TIGER

Tiger (Panthera tigris) :
The tiger is classified as a member of the order Carnivora (Carnivores) and is a member of the family Felidae. The male tiger grows up to ten feet long from its head to the tip of its tail, and weighs up to 575 pounds. The tiger is classified as an endangered species due to the projected tiger population declining to at the highest 50% due to an index of abundance and a decline in area of occupancy. The tiger consists of eight subspecies, distinguished by the colour of their coat.

The Tiger is a magnificent animal, the largest of the big cats. The tigers live in Asia. They have thick yellow fir with dark stripes. They are shy animals , preferring to live and hunt alone. They climb well , and are very graceful in their movements. But they are also fierce hunters killing wild pigs , deer and cattle for food. The tigers are in danger because its hunting areas being turned into farms and villages. Their numbers have been reduced because of extensive poaching in many Asian countries for their valuable skins. Their body parts are used in Chinese medicine and exotic recipes. In 1939 there were thought to be 30,000 tigers in India but today there are only 3000 left.

Project Tiger is a wildlife conservation project initiated in India in 1972 to protect the Bengal Tigers.

WWF collaborated with other organizations on the most comprehensive scientific study of tiger habitats ever done. The study finds that tigers reside in 40 percent less habitat than they were thought to a decade ago and now occupy only seven percent of their historic range.
The study also finds that conservation efforts have resulted in some populations remaining stable and even increasing, but concludes that long-term success is only achieved where there is broad landscape-level conservation and buy-in from stakeholders.

Recommendations to ensure a future for tigers:
1. Create human-tiger friendly landscapes that offer both core protected areas, surrounded by buffer zones where tigers can raise their young and allow humans and tigers to co-exist, and provide corridors that will connect tigers to other core protected areas.
2. Increase conservation investment. Between 1998 and 2003, US$23.3 million was invested in all tiger conservation landscapes, with the two most significant donors being WWF and Save the Tiger Fund.
3. Improve conservation across international borders - 18 of the tiger conservation landscapes are transboundary.

Essential goals for the next 10 years:
1. Secure tiger populations in all global-priority tiger landscapes;
2. Obtain reserve status for 10 places with unprotected breeding tiger populations;
3. Establish at least five tiger habitat "corridors" between fragmented tiger conservation landscapes.
4. Expand the range of breeding tigers in at least five priority tiger conservation landscapes.
5. Implement a holistic conservation strategy. This should engage regional development organizations, government officials, NGO's and businesses to consider tiger conservation needs in national and regional development plans.