Tiger: An Endangered Species that should be saved.
The tiger, largest of all the cats, is one of the most charismatic and potent flagship species on the Earth; it is also one of the most threatened. Tigers are distinguished by the color of their coat Although there are no accurate recent estimates of the world tiger population, numbers are thought to have fallen by about 95% since the turn of the century, down from perhaps 100,000 to the present estimate of 5,000 to 7,400. (World Conservation Union / IUCN). Approximate numbers of the subspecies, and their distribution are shown at the end of the essay. .
The tiger is classified as a member of the order Carnivore (flesh-eating animal) and is a member of the Felidae. The five subspecies of tigers are scattered around 14 Asian countries and they are: Amur (Siberian), Bengal, Indo Chinese, Sumatran, South China. The extinct ones are: Bali tigers (which no one has seen since 1937 and no picture of it exists), Caspian tigers (extinct since 1970) and Java tigers (extinct since 1980). But there is also a white tiger, which is a color variation of Bengal tigers. Endangered Species are species that are in danger of extinction. Over 5,200 animal species around the globe are threatened with extinction and the tiger is one of them. The reason for tiger extinction or endangerment until the 1930s was hunting for sport. But Between 1940 and the late 1990s,tigers are being killed every day for many reasons but the main reasons are the loss of habitat due to human population expansion and activities such as logging and commercial exploitation due to trade in tiger body parts for medicinal use.
Almost every part of the tiger is traditionally used by the people of China, Japan and Korea and to some extent other Asian countries to cure a variety of ailments. The demand for tiger bone appears to be the main force, which drives up the price in the commercial market.
