malayan tiger conservation programs

Date: Sunday, 3 July 2022
Time: 2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. (check-in at 2:30 p.m., movie begins at 3 p.m.)
Venue: Green Room @ The Projector
Price: $25


Purchase your tickets through this link


All profits will be donated to the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers and Rimau in support of their Malayan tiger conservation programs.

Over a century, conservationists have tracked the precipitous decline of the world’s largest cat across its Asian range. Once, there used to be more than 100,000 tigers - now less than 4,000 remain in less than 5% of their former range. The Malayan tiger, a unique subspecies and found only in Peninsular Malaysia and southern Thailand also has suffered a devastating loss.


Deforestation has had a catastrophic impact on the ancient rainforests of Malaysia – the home of the tiger. In the last century, more than half of the rainforest in Peninsular Malaysia has been lost. As the rainforest shrinks – the number of tigers inevitably fall.


Habitat loss is just one factor driving down tiger numbers. The tiger’s most deadly enemy today is poachers. Poachers will infiltrate the jungle and stay for months at a time, laying hundreds of traps. They hunt tigers mercilessly. In Malaysia, Royal Belum State Park has been a primary target for poachers. Here, the World Wildlife Fund or WWF-Malaysia found a snared tiger – and recorded the horrors of the poachers’ trade.

In Malaysia, forests are under increasing pressure and habitats are becoming fragmented. Tigers are driven closer to human populations and to their pets. There is disturbing news of a tiger that has entered a village in Terengganu. The oddly calm tiger terrifies the local community. The Department of Wildlife organises a team to track down the tiger and brings it to the National Wildlife Rescue Centre. The tiger is suffering from canine distemper, a disease that usually afflicts dogs. The spread of canine distemper could be disastrous to the already critically endangered tiger.


The Department of Wildlife is exploring new options in a bid to maintain tiger populations and genetic diversity. At the National Wildlife Rescue Centre, a Reproductive Biotechnology team has been established, to aid tiger reproduction in the lab.

Millions of images have been captured from the National Tiger Survey. The survey proves that the biodiversity in Malaysia’s rainforest remains astounding. But the images also show mutilated three-legged animals that have been caught in snares. But more shockingly, the survey reveals the devastating low number of tigers left in the rainforest.


The survey results galvanized the Department of Wildlife and other forces to join in the fight to save the Malayan tiger including local indigenous peoples. There is encouraging evidence of cubs being born across the country. If tigers continue to breed, there may still be a chance to turn the tide of extinction.

The Team

Husband and wife team Harun Rahman and Lara Ariffin directed and produced the film Malaysia's Last Tigers to look at the work behind Malaysia's very first National Tiger Survey. To do even more for the preservation of the Malayan Tiger, they set up the NGO RIMAU with a few friends.


The press kit for the film is available here to download.

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