Endangered Tigers : The Threats Of Endangered Tigers

Estimators report there are more tigers living in private captivity in the United States, than there are roaming around the world. In the film, The Tiger Next Door, longtime animal lover Dennis Hill is faced with getting rid of most, if not all of his animals. Before Dennis Hill owned exotic animals, he was a very wealthy construction worker until he let the rich lifestyle get the best of him, and lost most of his money through drugs, reckless motorcycle driving, and a rough divorce. After Hill was sentenced to six month house arrest, he found his true passion to be owning and breeding tigers. The major controversy the film discussed was that tigers are exotic and unpredictable animals, and even the most skilled tiger handler cannot fully predict what they will do. This causes neighbors and wildlife conservationists to be skeptical and uneasy when they find out that someone in the community owns and breeds tigers and other exotic animals.

The prices of tiger pelts continue to go on the rise because “as the destruction of tigers decrease supply, the price of their parts rises further, creating even greater incentives for poachers to kill the remaining animals” (Linden). These innocent animals are in danger in both unsecure and secure places. Poachers will not hesitate to go into zoos and kill an animal. Recently, zoo veterinarian Eric Miller talked about an incident that happened in France. Miller said, “we were shocked last week by the news that a white rhinoceros was killed when poachers entered Thoiry Zoo” (“A Critical Time for Saving Rhino Species”). The prolonged war against poaching is not promising for the future of some animal species. Animals are being driven to endangerment and even close to extinction. A recent extinction in the wild happens to be the white rhino. In 1960 white rhinos numbered more than 2000, but now they are extinct in the wild (Miller). The few white rhinos that are alive, in the world, are kept in areas such as zoos.

Predators/prey relationships play a big role in animal populations. If the balance between predators and prey is changed, populations are changed. The white- tailed deer populations in some areas has grown too large because there are no natural predators.

Tigers are always adapting and scientists speculate that there were several more subspecies in the past that are extinct now. Tigers like the South China tiger are already believed to be on their road to extinction but subspecies evolved from that such as the Bengal tigers are still living well through the population of evolution. Beautiful creatures like the White tiger haven't even been seen in the wild since the 1950s. So time and money is being spent on research to not lose any more subspecies of

“The tiger is the biggest of the big cats, reaching an extraordinary 4 meters in length and 350 kilograms in weight-as heavy as 100 domestic cats!” (“Tiger Facts” 1). That is one big cat! You might think that such a large predator would thrive, but tigers are an endangered species, and have been for years. “Intelligent and agile, big cats are ideally designed to hunt, with sharp teeth and claws, strong jaws, powerful bodies, excellent eyesight, acute hearing and a good sense of smell” (“Tiger Facts” 1). They are also very beautiful; these are some of the reasons why tigers are used in circuses, displayed in zoos, seen at fairs, and even kept as personal pets. Keeping tigers captive can be good or bad taking into account the feeding and

This species lives in the eucalyptus forests of tasmania, although the tasmanian tiger can also live in other habitats besides the eucalyptus forest.

     Tigers are getting more and more scarce. In the world today, there are about 12 Javan tigers still alive, and less than 110 Siberian tigers. Their only needs in life are water, food, and shade, so this is definitely not the cause of their near extinction. The number of tigers in the world is decreasing because of hunters that like the fur. Tigers are rarely shot for attacking humans, for they

Figure 1: Historic and current geographic distributions of the eight subspecies of tiger. The Isthamus of Kra is the boundary that separates

A few of these remaining species are extremely close to extinction and if we don’t do something soon we may very well lose them good. They’re becoming extinct from the destruction of their natural habitat.

Even with this act creatures like the Sumatran tiger are still facing certain extinction. These tigers live on the island of Sumatra. There are many threats to their species survival. One of the main threats to them is poachers.

The saber tooth Tiger went extinct about 12,000 years ago with other megafauna in the Quaternary extinction. These tigers scientific name is Smilodon or Smilodontini. It lived in North America and South America and it was classified by its huge teeth that stick out of its mouth. Some evidence was found in the tar pits of La Brea. Evidence showed that these cats had diseases like arthritis and other crippling diseases.

They are being pushed near to extinction because of the rainforest being cut down in copious amounts. This is forcing them to compete for space, food and mates.

Since the beginning of life itself, some species have lived and prospered while other species have gone extinct never to be seen again by mankind. Because of this, some would claim that extinction is natural and not significantly problematic to the world that we live in. Others, however, understand that due to climate change, habitat loss, and poaching, more and more species are becoming endangered which leads to a chain reaction that can be devastating to ecosystems. Species such as the Chinook salmon, gorillas, tropical sharks, and polar bears are all directly affected by climate change, species such as northern spotted owls, Sumatran tigers, and lemurs are greatly harmed due to habitat loss, and species such as the sea turtle, Javan rhinoceros, African elephant, and the Red-Fronted Macaw are all affected by poaching driving them all closer and closer to becoming extinct.

Habitat destruction, deforestation, ozone depletion, global warming, and poaching. These actions and ecological happenings are creating a world where animals are going extinct at rapid rates. Our world is on the brink of what scientists believe is the sixth mass extinction. Unlike the five previous mass extinction, the latest one killing a majority of the dinosaurs, the main causes for this current extinction are anthropogenic reasons, not natural events.

1. From reading this summary of tiger ecology, what aspects of the tiger’s environment need to be recreated in a zoo environment?