For an animal that’s religiously revered in many cultures and is legendary in literature, the tiger has not received royal treatment by the planet’s caretakers.
A United Nations group now reports that, in the wild, the tiger is on the “verge of extinction”. Asia is now home to only 3,200 tigers in the wild, whereas 20 years ago the figure was 100,000. Though humans have been successful at slowing or even halting the rapid decline of some other endangered species, they’ve failed miserably with the tiger.
Secretary General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Willem Wijnstekers says that building strategies and cooperation with international agencies is imperative to end illegal trade and poaching. As has been the case throughout history, tigers are prized for their skins and body parts used for decoration and traditional medicines.
The 175-nation CITES Conference being held in the Persian Gulf city of Doha, Qatar, March 13-25, has many issues on its agenda, ranging from discussing an all-out ban on the export of bluefin tuna, a fish highly sought after for traditional sushi in Japan, to banning trade in polar bear skins.
For the tiger, however, one of the world’s most recognizable and idolized megafauna, the future looks uncertain. It may soon be that your only glimpse of one will be at a zoo, though reports show that it’s no 5-star resort for tigers caged up in captivity, and even here, their lives are in danger.
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Wow! What a beautiful animal. I see ads in my town of two tigers reared up and facing each other with a caption along the lines of, ‘Do you want to see this?’ It is an ad for tourism. Maybe we should put our money into saving them rather than getting on an airplane to see the last of them.
I just can’t imagine a world without tigers. It does not seem that poachers will ever be stopped in Asia. But then again, even in a Zoo they are not safe.