Tiger habitats worldwide have shrunk by forty percent in the past ten years, bringing the total population of wild tigers down to roughly 7,500 globally (close to the amount of captive tigers within the U.S.) Habitat encroachment and poaching are their biggest risks, including the trade of tiger parts for traditional Asian medicine (which claims their whiskers can stop bullets and their brains are mixed with oil as a cure for laziness. I’m not making that up. I just read it on Wikipedia.)
The news comes from a study by a coalition of conservation groups who have identified 76 areas that have the best chance of supporting tiger populations.
“Many important areas have been overlooked for funding, largely because there has been no method to systematically identify areas of high conservation potential,” the study said. About half of the 76 areas can support 100 tigers and “offer excellent opportunities for the recovery of wild tiger populations.”
Along with the tenuous world population (three subspecies of tigers are already extinct,) what’s also severely at risk is the tiger’s sense of self-respect. Like other maligned creatures such as wolves and bears, tigers have been portrayed in literature and pop culture as menacing, ferocious beasts (except for Tigger, who’s friggin' hopped up on goofballs.) Tigers have advertised sugary cereal, become a Major League Baseball mascot and turned into butter from running around a tree. Hopefully this study will help bring around their population and their pride, before the only tigers left are prancing on a stage in Las Vegas with men in frilly spandex.