#tigerawareness

[gpsdelhi]

🐯Tigers are a critical part of our world’s biodiversity. This International Tiger Day, let’s spread awareness and support conservation efforts to keep them roaring.

[thebeastiebible-blog]

International Tiger Awareness Day: The Reality

The tiger’s plight is heartbreaking - poaching, habitat destruction and persecution has left their numbers dwindling; there are more of the big cats kept locked up in private collections than there are in the wild. In 1900, there was an estimated 100,000 individuals living free in the wild. By, their numbers crashed by 95%.

 One species - the Caspian tiger - and 2 subspecies - the Javan and Bali - became extinct. There is a race against time to save the remaining big cats from vanishing entirely. The tiger is a prime example of an umbrella species, which signify the health of an ecosystem. With their decline, this ecosystem is unbalanced and greatly devastated, spelling disaster for all other creatures within.

Now, conservationists are praising the gradual rise in wild tiger numbers. This can only be a good thing - but what does this really mean for our tigers?

As reported in 2016, for the first time in over a century, wild tiger numbers are on the rise. 3890 individuals were found in wild surveys, up from about 3,200 in 2010.

At the time, Carter Roberts, president and CEO of WWF, added in a statement: 

“We’ve watched tigers decline for decades and have dreamed of bending that curve in the other direction. In a sea of bad news on the environment ... we are making significant progress on one of the greatest comeback stories in conservation.”

This year’s tiger consensus has not yet been counted, but there are hopes the numbers continue to grow.

India deserves a special mention. It is ahead of the game on the tiger front globally, boasting 70% of the total wild population. Their established Tiger Project, founded in 1973, has expanded to more than 50 reserves, and some of their effective conservation techniques have included: strengthening legislative tiger protections, keeping a check on tiger numbers and their prey all year round, and enforcing legal and ethical guidelines in regards to ecotourism. 

However, we are still a long way from achieving the ambitious target of doubling the global tiger numbers by 2022.

But one thing is for sure: we can be thankful that, however slowly, tigers are making a comeback.

[tais-bastos]

Tiger Awareness Day

Did you know that tigers are declared a critically endangered species and that the wild tiger population is fewer than 3,200 and there are only approximately only 350 Sumatran tigers left in the wild? The tiger populations are threatened by habitat loss and degradation, poaching, tiger-human conflict, loss of prey and other factors. - Toronto Zoo -