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Around
the turn of the last century it was estimated that approximately 100,000
wild tigers roamed free across Asia. There were, in fact, so many of them
that several of the countries in which tigers could be found declared
the animals to be pests. Not only was it legal to hunt tigers, but money
was often paid to people who could prove that they had killed one of the
animals. Tigers were so plentiful, fertile, and ferocious that nobody
suspected they could actually be driven to the brink of extinction.
Now, however, there are only estimated to be somewhere between 5,000 and
7,000 tigers remaining in the wild. The decline is due primarily to three
factors.
First
and foremost is the destruction and degradation of the tiger's natural
habitat, including the consumption by human beings of animals that comprise
the prey of wild tigers.
Another practice that's extremely threatening to the long-term survival
of the wild tiger involves the poaching - the illegal hunting - of the
animals, which is now outlawed in every country where wild tigers still
can be found.
Then, a threat to the long-term survival of the wild tiger that is often
overlooked involved the complicated science of genetics. Tigers living
in small islands of forest, surrounded by an encroaching sea of humanity,
are becoming inbred to the point that urgent remedial action is required.
That issued is discussed further on the page titled "Conservation
Breeding".
Not
only do the implications of the refinement between the endangerment of
the wild tiger versus the fertility of captive tigers need serious review
(why, exactly, is it more important to save tigers in the wild than it
is to save them in captivity?), but it also leads to a secondary cascade
of concerns and evaluations regarding the costs, both economical and ethereal,
of saving tigers in the wild.
How much land do we need, and what must be prevented from happening upon
that land in order to preserve tigers in their wild state?
Can we save tigers? In captivity, yes - that much is clear. In the wild?
We honestly don't know yet. The Tiger Foundation believes that this will
depend almost entirely on the amount of money we are willing to invest
to save the tiger and on how well we manage our resources. The Tiger Foundation
is trying its best to raise this money and to start some much needed field
programs. At this stage, it appears that the solution may lie in the preservation
of a number of specific tracts of high quality tiger habitat, where a
limited number of tigers will be able to find sanctuary; India, Indonesia
and Russia have such forests. There, laws can be enforced and tigers can
be allowed to survive under human protection. Perhaps two or three thousand
tigers can be preserved this way. In order to achieve lasting success,
there will need to be effective coordination and collaboration between
many governments and their law enforcement agencies, thousands of rural
communities, numerous NGOs and several enlightened members of the private
sector.
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