Searching for endangered tiger resources:
Here are 10 non-government endangered tiger resources. All desrcriptions come from the websites.
1)
World Wildlife Fund:Wild tiger numbers are at an all-time low. The largest of all the Asian big cats may be on top of the food chain and one of the most culturally important and best-loved animals, but they are also vulnerable to extinction. Tigers are forced to compete for space with dense human populations, face unrelenting pressure from poaching, retaliatory killings and habitat loss across their range.
There is still hope.
We can save wild tigers. WWF has set a bold but achievable
goal of Tx2: doubling the number of tigers in the wild by 2022, when the next
Year of the Tiger is celebrated. We are concentrating our efforts on protecting
key landscapes where the big cats have the best chance of surviving and
increasing over the long-term. Five decades of conservation experience has
shown us that given enough space, prey and protection, tigers can recover.
2) Wildlife Conservation Society:The tiger is endangered, and in many countries entire local populations have gone extinct. As ever-growing expanses of Asia are carved up for roads, farms, logging interests, and urban development, tigers are losing their natural habitats. Hunters who kill wildlife either for human consumption or illegal trade have depleted populations of deer and other prey, making food scarce. Logging roads give people easier access to places where wild tigers live, further compromising their fragile environments.
Throughout its range,
the tiger is killed for its stunning pelt, bones and other body parts, many of
which are used as ingredients in traditional Chinese medicines. Even though the
sale of tiger parts is illegal, a hunter can receive thousands of dollars per
cat. In 1920, there were an estimated 100,000 tigers in the wild. Today, their
numbers hover in the low thousands.
A powerful hunter with sharp teeth, strong jaws, and an
agile body, the tiger is the largest member of the cat family (Felidae). It is
also the largest land-living mammal whose diet consists entirely of meat. The
tiger's closest relative is the lion. Without the fur, it is difficult to
distinguish a tiger from a lion but the tiger is the only cat with striped fur.
Scientists have classified tigers into eight subspecies:
Bali, Java, Caspian, Sumatran, Amur (or Siberian), Indian (or Bengal), South
China, and Indo-Chinese. The first three subspecies are extinct. However recent
analysis suggests that there is little reason for dividing living tigers into
these subspecies; all are nearly identical both genetically and physically.
Some scientists suggest making a distinction between island tigers (of which
only the Sumatran remains) and mainland tigers.4) Sumatran TigerTrust:
The Sumatran tiger as its name suggests is found only on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. It is the smallest of the tigers alive today - a Sumatran male will measure an average of 2.4m from its nose to the tip of its tail and weigh between100-170kg. Like all tigers the Sumatran is critically endangered because of poaching and habitat destruction there are as few as 350 left in the wild today.
Sumatran tigers are distinctive for being the only subspecies to live in isolation on a large island they have been isolated from their cousins on mainland Asia for over 10,000 years; this happened after a rise in sea level.
At the turn of the century, there were three subspecies of tiger in Indonesia - the Bali tiger (on Bali) the Javan tiger (Java) and the Sumatran. Today both the Bali and Javan tigers are EXTINCT and only the Sumatran tiger survives.
Sumatra prior to 1900 was largely covered in primary forest and the tiger was more or less found throughout the entire island. Today just 100 years later its distribution has become fragmented and substantially reduced. Although found in all the islands eight provinces in highly populated areas such as the provinces of North Sumatra and Lampung, the animal has been squeezed out. About 350 wild Sumatran tigers are believed to exist, primarily in the island's five national parks.
5) David Shepard Wildlife Foundation:
As tigers fight for survival in the wild, the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation needs funds to support its anti-poaching and park protection projects in India, Thailand and the Russian Far East. Together, we can save the tiger in the wild.
FOUR precious wild tigers are killed every week.
Wild tiger populations are facing a catastrophic decline -
the worst for many years. Human greed for traditional medicines and souvenirs
is fuelling a trade in illegal wildlife products that is spiralling out of
control.
As a consequence, our
most iconic wildlife species face extinction and, with an estimated 3,200 left,
we really could be the last generation privileged to see tigers in the wild.
The facts are
shocking ...
■ In
the 1930s eight subspecies of tiger, numbering over 80,000 roamed wild across
Asia. Today, three subspecies are extinct and only 3,200 tigers are left in the
wild - a decline of 96%
■
Every year authorities seize the parts of 100 tigers - the true number of
tigers being slaughtered for illegal markets can only be guessed out ■ Experts estimate that four tigers are killed every week, With a population in decline and tiger habitats squeezed by human infringement this is totally unsustainable
6) Minnesota Zoo:
The story of the South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) is among the most compelling, if tragic, conservation stories in Asia. The progenitor of all modern tigers, it is now the most threatened cat in the world: It is extinct in China’s forests and near extinction in China’s zoos.
