Global Tiger Day 29th July
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| WWF-World Widlife Fund |
This Wednesday - 29th July is Global Tiger Day, which was founded at the Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit in 2010. This was created to give worldwide attention to the conservation and wellbeing of tigers, because at that moment wild tigers were on the brink of extinction. The goal of Global Tiger Day is to promote the protection and expansion of wild tiger habitats and to raise awareness for tiger conservation. Recent numbers estimate that there are as few as 3000 tigers remaining in the wild (2014). There are sadly more tigers in captivity than in the wild and the tiger is officiallt classed as endangered by IUCN, as three of the nine known tiger subspecies are extinct, and according to WWF the South Chine tiger hasnt been seen in the wild since the 1970s.
How did this happen?
Tiger Trade
One of the most serious threats that tigers are facing is poaching, for the increasing value of tiger parts. This problem is rife across the globe, however conservationists report that it is a huge problem for the tiger population in Asia. There is a market for tiger bones, which are tradittionally prized for their alleged healing and aphrodisiac properties and also tiger skins for home decor. Tiger parts can vastly range in price, from skin pelts costing US$20,000 and a foot US$1,000. Their skins are taxidermed and turned into rugs whilst their bones are used for healing tonics. The demand for this barbaric trade has allowed people to take advantage for a chance to earn some more money, and there is now an increase of tiger farms in China. One farm in particular farms both tigers and bears to extract their bile for wine. The 'bone-strengthening' rice-based wine costs US $132 for a six-year-old vintage. A daily shot of the wine allegedly reduces joint stiffness, alleviates rheumatism, and increases sexual vigour. It is seen that the purchasing of tiger bone wine and tiger body parts is seen to increase ones status within society due to the price.Habitat Loss
Habitat loss is another reason in the huge decrease of the tiger population. Due to expansions of cities, commercial logging, plantations, agriculuture etc tiger habitats are being wiped out. This therefore forces tigers to live within a closer proximaty to eachother as well as human settlements in or around forests, this creates conflict between humans and tigers for space and it also makes tigers even more vulnerable to poaching.How Are Organisations Helping Tigers?
WWF have implemented various projects to help increase the tiger population such as TX2 - doubling the numbers of wild tigers to at least 6,000 by 2022. In order to meet this goal, all 13 tiger range countries have agreed to issue an updated global tiger number to enable WWF to access progress. Another way that organisations and conservationists are helping tigers is tackling the illegal widlife trade through CITES, education of illegal tiger products and also by helping to reduce human-animal conflict by engaging with local communities.
Global Tiger Day 29th July
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