The last time I heard about a tiger on the news, it was the latest scandal with Tiger Woods. Fortunately he doesn't need our help, but the tigers in Asia do. According to World Wildlife Fund, tigers are amongst the 10 most endangered species in the world, in fact they're third on the list! Today there are as little as 3,200 tigers left living in the wild. That's nothing compared to the 100, 000 that there was in the early 1900's.In the last century 3 of the 8 different species have gone extinct. We have to do everything we can to protect the tigers we have left.
What's Killing our Tigers?
Some of the main reasons that tigers are going extinct include, poaching, hunting, and habitat destruction. It has been illegal to hunt tigers since the late 1970's but that hasn't stopped people from killing them for their own financial benefit. People continue to hunt tigers and sell not only their fur, but almost all of their body parts, and they're making a lot of money too. Another large part in the decline of tigers, has to do with the destruction of their habitats. The forests all over Asia that are being cleared, and the growing population are destroying the habitats of our tigers.
What are we doing to help?
There are countless organizations dedicated to protecting endangered species, but the one I'm going to focus on is the Tiger Foundation. They're an organization dedicated to, you guessed it, saving tigers.Their mission is to- help prevent the extinction of wild tigers through cost effective, pragmatic and hands-on field programs. The main project that is being run by the Tiger Foundation is the Adopt a Tiger program, which gives you the opportunity to sponsor a tiger while knowing that 100% of your money is going towards protecting that tiger. Their are are also many smaller programs like the Caspian Tiger Investigation, and the Madhaya Pradesh Tiger project which are working to raise awareness of poaching and protect some of the last great tiger forests.
It's hard to imagine a world where tiger's don't exist, they're an animal I've known all my life, it's weird to think that soon they will all be gone. It's time for everyone to step up and do what they can to help protect the few tigers we have left. If you're interested in helping, you can donate money to organizations fighting to save tigers, boycott items that are made of tiger parts, buy forest friendly items and most importantly raise awareness. I didn't know how few tigers were left in the world, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, so now that you know do your part in protecting the tigers and let others know.
Tigers may be powerful and intimidating animals, but they are not strong enough to win this fight alone, they need our help. If we don't do anything, tigers will become extinct within the next 10 years. So do your part, and help save the tigers.
Sources
http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/tiger/consertiger.html
http://www.tigers.ca/natlgeo/madhya/madyaproject.html
http://www.tigers.ca/Foundation%20overview/W2A7.html
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/save-tigers-from-extinction.html
http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/tigers/save_the_tiger/
Blogs I commented on
http://natashasbioblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/worlds-fastest-cats-are-disappearing.html
http://vungaro.blogspot.com/2010/09/tee-canada-trees-do-their-part-lets-do.html
