Tigers in the News and Test Your Tiger Smarts

January 18, 2008

Today it was announced that the young man who was killed by a tiger recently at the San Francisco Zoo was with others who were taunting the tiger- even standing atop the exhibit's railing while doing so. Since the December deaths, of both the patron and the tiger, the wild cats have been international front page news. I often wonder that we all take tigers, and many other animals, for granted. We imagine that they're out in the wild, somewhere in the world. It hit me today, though, that if that if the SF Zoo tiger had been a wild tiger, its death would have represented close to 1 percent of the planet's total wild tiger population. The numbers in captivity aren't very impressive either. There is a chance that tigers could go extinct in our lifetimes. Tigers are such magnificent creatures. We simply must not let that happen.

The World Wildlife Fund is one organization that has done a tremendous job at protecting tiger habitats and paving the path for wild tiger conservation measures worldwide. Recently, for example, they worked with the Russian government to establish three new national parks to help protect the region's Siberian tiger. The largest of the three parks is about the size of Rhode Island. It's home to around five to seven tigers. As you can see, tigers need space to roam. The very good news is that when tigers are protected, countless other species benefit too.

How much do you think you know about tigers? The WWF has just put out a fantastic new quiz, with data that will probably shock you about tigers and their current status. You can take the quiz here.

Comments

[Tom K]

How can the WWF be doing such a great job if populations keep dwindling?

[Jen Viegas]

Considering the threats to tigers, which include
loss of habitat, illegal hunting of tigers and their prey, the growing human population/related problems and expanded trade in tiger parts used for traditional medicines, I'd say the WWF is doing its best in the face of such formidable difficulties. With limited funding and staff, the WWF has wisely chosen to focus on specific priority regions where they can get the most tiger bang for their bucks, so to speak. You can read more about the WWF's efforts at
http://www.worldwildlife.org/tigers/results.cfm

[Pam Bourne]

It surprises me not that the tiger had been taunted. Were the young men shot, when this was revealed?
Is that radical thinking? I say we are animals: if we look at it scientifically; are you:
#animal or # mineral or #vegetable. ??
OK, grant it some people are hard and cold, like a rock, but i doubt they see themselves as minerals. And some people say they vegetate, are like vegetables... (definately in my town, the hippy town NIMBIN Australia) even saying they are "couch potatoes"; and are greenies here? But do these persons consider that they are really vegetable (or plant)?
So if we are therefore probably classified as animals....
then a man-animal taunts a tiger-animal, the man-animals carry on teasing and taunting until the tiger-animal "wins" the game by lashing out. Why did the tiger then get killed? I don't understand at all. How vain we are to think we are better than other animals. We are better at changing (often destructively) the environment. We cause more harm. I do not see how that makes us better. We kill and harm with less concience or reason than other animals. We destroy the earth without thought, and cage, torture, test and tame animals which we have pushed to the brink by destroying their habitat. We kill for "scientific research" in a bid to conserve life ( eg:Japanese whaling in Southern Oceans). I still do not understand why we think we are better than other animals. Please explain. =^+^= Pampussycat

[Jen Viegas]

Hi Pam,
One of the two survivors of the zoo tiger attack said he had taunted the tiger. You can read about that here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/18/MNEIUH4B9.DTL&hw=tiger+taunted&sn=005&sc=707
Re. animal/plant... classifications, I agree with you that they are very less than perfect. A new study, in fact, presented a compelling theory that humans (and other animals) are more closely related to plants than previously thought. Not that a fern is your second cousin, but plants may now be closer to us on the great tree of life that links us all on this planet.
Humans do have a superiority complex. Perhaps it's hardwired into us, or at least into some people? Discussions on what make us uniquely human strike me as being more productive than those on why we are supposedly better than this or that species.
Thanks for taking the time to write.-Jen

[Tom K]

Jen, private owners have increased the population of tigers in the world and the WWF fights private ownership while attempting to manage dwindling wild populations.

www.rexano.org

[Tom]

In other words, we need to let private owners breed big cats. That is what will save the tiger.

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