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Endangered Tigers Fading Fast

Posted Mar 12, 08 8:51 AM CDT in Science & Health 

(Newser) – The World Wildlife Fund has warned that the world's tigers are in grave danger of extinction, reports the BBC. Experts believe tiger numbers have fallen in half over the last 25 years to as few as 3,500 worldwide, the WWF said. The South China tiger and the Sumatran tiger are in the most danger from habitat destruction and demand for tiger parts for use in Chinese medicine.

Tigers are also under threat in India, where numbers have dropped 60% since 2002. The WWF said that tiger numbers could be raised if proper action is taken quickly. Conservationists are already buying land tigers inhabit from governments. "In many ways the tiger stands at a crossroads between extinction and survival," a WWF director said. "Which path it takes is totally dependent on us."

Source BBC

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This Nov. 2, 2007 file photo shows smoke billowing from a pulp and paper factory which is surrounded by palm oil plantations on Sumatra island, Indonesia. Fighting illegal logging has for decades mostly...   (Associated Press)
A royal Bengal tiger grimaces as he lays in his enclosure at the zoo in New Delhi, India, in this Aug. 1, 2007 file photo. India's government has proposed setting up a special force of forest rangers...   (Associated Press)
A caged South China tiger in transit at Johannesburg's O.R. Tambo International Airport Tuesday, April 24, 2007 en route to the Laohu Valley Reserve, in the Northern Cape. There are only around 100 South...   (Associated Press)
A ten-day old male South China tiger cub is bottle fed at the Laohu Valley Reserve, near Philippolis, South Africa, Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2007. A South China tiger was born on a wildlife reserve in South Africa,...   (Associated Press)
This handout picture shows Sumatran tiger cubs born at the Wilhelma zoo in Germany. The WWF has warned that the number of Sumatran tigers in the wild is dwindling rapidly due to poaching and habitat destruction.   (Getty Images (by Event))
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India • endangered species • conservation • tigers • World Wildlife Fund • Sumatra • habitat


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