Current tiger numbers released by the WWF

At the back end of Summer 2019 on World Tiger Day, the WWF released the latest numbers for wild tigers. In 2010, the numbers of wild tigers looked pretty bad, with numbers plummeting

over the last century due to wildlife poaching to meet the demand for the fur trade and for tiger bones for the Chinese oriental markets.

Current numbers back in 2010 were reported to be around 3,200 individuals situated from Russia to Sumatra to India. These numbers meant that subspecies such as the Amur and Sumatran tigers were at even fewer numbers, with both the previously mentioned subspecies being listed by the IUCN as endangered and critically endangered respectively. So what happened once these numbers were released? The WWF created a scheme to double tiger numbers by the year 2022, which is the next Chinese year of the tiger.

According to the WWF, the numbers of tigers living in India in 2014 were estimated to be around 2,200 compared to around 1,700 individuals previously accounted for in 2010. New statistics were coming in with great records, Russia's population of wild tigers increased in ten years between 2005 and 2015 with Bhutan and Nepal's numbers of tigers also on the up. One of the key factors in the increase of tiger populations was highlighting the important wildlife corridors which allow tigers to move between different habitats. Wildlife corridors link habitats between each other which allows

tigers to locate new prey and other tigers. These corridors are essential to allow tigers to breed with other tigers to keep the genepool genetically viable.

Habitat loss due to human activity and poaching are the main factors causing damage to tigers. India is home to around 1.324m according to a survey conducted in 2016 and it is growing, tigers are coming closer to humans and conflict often occurs. As previously mentioned, the Chinese medicine market continues to pose a threat to the survival of tigers, although no evidence supports the theory that tiger bones have magical powers, poaching still occurs for the trade.

So, on World Tiger Day 2019, the official number of wild tigers in India were...

… 2,967! This is a 33% increase from the 2010 report. Sadly, they're no pure-bred Indian or Bengal tigers currently kept in Europe. They're multiple hybrids, however, no current zoo in Europe hold pure-bred Bengal tigers.

This blog is a little different from my previous zoo visit tigers. I am aiming to widen my blogs to cover the science of tigers including their anatomy and evolution to what can be done to save the tiger. Next blog? Revisiting Flamingo Land and their trio of Sumatran tigers after I visited earlier this year in January.

Thanks again all,
Jordan!