The Tiger Channel

To be honest, I have no idea what The Tiger Channel is going to look like when it is complete.

What I do know is video is such a major player on the Internet, the Tigers in Crisis sites would not be complete without a video element.

However regardless my current lack of vision for the website, I do plan to launch The Tiger Channel sometime in October.

Having said that, this pretty much completes the introduction of all the parts of the Tigers in Crisis project that I will be working on over the next year.

To re-cap they are:

Tigers in Crisis
Tigers in Crisis News
a Tiger Journal
Searching for Tigers
The Tiger Channel

And now the 'introductions' are over, next week will start the exploration and information gathering for these sites.

And the exploration and the gathering will be reflected here...in a Tiger Journal.

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For more information about endangered tigers go to www.TigersinCrisis.com
For more information about endangered species go to www.Bagheera.com

Searching for Tigers

Simply put, Searching for Tigers is a Google custom search engine that will seek 'tiger' search results from some of the top tiger websites in the world.

The goal is simple, you will not get any search results (or shouldn't) about the Detroit Tigers when you do a endangered tiger search query.

It's not that I have anything against the Detroit Tigers (I love baseball) but people searching for endangered tiger information should be able to find the best information possible without having to wade through a lot of baseball stats.

Searching for Tigers is by no means built out yet. The goal is to be adding new websites as I am researching tiger information sources over this next year.

I think it's amazing that Google has provided such a tool for individuals to utilize.

I hope it proves to be an effective tool for those who have an interest in endangered tigers.

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For more infomation about endangered tigers go to Tigers in Crisis.

For more information about endangered species go to Bagheera.

Or click here to check out the Endangered Earth Journal.

The Best Laid Plans

The best laid plans of mice and men (or young tigers).

I had planned to do a quick overview of the Tigers in Crisis websites earlier this month, and then start posting on the research I was doing on endangered tiger topics. However two issues thwarted that idea.

The first were some technical issues I had with all my sites which took a week to fix. The second was a 'list of endangered species' section I was creating for both the Bagheera and Endangered Earth websites.

Creating and posting that list took a bit more time than I thought it would. Here is where you can fine this List of Endangered Species.

I will start posting to the Endangered Earth Journal and A Tiger Journal again tomorrow.

Tigers in Crisis News

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.

a Tiger Journal

In researching any topic for an article, there is a usually a great deal of information that doesn’t go into the finished product. The same is true for a website. And often times what’s ‘left out’ is as interesting (or even more interesting) as what is ‘left in.’

The purpose of ‘a Tiger Journal’ is to share my ‘exploration’ of researching endangered tigers over this next year as I update the information in the Tigers in Crisis website. The journal will be sharing the ‘journey’ and not necessarily the final product.

And sharing the journey can be quite important. The journey often imparts important information that might not be discovered any other way.

For example, in early August (Aug. 1^st to be exact), I started making phone calls to both government agencies and conservation organizations who are involved in protecting endangered tigers. My goal was to start making contact with agencies and organizations that could provide me with the most up to date information regarding the status of endangered tigers.

Within a few hours after I made these calls, I received a call back from a representative from the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) with whom I had a very lengthy and informative conversation with. This representative was both well informed about the issue, and was very helpful in providing me with the information I was looking for. We agreed to talk again in the future as my research continues.

However in contrast to this, I have yet to receive a call back from the conservation organization I called, this, even though I was ‘assured’ by one of the organizations representative that I would receive a call back within a day or two.

This was something I was told again a week later (since they hadn’t called back) and again a week after that.

It’s now been over five weeks since I made the call and I’ve yet to hear from anyone from that organization.

Now…this is not information that would go into the Tigers inCrisis website. But it is information that should be pointed out as part of effort of researching the tiger issue.

It’s important to know why would a leading tiger conservation organization tell someone they were going to get ‘right back’ to them and then not.

Is this organization too busy to talk to individuals who are trying to make a difference in the tiger crisis? Or did they just lose the ‘call back’ message (three times)?

I don’t know (yet).

It’s also important to post this information as it represents how the process of gathering information for a story sometimes works. Or in this case doesn’t work.

It’s important to know what agencies and organizations are willing to work with individuals, and which don’t have the time (or inclination) to do so.

I have no doubt there will be many ‘stories’ like this over this next year while researching endangered tigers; stories that highlight successful efforts and stories that highlight the not-so successful ones.

And ‘a Tiger Journal’ is where those stories will be posted.

TOMORROW: Tigers in Crisis News

For more information about endangered tigers go to Tigers in Crisis

For more information about endangered species go to Bagheera

Tigers in Crisis

Tigers in Crisis is actually more than one website. It is a series of websites about endangered tigers.

The current websites include:

• Tigers in Crisis
• a Tiger Journal
• Tigers in Crisis News
• The Tiger Channel
• Searching for Tigers

I’ll be describing each of these in more detail over the next few days.

And, I will be adding more websites over the next few months / year.

However, of all these websites, Tigers in Crisis is the ‘core’ tiger website. It’s where the most important reference material about tigers can be found.

The site currently includes ‘snapshots’ of the living endangered tigers (Bengal, Indochinese, Malayan (coming), Siberian, South China and Sumatran) and soon, snapshots of the extinct tigers.

The Tigers in Crisis website also has a number of sections related to both the problems tigers face (habitat loss, trade in tiger parts, traditional Chinese medicine and politics and money) and some of the possible solutions that may help keep tigers from becoming extinct (habitat protection, alternative medicines and laws and support).

It is the information in these sections of the site that I plan to spend a great deal of time on. It’s this information where the fate of tigers will be told.  

The Resource section will also be expanded over the next year. The goal is to include more information from the countries where tigers live.

TOMORROW: a Tiger Journal

You can find more information about endangered tigers at Tigers in Crisis.

You can find more information about endangered species at Bagheera.  

A One Year Journey

A One Year Journey...

Tigers in Crisis launched in 1998, and over the last 13 years hundreds of thousands of people have requested millions of pages of information about endangered tigers from the website.

The number of visitors and page views to Tigers in Crisis doubled between 2010 and 2011, so it is apparent the interest in tigers is not waning, but rather increasing. This is a good thing.

Over the years I have made a number of ‘updates’ to both the design and content of Tigers in Crisis, and now I embark on another update. However this will be a ‘major’ update and the first phase will be implemented over the course of the next year.

I am doing the same for the Bagheera and Endangered Earth websites and that effort will be reflecting in the Endangered Earth Journal.

Tigers, all subspecies, are still endangered.

There is a great deal of new information about tigers available, and many new technologies to share that information. There are also a number of efforts (both new and ongoing) to save the tigers.

However, there are still many challenges (new and ongoing) facing endangered tigers, and the question of whether tigers will continue to survive in the wild, and for how long, remains unanswered.

For the South China tiger the question is whether it will continue to survive at all.

My ultimate goal is to make sure anyone visiting Tigers in Crisis, or any other of my tiger websites, has the best information about endangered tigers available. This is not a simple goal, but it is an important goal. And it is a continuation of an effort which has been on-going on for 13 years now.

Updating the Tigers in Crisis website will be a discovery of about tigers. What is being done (or not) to save them? Who is taking (or not taking) action to save them?

The information will be gathered from a variety of sources including governments, tiger experts and individuals. It will also include information about laws, entities and organizations that are somehow connected to the issues of endangered tigers.

While I am exploring the world of tigers, and updating the Tigers in Crisis website, I will be sharing that information through this journal.

a tiger journal.