THREATS TO TIGERS

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Across all of Asia, once vast forests have fallen for timber or conversion to agriculture. What is left are small islands of forest surrounded by a growing and relatively poor human population. They collect firewood from the forests. Their livestock graze to the forest edges, and common tiger prey-wild pigs and deer-are shot, poisoned or snared for food by poachers. Worse yet, bones and other tiger body parts used in Chinese folk medicine now command premium prices on the international black market, and poachers now poison waterholes or set steel wire snares to kill tigers.

Forestry and wildlife departments are too understaffed and underbudgeted to be effective against this onslaught. Conservation efforts that emphasize increased protection for large felids like tigers have failed or are failing across all of Asia. Simply put, tigers are disappearing in the wild. If we continue to maintain the status quo, then we run the risk of losing all wild tigers.