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Save the Tigers!!

Evidence of tiger fascination goes back at least 5,000 years in what is now Pakistan. The animal, no longer found in that country, was sculpted on the seals of an ancient civilization.

References to tigers appear frequently in the epic poems Mahabharata and Ramayana. The animal represents beauty, power and ferocity. Between 3,000 and 5,000 tigers are thought to live now in India and nearby countries.

In Indonesia, where at best a few hundred tigers remain, stories tell of mythical times when a deal was made between humans and tigers. The two agreed to respect each other's territory - the forest for the tiger and the village and cultivated lands for the people - and agreed not to disturb each other.

Several hundred tigers are thought to inhabit China, where the animals likely evolved over 1 million years ago. People interpreted the markings on the tiger's forehead as meaning "king."

Only a few tigers remain in Korea; called "Land of the Blue Dragon and White Tiger." People believe a dragon guards the west and a tiger guards the east.

In the early 1800's, when Russian settlers began to establish homes around the marshes of the Caspian Sea, soldiers cleared out the tigers to make room for the newcomers. These days, experts estimate that between 350 and 500 Siberian tigers remain.

The tigers of Asia are losing ground in their fight to survive. Like many other large cats, tigers were extensively hunted for their fur, for trophies, as well as for use in traditional Chinese medicines. This hunting in addition to habitat loss brought population numbers down so critically, that by the middle of the 20th century, 3 of the 8 subspecies were extinct and all others precariously endangered (Mills and Jackson, 1994).

At the beginning of this century, there was an estimated 100,000 tigers roaming the jungles across Asia. By 1950, through hunting and habitat loss, the Bali tiger was extinct. By the 1970's the Caspian had disappeared, followed by the Javan subspecies as recently as the 1980's (Mills and Jackson, 1994). Having high bounties placed on them through Black-Market trades, and competing with humans for habitat, the numbers of remaining subspecies are declining quickly. By 1994, the total number of tigers in Asia was no more than 8000 (Mills and Jackson, 1994). It seems the more protected they are, the more sought after they become.

Currently, total numbers for tigers in the wild, range as low as 5,000 and as high as 7,000. Some believe that up to 1,000 tigers per year are being killed by poachers, but it is difficult if not impossible to accurately count the amount of people involved in this illegal trade. Nevertheless, at this rate of extermination, tigers are on a tailspin dive toward extinction.

A largest threat to the tigers on a global scale, is the use of their body parts in Traditional Chinese Medicines. The tiger is revered in Asian cultures, where it is a symbol of power, bravery, dignity and justice. Animals with such symbolism are key medicinal ingredients because Asians believe that one can attain desired qualities by ingesting parts of an animal that carry those attributes. Tigers are a very versatile ingredient for Chinese medicines as there are very few wasted parts, and have been used in Traditional Chinese Medicines for over 1,000 years.

Interest in Chinese medicine is a global problem. In 1998, the United States and Canada became leaders in the usage of tiger containing Traditional Chinese Medicines. There are approximately 150,000 over-the-counter Traditional Chinese Medicines sold in North America each year that have tiger bone listed as an ingredient ("Year of the Tiger", 1998). The rise is not seen strictly in North America, it is a growing problem wherever there is a large following of Asian cultures. This increase in consumption, combined with the endangered status and therefore illegal hunting of tigers, has forced the trade onto the Black Market (Mirsch, 1992).

Tigers have become big business over the past few decades, and their rarity has become their worth (Misch, 1992). The world-wide trade in Black Market animal parts is worth \\$20 billion per year ("New Scientist", 1994). Although poaching is illegal in most Asian countries, the business is none the less lucrative. To poach one tiger in India, is the equivalent to slightly less then a farmer’s lifetime wage (McNeely, and Watchel, 1997), therefore it is difficult to persuade local people that it is in their best interests to end the poaching.

Another large threat is agriculture and the land needed to cultivate crops. People build roads, or cut down sections of forest, but they fail to understand the implications for the surrounding wildlife. Tigers need continuous undisturbed habitat, and the boundaries we force upon them through these practices is causing them to become a series of small groups. They will not cross human derived boundaries such as roads or clear cuts; therefore, the tiger populations within these tiny islands are forced to interbreed. This weakening of the gene pool will eventually lead to birth defects and mutations in the species DNA coding, resulting in its certain demise (Mills and Jackson, 1994).

There are five remaining subspecies of tigers: Sumatra, Bengal, Indo-Chinese, Siberian, and the South Chinese tiger. Of these 5 subspecies, the South Chinese tiger is the most endangered. The generous estimate as to how many are left in the wild is between 50 and 80 tigers (Tilson, Traylor-Holzer and Jiang, 1997). Scientists are past the point of trying to save this subspecies, but are instead trying to gather enough cells, sperm and ova from as many different remaining tigers as possible. This is to ensure that should an attempt ever be made to bring back the South Chinese tiger, a shallow gene pool will not cause the re-extinction of the species (Tilson, Traylor-Holzer and Jiang, 1997).

It is tragic to know that the human race has come to this, but there will be more species to follow in the footsteps of the South Chinese tiger. All around the world animals are being poached for their body parts, whether for trophies or traditional Chinese Medicines is of no consequence; the animals are still dying. From the rhinoceros and elephants of the Serengeti, to the grizzly bears and jaguars of the Americas. Something has to be done, measures must be taken and imposed, or the human race will find itself truly lost.

Discovery.com

Wildlife Conservation Society