Tigers - Tragically almost gone

I took my two year old niece to the zoo the other day. She had been before and when I told her we were going to go see the animals she said, "Tiger. Tiger hug." She remembered seeing the tigers and clearly she liked them as she also wanted to hug them. Just to be clear, I am a good uncle and didn't let her hug the tiger. But, as with all apex animals, they have a special place in the hearts and minds of people.

This last week there has been a "tiger summit" held in St. Petersburg, Russia. There, members of the countries that have populations of tigers were discussing what should be done to protect these amazing cats.

But here are the unpleasant facts.

There are 9 subspecies of tiger (panthera tigris). Three are already extinct, the Bali Tiger, the Java Tiger and the Caspian Tiger (although the Caspian tiger may have been a seperate population of Siberian tiger)
Of the remaining six subspecies...
Bengal Tiger - according to the last audit done by the National Tiger Conservation Authority there are 1,411 left in the wild. That is a 60% decline in the last 10 years.
Indochinese Tiger - estimates of 1,200 - 1,800 left
Malayan Tiger - 600 - 800 left
Sumatran Tiger - 400 - 500 left
Siberian Tiger - the largest tiger - only 450 -500 left in the wild
South China Tiger - probably extinct in the wild and only 59 in captivity

So this means that there are a total of 4,000 - 5,000 tigers left in the wild. 100 years ago this number was 100,000 tigers.

Why the decline. It is not because of any natural disaster or change in climate. The drop in tiger populations is a direct result of human activity. Habitat destruction is one of the biggest threats. People destroy the tiger's natural habitat for agriculture, industry, homes etc. Poaching for the tigers pelt is another big problem. And the use of tiger parts in traditional Chinese medicine (which has now been banned in China) still takes place.

Lets put these numbers in perspective. If one tiger is killed, it represents approximately 0.0002% of the total population. With almost 7 billion people in the world, that would be like killing 1,400,000 people. With each death of a tiger there is also a reduction in the genetic diversity of their populations.

The World Wildlife Fund and other experts estimate that if nothing is done to protect tigers they will be extinct in 12 years. My niece would only be fourteen years old and there would be no tigers left living in the wild. There would be captive tigers, but even with breeding programs their fate wouldn't look good. By the way, on the Chinese calendar, the years that tigers could become extinct is also the year of the tiger.

It is clearly an uphill battle for the tiger. It is good to see that the countries at the "tiger summit" seem to be serious about protecting the tiger. And we should protect it. Tigers have played a huge role in human mythology, folklore and culture. It would be a shame and shameful to lose them.