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[New Update]
February 10, 2008
To continue yesterday's theme, that all six remaining subspecies of the tiger, Panthera tigris, (down from eight) are in critical danger of extinction in the wild is not news. Perhaps five thousand remain: estimates are about three thousand royal Bengal tigers (P. tigris tigris), twelve hundred Indochinese tigers (P. tigris corbetti), maybe 400 Sumatran and Malayan (P. tigris sumatrae and jacksoni), 300 Siberian tigers (P. tigris altaica), and an elusive handful of South China tigers (P. tigris amoyensis). The forces that menace these last wild tigers—poaching to feed the obsolete yet insatiable Traditional Chinese Medicine market, habitat destruction, and competition with human activities—are also well known.
But a compact and compelling presentation of the facts, dangers, and hopes can make the issue new again, banishing the toxic fog of “compassion fatigue” and despair that can settle on those of us far from the front lines who feel strongly about the survival of tigers but also feel helpless. The best education and action Web site I've found so far is Forever Tigers, created in 2002 and still the most effective short course available on the tiger's biology and plight. The site includes lucid flash animations on the taxonomy of the tiger and the dwindling of its range, lots of links to further resources, and well-written pages of much that you may not have known about tiger evolution and the tiger-human relationship's sorry history (Mao Tse-tung, coveting its habitat for forced relocation and collectivization, declared the tiger an “enemy of the people”). I recommend it as background for our upcoming debate on the conservation implications of private ownership by those of us who love tigers so much we want one (or more).
In a couple of respects, however, Forever Tigers isn't quite up-to-date. The site names only five living subspecies of tiger (the Malayan tiger was distinguished from the Sumatran by DNA analysis in 2004), and it expresses doubt that the South China tiger still survives. Last year, a live young tiger was sighted and photographed by a farmer in Shaanxi Province.
Or was it?
UPDATES:
Unfortunately, the latest news is not good.
Gideon Egger, president of Forever Tigers, writes:
Annie,
Thank you for taking an interest in Forever Tigers. Yes, the Web site has not been updated in quite some time; my Webmaster moved out of the city and I have been preoccupied. Forever Tigers, and our programs in India are, however, going strong.
We supported a camera trapping program, designed to identify and determine the behavior patterns of cattle preying tigers in the reserve forest around Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand Pradesh, India. That program has just been completed and the results should be published shortly.
The first recipient of the Forever Tigers/Corbett Foundation Veterinary Scholarship is set to graduate next week, and will be attending a wildlife medicine training course in Oregon next year.
We have also supplied a Jeep for the WWF/Corbett Foundation Cattle Compensation Program.
Most of the work that we have done has been in conjunction with the Corbett Foundation in India. You can find more information on their Web site at www.corbettfoundation.org/wildlife.htm.
Thanks again and take care,
—Gideon
(Annie Gottlieb) |
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