It isn’t easy being the World’s Top Cat
Growing Up Against the OddsDanger awaits young tigers at every turn. Even under the best conditions, only 20 percent live to establish their own territories. But tigers are adapted to offset such high natural mortality: Females breed early, deliver cubs after just 103 days, and bear litters of two to four cubs. |
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Tigers and Humans: Competing for Resources.The pressing need for food and fuel often pits Asia's human population against the tiger. Where public land is degraded, people slip into reserves to graze animals, collect firewood, and kill the tiger's prey. Poachers have taken thousands of tigers to supply bones and other parts for traditional medicines. Living near reserves takes a toll on people, too. Park animals destroy crops, tigers kill livestock--and, sometimes, people. |
What Hope for the Tiger?Mysterious, powerful, majestic--the tiger stands tall in our imaginations. But, in truth, tigers are disappearing in the wild. Just a century ago, an estimated 100,000 tigers inhabited the forests of Asia. Now scarcely 6,000 remain, and soon this magnificent cat may only exist in zoos. Do tigers have a chance? Only if people living near reserves believe that a live tiger is more precious than a dead one. |
Tigers and Humans: Colliding Worlds Civilization hems in the tiger.Whole forests have fallen across Asia in the last century, shrinking potential tiger habitat to about 170 small fragments of land in 14 countries. Some pockets contain breeding tigers. But most areas are so small and isolated that if any tigers remain, they probably won't survive. |
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