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Young people respond positively to videos on living alongside tigers

Wild Bengal tiger crossing a river in forest habitat in Bardia National Park, Nepal
Conservation: Human–wildlife conflict, Management

Videos about Minangkabau traditions for living alongside Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae) received a positive response at an educational event in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia. The researchers reported a more positive understanding of tiger conservation among questionnaire respondents after the seminar.

To make the videos, researchers interviewed traditional leaders and residents of Nagari Sariak Alahan Tigo. The interviews recorded customary practices for avoiding risky encounters with wild tigers, along with beliefs that describe tigers as part of the social and spiritual world. Some local accounts respectfully refer to the tiger as Inyiak, a term associated with an elder or ancestor. The project presented those customs as a possible resource for tiger conservation.

Traditional knowledge resonated with young audiences

The researchers turned the interviews and local accounts into educational videos and presented them at a seminar for an urban audience. Most questionnaire respondents were young people (88.6%).

The questionnaires asked about participants’ understanding of how tigers contribute to ecosystem balance and whether customary forest beliefs could help protect the animals. The researchers reported more favourable responses to these ideas among participants answering after the seminar, suggesting that local conservation knowledge may resonate beyond the communities where it originated.

Promising educational response, not proven behaviour change

The predominantly young participants’ responses suggested that culturally grounded information could be an engaging way to discuss coexistence with wild tigers. But the seminar included other educational material, the before- and after-event groups differed, and later behaviour was not measured. The study therefore suggests an educational opportunity, not proof of individual learning or reduced human–tiger conflict.

Sources and image credit

  1. Testing Video as an Awareness Tool: Does Urban Youth Care for Customary Practice in Avoiding Tiger Conflict?Publisher full text PDF checked on 11 October 2026. Study published 5 October 2026. 157 attended, 89 answered before, 68 after; different respondents in the two survey groups. Traditional tiger coexistence themes and individual response distributions were checked against Tables 1–2. This was not a paired or controlled test of knowledge gains.
  2. Full text PDF: Testing Video as an Awareness Tool (2026)Official complete research article (PDF).
  3. Tolerating tigers: Gaining local and spiritual perspectives on human-tiger interactions in Sumatra through rural community interviewsIndependent earlier primary study, explicitly identified as separate 2018 research. Reports 73.5% of Minangkabau interviewees acknowledged customary tiger laws; cited only to provide background context, not presented as a 2026 result.

Image: Wild Bengal tiger crossing water in Bardia National Park, Nepal. Photo: Stefan van den Akker / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. General illustrative photograph; not from the Sumatran study. · CC BY 2.0 · Source

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