Despite this impending tragedy, the South China tiger remains China’s most powerful cultural icon of wilderness.
Since 2000, the Minnesota Zoo has worked hand-in-hand with the Department of Wildlife Management in the State Forestry Administration (SFA) of China to explore options for the future recovery of this critically endangered subspecies. As Asia’s dominant predator, tigers need vast areas that support abundant prey living in productive forest ecosystems.
The long-term goal of the full project is to restore the
forest ecosystem and return free-ranging self-sustaining populations of South
China tigers and their prey at forest reserves in south-central China while
sharply reducing threats to the globally threatened species that now occupy the
reserves. This is a bold plan China is committed to implementing.
7) Sundarban Tiger Project:The Sundarban Tiger project is a Bangladesh Forest Department initiative that effectively started its field activities in February 2005.
The project is administered by the Forest Department and it utilizes wildlife consultants from the University of Minnesota and the Zoological Society of London to advise on project strategies and train staff. At the field level, there is a small core team made up of Forest Department personnel and Sundarbans Tiger Project staff.
The idea for the project was developed in 2001 during a
field survey of the Bangladesh Sundarbans, including the Forest Department of
Bangladesh, regional and international scientists including James L. D. Smith
and K. Ullas Karanth, and the US Fish and Wildlife Services.
They realised that the Sundarbans contained probably one of
the largest populations of wild tigers left in the world, and as such there was
an urgent need for measures that would ensure the protection of this precious
area and its tigers.
Save the Tiger Fund and US Fish and Wildlife Service, funded
the first phase of work wherein some initial studies were carried out by the
Forest Department of Bangladesh with the University of Minnesota. Since then
other supporters of the project from within Bangladesh have been The Guide
Tours Ltd and Synopsis. From outside the project has received support from the
Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund and the BBC. The project was initially research focused - there was very little information on the tigers of the Bangladeshi Sundarbans and it is hard to gain the political and funding support for a full scale tiger conservation without such information. Now from the research base, the project is evolving rapidly to also encompass capacity building and conservation awareness activities. This will help ensure that the issues illuminated by research are mitigated via conservation action on the ground.
8) Wildlife Trust of India:
Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), is a non-profit conservation organisation, committed to urgent action that works towards the protection of India's wildlife. Its mission is to conserve nature, especially endangered species and threatened habitats, in partnership with communities and governments.
It was formed in November 1998, in response to the rapidly deteriorating condition of the country's wildlife, with only three staff members. In 2008, WTI completed its tenth year with a team of over 100 full-time professionals and consultants, in addition to volunteers from all walks of life.
The core team includes scientists, field biologists,
conservation managers, veterinarians, lawyers, finance, business management and
communication specialists, who operate diverse conservation projects across
India. Within just over a decade, WTI
has made significant innovative and pioneering contributions in wildlife
conservation, making it one of India's key wildlife NGOs.
The principal
concerns of WTI include crisis management and provision of quick, efficient aid
to individuals, species or habitats that require it the most. In the longer
term it hopes to achieve, through proactive reforms, an atmosphere conducive to
conserving India's wildlife and its habitat. WTI is a registered charity in India (under Section 12A of the Income Tax Act, 1961) and is mandated by its Board of Trustees to ensure that 85 % of all specified donor monies go to the field.
9) Phoenix Fund:
Phoenix is a mythological bird, which rises anew from its own ashes after death, a symbol of everlasting revival. We, the Phoenix staff, strive constantly to revive our environment and conserve the unique natural heritage of the Russian Far East.
Phoenix Fund was founded by Russian and U.S. conservationists and registered in Vladivostok as a Russian non-profit, non-governmental organization in March 1998. Our mission is to conserve the exceptionally rich fauna and flora of the Russian Far East, the only region where Amur tigers and leopards survive in the wild.
These magnificent animals are threatened by habitat deterioration, poaching of the big cats themselves and depletion of their prey populations.
10) WildAid:
WildAid's mission is to end the illegal wildlife trade in our lifetimes by reducing demand through public awareness campaigns and providing comprehensive marine protection.
The illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be worth $5 - $10 billion (USD) per year and has drastically reduced many wildlife populations around the world. Just like the drug trade, law and enforcement efforts have not been able to resolve the problem. Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent protecting animals in the wild, yet virtually nothing is spent on stemming the demand for wildlife parts and products.
WildAid is the only organization focused on reducing the
demand for these products, with the strong and simple message: when the buying
stops, the killing can too.
------------------------------------------------------------------
For more information about endangered tigers go to www.TigersinCrisis.com
For more information about endangered species go to www.Bagheera.com
