Every day there are news items published about endangered tigers. Some of it is relevant to saving endangered tigers in the wild, some of it not. And some of it falls into a ‘grey’ area.
The goal of Tigers in Crisis News is to post stories that are relevant to the survival of endangered tigers ‘in the wild.’
For example, in today’s Google News Alert on endangered tigers, there was an article with the headline “New York Zoo’s Tiger Triplets Ready for Public Debut.” The article went on to say that Kuza, Yuri and Misha (the girl) will be ‘introduced’ to the public at 10 a.m. on Thursday.
It also went on to quote New York zoo director Ted Fox saying “the cubs are extremely playful.”
This is cute, but it’s probably not a story that’s going to make it into Tigers in Crisis News.
On the other hand, in yesterday’s Google News Alerts on endangered tigers, there was an article with the headline “Sumatran Tiger Castoffs May Hold Key to Survival of the Species.”
This article was discussed how some Sumatran tigers, who had been trapped by poachers (and then confiscated by authorities) were being brought to the Sumatran Tiger Breeding Facility inside the Taman Safari Indonesia conservation park, where they would be evaluated for their possible contribution to a Sumatran tigers ‘gene’ pool.
This is important. And it would (will) be a story featured in Tigers in Crisis News.
And then there are the ‘grey’ area tiger stories.
Just a few weeks ago I read an article how one zoo in Florida announced it was conducting a ‘swim with a tiger’ program. The gist of the story was people could swim with a tiger cub for only $200.
This story raises some very interesting questions.
For years I wrote about dolphin ‘swim’ programs that were being conducted in Florida and Hawaii. So I do have some experience with all the issues needing to be addressed when someone is putting wild animals ‘together’ with people in an effort to profit a business (and a zoo is a business).
Some of the issues generated by the dolphin swim program were ‘health’ related, others were ‘regulation’ related, and some were ‘social’ related. Some of the ‘social’ related issues including questions such as:
1) Is this the purpose of having wild (endangered) animals in captivity?
2) Does this mean only people who have the “financial means” get to see captive tigers up close and personal? Don’t ‘poor’ people deserve to experience these animals the same way?
Well, the reality is this story would not make Tigers in Crisis News.
However my guess is it is a ‘news’ story that will find its’ way to ‘a Tiger Journal’ for some in-depth analysis and discussion.
For more information about endangered tigers go to Tigers in Crisis.
For more information about endangered species go to Bagheera.
