{"id":17401,"date":"2017-10-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2017\/10\/24\/tigers-of-colonial-singapore\/"},"modified":"2021-02-03T17:36:34","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T09:36:34","slug":"tigers-of-colonial-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2017\/10\/24\/tigers-of-colonial-singapore\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers of Colonial Singapore"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"3gbgt-0-0\"><\/div>\n<div data-offset-key=\"3gbgt-0-0\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_17402\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17402\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17402\" src=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/tig.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/tig.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/tig-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/tig-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/tig-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17402\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">“Tiger” by Kelman Chiang from SRN’s SG Photobank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"frkkg\" data-offset-key=\"3gbgt-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"3gbgt-0-0\"><span data-offset-key=\"3gbgt-0-0\"><span data-text=\"true\">How do you catch a tiger in Singapore?<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div data-offset-key=\"3gbgt-0-0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"3gbgt-0-0\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px\">Who could imagine that over a century ago, wild tigers roamed across Singapore, once a densely-forested island. However, on 26 October 1930, the last tiger on the island was killed near the old Chua Chu Kang village. <\/span><\/div>\n<div data-offset-key=\"3gbgt-0-0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"3gbgt-0-0\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px\">A\/P Timothy P. Barnard (Department of History) and his co-researcher, in their chapter, ‘Tigers of Colonial Singapore’ in Nature Contained: Environmental Histories of Singapore, delved into the history of these tigers and reveal how their attacks posed a threat to British colonial expansion and exposed the island\u2019s changing physical environment. In 1850, a shocking 200 deaths out of a population of about 50,000 were reported to have been caused by tiger attacks. In the eyes of the British, Singapore was seen as a dangerous tropical port. As agricultural settlements grew further inland, the tensions between man and beast heightened. Metaphorically, the tiger soon became the \u2018other\u2019 which symbolized the \u2018barbaric\u2019 Asia that needed to be tamed.<\/span><\/div>\n<div data-offset-key=\"3gbgt-0-0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"3gbgt-0-0\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px\">Strenuous efforts to hunt these tigers began in the late 1830s when a reward system was introduced. Besides the formation of a \u2018Tiger Club\u2019 in 1843, where tiger-hunting became a sport for the well-heeled expatriate community, killing tigers also became a lucrative business as body parts could be sold for up to $50. Over time, the tiger population was decimated and attacks on humans progressively declined. The high rate of deforestation during the 1860s and 1870s further contributed to the dwindling tiger population. By the 1900s, many tigers became more of a commodity for display at Western zoological gardens, signifying man\u2019s triumph over a feared predator, but also embodying the contested relationship between humans and our natural environment.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"frkkg\" data-offset-key=\"d7g5r-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"d7g5r-0-0\"><span data-offset-key=\"d7g5r-0-0\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"frkkg\" data-offset-key=\"7rrrp-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"7rrrp-0-0\"><span data-offset-key=\"7rrrp-0-0\"><span data-text=\"true\">Buy the book <a href=\"http:\/\/nuspress.nus.edu.sg\/products\/nature-contained?variant=1245115772\">here<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"frkkg\" data-offset-key=\"4d665-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"4d665-0-0\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do you catch a tiger in Singapore? Who could imagine that over a century ago, wild tigers roamed across Singapore, once a densely-forested island. However, on 26 October 1930, the last tiger on the island was killed near the old Chua Chu Kang village. A\/P Timothy P. Barnard (Department of History) and his co-researcher, …<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2017\/10\/24\/tigers-of-colonial-singapore\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Tigers of Colonial Singapore<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":17402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4529],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17401"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17401"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28165,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17401\/revisions\/28165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}