News •
Next to the elephant and the lion, no wild animal is so frequently portrayed in Asian art and lore. The persistent practices of using tiger parts as talismans, tonics, or medicine, despite all scientific evidence contrary to their efficacy, are manifestations of beliefs that emanate from the aura of the tiger and the awe that it has inspired for millennia. Certain animist communities still worship the tiger. Every 12th year of the Chinese calendar is the year of the tiger, and children born in it are considered especially lucky and powerful. In Hindu mythology the tiger is the vahana (“vehicle”) of the goddess Durga. Tigers are represented on seals from the ancient Indus civilization. The greatest of the Gupta emperors of ancient India, Samudra, minted special gold coins depicting him slaying tigers. Tippu Sultan even vented his frustration at his inability to defeat the British by ordering a special life-size toy, complete with sounds, of a tiger mauling a British soldier.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the world’s tiger population was estimated at 100,000, even though the animals had been hunted for at least a thousand years. Tigers were prized as trophies and as a source of skins for expensive coats. They were also killed on the grounds that they posed a danger to humans. As the century drew to a close, only 5,000 to 7,500 were left in the wild, and captive tigers may have outnumbered wild ones. Since then, the world’s tiger population has been thought to have declined to about 3,200 animals. However, population estimates conducted in the 2020s reported that the number of tigers in the wild stood between 3,700 and 5,600 mature individuals. The South China tiger (P. tigris amoyensis) is the most critically endangered, and many researchers consider that subspecies to be extinct in the wild, because none have been observed in the wild since the 1970s. Captive South China tigers in zoos numbered about 150 individuals as of 2019. The Malayan subspecies (P. tigris jacksoni), which was determined to be genetically distinct from the Indo-Chinese subspecies (P. tigris corbetti) in 2004, numbers perhaps 500 individuals. The Siberian and Sumatran subspecies number less than 500 each, and the Indo-Chinese population is estimated to be less than 300. Three subspecies have gone extinct within the past century: the Caspian (P. tigris virgata) of central Asia, the Javan (P. tigris sondaica), and the Bali (P. tigris balica). Because the tiger is so closely related to the lion, the two species can be crossbred in captivity. The offspring of such matings are called tigons when the male father (sire) is a tiger and ligers when the sire is a lion.
Serious concern for the declining number of tigers was expressed during the latter half of the 20th century, and gradually all countries in the tiger’s range took measures to protect the animal, but with varying degrees of success. The tiger is now legally protected throughout its range, but law enforcement is not universally effective. India, which accounts for half the world’s tiger population, declared the tiger to be the national animal, and in 1973 it launched Project Tiger, a successful program under which selected tiger reserves received special conservation efforts and status. Nepal, Malaysia, and Indonesia have set up a string of national parks and sanctuaries where the animal is effectively protected; Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam are pursuing the same course. China, the only country with three subspecies of tigers, is also giving special attention to conservation. In Russia, where poaching seriously endangered the Siberian tiger, concentrated effort and effective patrolling have resulted in a revival of the subspecies.
In the 1970s tiger hunting for sport was banned in most countries where tigers lived, and the trade in tiger skins was outlawed. Nevertheless, tiger skins are still highly valued for display and for worship, as are claws, teeth, and clavicles for talismans. Skulls, bones, whiskers, sinews, meat, and blood have long been used by Asians, especially the Chinese, in medicines, potions, and even wine. These products are presumed to be useful in the treatment of rheumatism, rat bites, and various other diseases, for the restoration of energy, and as aphrodisiacs; whiskers are believed to cause intestinal ulcers in one’s enemies. Poaching and the underground trade in tiger parts continue despite seizures and destruction of the confiscated parts.
Although poaching has been responsible for keeping the number of tigers low during the past three decades, wild tigers would still be threatened even if all poaching ceased. In countries such as India, the needs of rapidly growing human populations over the last two centuries have reduced both the quantity and the quality of tiger habitat. Forests and grasslands so favored by the tiger are cleared for agriculture. Reduction in the tiger’s prey populations results in greater dependence on livestock and the consequent retribution from people. Fortunately, the status of the tiger has aroused widespread empathy, and the species has received substantial international support. The World Wide Fund for Nature has been a pioneer and the largest contributor, along with corporate donors and nongovernmental organizations. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species is entrusted with the task of controlling illegal trade in tiger derivatives.