Having 3 tiger cubs just arrive at the zoo i've been doing a little research for various things and I've found some pretty alarming stats and other things.
As most people would know, the tigers population is in danger because of poaching and habitat loss. There are estimated to be 5000 tigers left in wild, this includes all sub-species. 3 Sub-species have become extinct in the last 70 years and if things don't change there is a sobering possibility that every tiger sub-species will be extinct in our life-time. Tigers once inhabited over nearly one fifth of earth's land, since the early 1900's the tiger has been pushed into tiny pockets of land about 1% of where they originally roamed and no sub-population with more than 250 mature breeding individuals.
Illegal trade in China & Tibet are the biggest threats to tiger poaching, although in recent years the Chinese government has made some offenses in connection with Tiger poaching punishable by death. Also, the Dalai Lama, a friend of the zoo in January 2006 preached a ruling against using, selling, or buying wild animals, their products, or derivatives. There was an out-cry and immediate action taken in part by Tibetan people who destroyed wild animal skins including tiger and leopard skins used as ornamental garments. It's too early to tell whether this will make a long term impact, but is a very good sign for the immediate relief of poaching.
Illegal trade in China however is the biggest problem and recently a joint conservation operation headed by the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (Along with WWF/IFAW, BIAZA, WCS, ZSL, WSPA, TRAFFIC, CATT, SSN, Conservatin Internation and a bunch more) were successful in rejecting China to allow raising captive tigers for trade in their parts. This was rejected at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting. Inparticular, parties to the international wildlife convention also urged China to phase out its large-scale commercial tiger farms. This is huge news!! Currently in China there are about 4000-5000 tigers in illegal farms.
In the USA there is another problem, there are some 12000 tigers are being kept as private pets, this is more than double the wild population, how can the government allow this sort of thing to happen? It's estimated that there are some 4000 tigers in Texas alone. It's time to cut the red tape and bullshit. Only 19 states have banned private ownership of tigers, 15 require only a licence, and 16 states have no regulations at all... and ofcourse Texan rednecks are one of them.
So I was thinking, imagine if all these animals could be released back into the wild. This would more than triple current wild population. Some experts say it can't be done, that tame tigers could not properly survive in the wild. Then I read that this has already been tried, and this experimental tiger has proven a success in showing survival capabilities. Tara, a hand-reared tigress from a zoo in England was released to the wild in India with the permission of India’s then Prime Mininster. Unfortunately the zoo was irresponsible in breeding programs and released a hybrid Siberian-Bengal Tigress instead of a Bengal as they said she was. Now the population in which she was released has subsuquentially polluted the otherwise pure Bengal Tiger gene pool. This has the potential to spread to other tiger groups, at its worst, this could jeopardise the Bengal tiger as a distinct subspecies altogether. Idiots.
Anyway, that's getting off track, the bottom line is to stop the illegal trade, don't buy animal products and to put pressure on the governmemnts and those who are supporting it. Also put pressure on the rich Chinese businessmen dicks who think that tiger penis is an aphrodisiac. Unfortunately many people in China believ that tiger parts have medicinal properties. Don't be fooled, there is no scientific corroboration to these beliefs.
Make sure you're aware of the products you buy, their impact may be more than the obvious things that we see, like fur coats, ointments, etc. Side effects of things like buying wooden furniture/products, this wood may have come from a rainforest that could be tiger or other endangered specied habitat. Also, there is some comfusion around some products. Tiger Balm, for example is not made from any tiger parts. The name came from the inventors sons and is named for its virtues of Strength and Swiftness. Infact, some proceeds from Tiger Balm sales go towards tiger conservation efforts.
Here are some links, read about the conservation efforts and see how you can help.
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