Tigers are badass.
They're wild yet cuddly (at least with each other), bloodthirsty but
nurturing, beautiful yet totally sporting some truly scary teeth. When you think of animal you'd like to
be, how many people immediately go to tiger? What wouldn't be great about running
around the jungle and roaring?
Going extinct, apparently. According to new reports, the wild tiger population is now
down to 3,200 living specimens - in the entire world. The number has fallen
dramatically from an estimated 100,000 in 1990, and unless certain countries
really get on the tiger bandwagon, we could actually lose this awesome animal
for good.
Eco-system destruction is the number one reason wild tigers
are disappearing, and even though countries like China, Blanglahdesh and India
have pledged to double the cool cat population by 2022, conservation groups are
having to stay on their case and force them to come up with actual ways of
going about it.
"If tigers disappear (at least from the wild), we not
only lose a top predator that is essential to many ecosystems, but it also
means that enough habitat has been destroyed to also endanger many other
species," admonishes an article on Treehugger. "Tiger population
health is an indicator of ecosystem health in many Asian countries."
So losing a fantastic prediator isn't the only negative
aspect of this situation; we could actually be waving goodbye to parts of an
entire ecosystem due to deforestation, pollution, poaching and illegal
ownership of jungle animals.
If, like me, you want to do something about the dwindling
number of tigers in the wild, sign on to World Wildlife Fund's website and
learn all about a petition aimed at Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar
and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack that hopes to "close existing
loopholes in the permitting and monitoring of captive tigers in the U.S."
Comments
Leave a comment