For once it’s good to see some good news about tigers. Having been pushed to the point of extinction, the Amur tiger, seems to have made a remarkable recovery. The latest census of the tiger, which hides in an isolated region near the Chinese border, shows there are between 480 and 520 animals surviving in the wild.
In the 1940s the sub-species had nearly died out, with around 40 tigers left. Yesterday, Yuri Darman, the head of WWF Russia's far east office, said the tiger's comeback was good news. But he warned that the species remained critically endangered and was at imminent risk if China succeeded in lifting the global ban on tiger products at the Global Tiger Forum in Kathmandu. "The success of the tiger population is mostly the result of the tiger ban in China and the support of the Chinese government," said Mr Darman.
The tiger may have made a comeback but the Amur leopard is struggling to survive. There are only around 40 remaining.
5 comments:
The way to save a species is to put them in a cutesy poo talking animal movie. That raises the awareness and interest of a mostly shallow world.
There was a programme about a tiger sanctuary on Russia Today (the 24hr news channel). It looked so tranquil and the tigers looked so healthy.
Like you say, nice to have some good news for the tigers, and some feel-good news from Russia too.
tyger
Luckily for tigers, they are already charismatic megafauna but anything to help is welcome.
I agree on both counts Tyger, good news from Russia is a bit thin on teh ground, good news about tigers is even thinner
Good news indeed. Was this reported on watertiger's blog?
Bloody hell how many posts does he (or she) get through a day!
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