No One Knows How Many Wild Tigers There Are — But 13 Countries Are Trying To Find Out

By Ben Guarino

17 September 2014

 

 

 

This post is part of a Dodo series focused on endangered species. Go to racingextinction.com to learn about an upcoming film on threatened animals and an event the evening of September 20 sponsored in part by The Dodo.

The tiger, the biggest of the big cats, is getting a headcount. There’s a lot of uncertainty about the number of tigers in the wild — but there’s no debate that the population of this endangered species is small and shrinking. The Humane Society of the United States, for example, postulates there are more captive tigers in Texas than there are wild cats in Asia’s jungles.

But any current count of tigers in the wild is, at best, a “guesstimate,” says John Seidensticker, a researcher at Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, to AFP. An accurate and scientific census, he says, is critical.

That’s why 13 countries, representing the wild tiger’s range, plan to count the striped cats the best they can, with the goal of a completed census by 2016. It’s part of a bigger plan, dubbed Tx2, to double the number of tigers in wild by 2022 — the next Chinese zodiac Year of the Tiger.

Two times the tigers won’t an easy feat, however, considering the twin threats of habitat loss and poaching bearing down on the tiger. The wildlife trade monitoring organization TRAFFIC estimates that poachers kill two tigers a week for their claws, fur and skulls.

As bleak as that rate is, the fight against poaching is not without victories. Thanks to increased patrols and “swift and harsh” justice, Nepal recently celebrated a “year without poaching” — no rhinos, elephants or tigers killed in 12 months.

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