What are the problems facing tigers?
Apr 26th, 2010 by wwftravel
Bengal tiger, Ranthambore National Park, India © Ola Jennersten / WWF-Canon
The largest cat of all, the tiger is a powerful symbol among the different cultures that share its home. But this magnificent animal is being persecuted across its range. Over the past 100 years, tiger numbers have declined from 100,000 to as low as 3,200. Among its threats:
Poaching and illegal trade
For more than 1,000 years, tigers have been hunted for their body parts. These parts are used as status symbols, decorative items, souvenirs and as ingredients in traditional Asian medicines. Hunting for sport probably caused the greatest decline in tiger populations up until the 1930s. In addition, in many areas tigers were regarded as pests that needed to be exterminated. In the early 1990s, it became evident that trade in tiger bone for traditional medicines threatened to drive tigers to extinction in the wild.
Thanks to increased national and international investment in tiger conservation, trade control and the promotion of substitute ingredients for tiger bone, the availability of tiger-based medicines has been reduced. Tigers are now protected throughout their range, and international trade in tiger parts and derivatives is illegal. Tiger trade was banned in China, the main consuming country, and tiger bone was officially removed from the official editions of the Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China in 1993.
However, according to a report by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC, tiger poaching, illegal trade and export of tiger bones still occur on a regular basis in India. The nation has the world’s largest populations of wild tigers, with at least 60 of them poached in India in 2009.
Anti poaching staff display a tiger skin in Nepal.
Habitat and prey loss
Less than 100 years ago, tigers prowled through the forests of eastern Turkey and the Caspian region of western Asia; across to the Indian sub-continent, China and Indochina; south to Indonesia; and north to the Korean Peninsula and the Russian Far East. But growing human populations, especially since the 1940s, have both contracted and fragmented the tiger’s former range. Agriculture, the clearing of forests for the timber trade and rapid development—especially road networks—are forcing tigers into small, scattered “islands” of remaining habitat.
In addition, isolated populations are more susceptible to inbreeding, and small islands of habitat are more accessible to poachers than large tracts of natural forest.
Along with habitat loss, tigers have suffered from severe loss of natural prey populations such as wild deer, goats, sheep and pigs. Large-scale habitat destruction and reduction of prey populations are the major long-term threats to the continued existence of tigers in the wild.
Conflict with humans
As tigers continue to lose their habitat and prey species, they increasingly come into conflict with humans when they’re trying to attack domestic animals. The cost for farmers can be high: Livestock loss due to tigers, for example, is estimated to have cost more than $400,000 over the past decade in Terengganu, one of the poorest areas in peninsular Malaysia. In retaliation, tigers are often killed by authorities or angry villagers or else captured and kept in zoos.
• Download the WWF tiger fact sheet to learn more about tigers and what WWF is doing to protect them.
• Look for tigers during WWF’s Wildlife of India tour, November 27-December 13, 2010.
• Find out how you can Earn Your Stripes to help tigers save theirs.
