(Panthera tigris)
| There are currently five sub-species of tiger in existance. In the last 70 years three other subspecies have become extinct,..........the Caspian tiger,(Afghanistan, Turkey, Iraq and Mongolia), became extinct in the 1950's, the Java tiger of the Indonesian island of Java, was last seen in 1972, and the Bali tiger, the last of which was killed in 1937. The remaining five sub-species are the Bengal, Indochinese, Siberian, Sumatran and the South China tigers. |
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The Bengal tiger is found mainly in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Mynamar. White tigers are a genetic variation of this sub-species. The estimated wild population of Bengal tigers is between 3,050 and 4,735, with an additional 330 living in captivity. The Indochinese tiger, found in Thailand, Mynamar, South China, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Malaysia has an estimated wild population of between 1,180 and 1,790. About 60 of these tigers live in zoo's around the world. |
| The Siberian tiger, found in Eastern Russia, has begun to make a comeback. Thanks to conservation efforts, the wild population of Siberian tigers has risen from a staggeringly low 24, in the 1940's, to an estimated 430 to 500 in 1997. The Siberian tiger is the largest of all cats and can grow up to ten feet in length, and weigh as much as seven hundred pounds. |  |
There are only and estimated 400 to 500 wild Sumatran tigers left in the world, with another 235 living in captivity. Their numbers are dwindling in the wild due to deforestation, poaching and population fragmentation. This sub-species of tiger is in crisis............The final sub-species, the South China tiger is nearly gone. Only 40 years ago, there was an estimated population of 4,000 of these cats in the wild. Since then the government has declared them pests, and have had them hunted down and slaughtered. A report from the Ministry of Forestry in 1995, suggests that there may be an existing population of as many as 20 south china tigers left in the wild, however, no one had actually seen one in ten years. With only an estimated 48 cats living in zoo's, I regret to say that the South China tiger is dangerously close to being gone forever.........
Towards the beginning of this century, there were an estimated 100,000 tigers living in the wild. Now there are around 8,000. Most of these great cats are being destroyed by deforestation, or loss of habitat, poaching, or population de-fragmentation. As people develop the land, there is less and less area for these cats to live in, as the area decreases, so does the amount of game. This often results in a tiger attacking livestock, or sometimes even people. Many tigers are hunted and killed by people trying to protect their property or themselves. This encroachment of people into their territory also serves to separate the tigers from one another, causing a weakened gene-pool, and an increase in birth defects. A large number of tigers are hunted and killed by poachers. An estimated one tiger per day is killed by poachers in India, and sold on the black market where traditional Chinese medicine suggests that there are special powers in the body parts of tigers, including the whiskers, eyes and bones.
Below are some of the links I have found that are dedicated to the survival of these beautiful creatures.
I give special thanks to the Tiger Information Center for all of the helpful information they have made available.
Cat Specialist Group Home Page
Pacific Environmental Resources Center
