00:00A lone tiger approaches a camera trap in the jungles of western Thailand, slowly prowling through the understory.
00:08It's a special moment caught on video, and one much more common than it used to be.
00:14In 2007, there were just around 40 of these big cats left here in the western forest complex near the Myanmar border.
00:21But a joint project by Thailand's government and the World Wildlife Fund has slowly turned things around.
00:27Now there are about 200. Conservationists are thrilled.
00:32It's a rare bright spot in a part of the world where tiger numbers have collapsed.
00:36Thailand's tiger recovery is extraordinary. It's extraordinary in the context of Southeast Asia.
00:42No other Southeast Asia country has an increasing tiger population.
00:48And this is one of the secrets of the program's success, the sambar deer.
00:53These are native prey and great tiger food, but they've been in decline like the tigers.
00:58So, five years ago, the program started releasing captive deer back into the wild.
01:06Previously, the tigers and the sambar deer both disappeared from here.
01:10If some animals disappear from the food chain, it will cause the ecosystem in that area to be incomplete.
01:15We consider what we're doing a very good activity.
01:18But while some of these deer will end up as a tiger's meal, conservationists say they've shown themselves adaptable and resilient, and even able to thrive.
01:28Most go on to reproduce, bringing a second species back from the brink.
01:33The purpose of releasing sambar deer is not solely to serve as prey to predatory animals.
01:39But because the population was small, we wanted to preserve the species of deer to have a higher population first.
01:45This kind of eco-initiative isn't exactly new.
01:49Prey release projects have been going on in Africa for years.
01:52But for Southeast Asia, this tiger and deer project is a starting point.
01:57As tigers settle permanently in this corner of Thailand, other release programs are starting in neighboring Cambodia and Malaysia,
02:04bringing species and ecosystems out of decline in a region that's seen its fair share of ecological destruction.
02:11Luffy Lee and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.
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