About The Tiger
Tigers live in jungles, forests and even in the Russian Far East. Sadly, all five surviving subspecies are seriously endangered (see map).



Once tigers roamed freely from eastern Russia to the Black Sea. Now they are confined to small pockets, isolated from other populations and in danger of becoming inbred. It is vital that forest "corridors" are kept open so that they can move freely between areas.

Adults vary in length from 1.4m to 2.8m (including tail) and the largest, the Amur, can weigh over 300kg. Immensely fast and powerful (tiger is classical Greek for arrow), with acute senses and canny hunting skills, the tiger is an awesome predator.

Tigers In Crisis
Poaching: Killing tigers to make so-called "tiger medicines" like tiger bone wine, tiger plasters and aphrodisiacs, is now the biggest threat. None of these cures has any proven medicinal value whatsoever.

The tiger trade, now illegal in most countries, is a fast-growing, multi-million dollar black market run by ruthless criminals supplying a tiny minority of greedy, wealthy individuals, mainly in Far Eastern countries and Chinese communities in the West. Nearly one tiger a day is being killed in India alone - at that rate, the tiger could be virtually extinct within five years.

We don't have a day to lose - we must act now to stop the poachers or our generation will go down in history as the one that watched the tiger die.

Habitat Loss: No less fatal than poaching, to the long-term future of the tiger, is the threat to its habitat from badly-managed development projects and poor farming practice. While much of Asia is struggling to cope with the exploding human population, it is widely accepted that unbridled development will only result in decreasing living conditions and the destruction of Asia's precious, but fast-shrinking, wilderness.

Politics: Incredibly, the tiger was rescued from a similar crisis before - in 1973, trophy hunting and deforestation had reduced India's tigers to about 1,800.

Project Tiger was set up in India and numbers recovered, but the lack of political will today has meant wildlife protection laws have not been enforced and the achievements of the past have been undone. If the tiger is to be saved, India, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and all tiger range governments must stringently enforce protection legislation and CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) which not all of the 14 tiger range countries have signed.

Recommended Reading

A View from Machan - How Science Can Save the Fragile Preditor
K Ullas Karanth, Permanent Black 2006

The Last Tiger - Struggling for Survival
Valmik Thapar, Oxford University Press 2006

Tigers In Red Weather
Ruth Padel, Little Brown 2005

India the Tigers Roar
Aline Dobbie, Melrose Books 2004

Tiger
Stephen Mills, BBC Books, 2004

Tiger Forest, A Visual Study of Ranthambore National Park
Chris Brunskill, Matador, 2003 See special offer click here

Tigers
K.Ullas Karanth, Colin Baxter Photography, Scotland, 2001

Riding the Tiger - Tiger conservation in human-dominated landscapes, Edited by John Seidensticker, Sarah Christie and Peter Jackson, Cambridge University Press, 1999

The Wild Tigers of Ranthambhore
Fateh Singh Rathore & Valmik Thapar, 1999

The Year of the Tiger
Michael Nichols & Geoffrey C. Ward
National Geographic Society, 1998

In Danger
Paola Manfredi;Ranthambhore Foundation, New Delhi, 1997

Land of the Tiger
Valmik Thapar; BBC Books, London, 1997

Tiger-Wallahs - Encounters with the Men who Tried to Save the Greatest of the Great Cats, by Geoffrey C Ward with Diane Raines Ward; Harper Collins, New York, 1993

The Tiger's Destiny
Valmik Thapar; Kyle Cathie Ltd, London, 1992

Endangered Species - Tigers
Peter Jackson; Apple Press, London, 1990

Tigers, The Secret Life
Fateh Singh Rathore & Valmik Thapar; Elm Tree Books, London, 1989

Saving the Tiger
Guy Mountfort; Michael Joseph, London, 1981

The Tiger - Symbol of Freedom
Nicholas Courtney; Quartet Books, London, 1980

The Face of the Tiger
Charles McDougal; Rivington Books, London, 1977

The Deer and the Tiger
Dr George Schaller; Chicago, 1969