Latest Tigers Stories

Tigers held in captivity around the world "” including those in zoos, circuses, and private homes "” may hold considerable conservation value for the rapidly dwindling wild populations around the world, according to a new report published online on April 17th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Using a new method for assessing the genetic ancestry of tigers, researchers discovered that many apparently "generic" tigers actually represent purebred subspecies and harbor...

In an effort to save endangered tigers, India announced on Friday that it intends to spend $13 million to "raise, arm and deploy" a Tiger Protection Force.Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's announcement comes just weeks after a $153 million program was proposed to create new tiger reserves.India's Tiger Project said that recent calculations found that the wild tiger population has dropped from 3,600 five years ago to about 1,411."The number 1,411 should ring the alarm bells,"...

The Wildlife Conservation Society and the Panthera Foundation announced plans to establish a 5,000 mile-long "genetic corridor" from Bhutan to Burma that would allow tiger populations to roam freely across landscapes. The corridor, first announced at the United Nations on January 30th, would span eight countries and represent the largest block of tiger habitat left on earth. Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, director of Science and Exploration Programs at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said that...

Laws protecting the critically endangered Sumatran Tiger have failed to prevent tiger body parts being offered on open sale in Indonesia, according to a report issued today by TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring organization.Tiger body parts, including teeth, claws, skin pieces, whiskers and bones, were on sale in 10 percent of the 326 retail outlets surveyed during 2006 in 28 cities and towns across Sumatra.  Outlets included goldsmiths, souvenir and traditional Chinese medicine shops,...

LUCKNOW, India -- Police broke up a major tiger poaching ring in northern India, arresting an alleged kingpin and 15 others, police and wildlife officials said Thursday.In a rare success for India's embattled conservationists, police in the city of Allahabad raided a meeting Tuesday of suspected poachers, traders and couriers who were negotiating over three tiger pelts and skeletons, senior police official Arvind Chaturvedi said.Conservationists say the killing of tigers for their pelts and...

By GAVIN RABINOWITZ NEW DELHI - A bill to restore land rights to millions of poor tribal people in India could mean the end for India's endangered wild tigers, eliminating much of their protected habitat, conservationists warned Friday. The struggle over the Tribal Rights Bill highlights India's dilemma as it tries to include hundreds of millions of impoverished people in its recent economic growth and at the same time preserve the environment. "Our biggest problem is not from poachers...

BEIJING - Eighty-four Siberian tigers, among the world's rarest animals, have been born since March at a northeastern China breeding center, an official said Sunday. Liu Dan, an official with the Hengdaohezi Feline Breeding Center in the suburbs of Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as saying the cubs were doing well. He said 13 more pregnant Siberian tigers were expected to give birth to a total of 20 to 30 cubs by October. Fewer than 400 Siberian...

NEW DELHI -- India's population of wild tigers, which wildlife experts have long warned is on the decline, is dramatically lower than previously believed, according to initial results from an exhaustive study of tiger habitats released Wednesday.The initial results of the study, conducted over the past two years by the government-run Wildlife Institute of India, found that the tiger population in some states may be nearly 65 percent less than experts had thought.Results were only available...

KEO SEIMA, Cambodia -- Capturing a tiger on camera has always been Ed Pollard's goal, but now it's a necessity. His Wildlife Conservation Society has staked its prestige on a pledge to boost tiger numbers by half across six Asian sites over the next 10 years.The Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area in northeastern Cambodia is one of the locations. So collecting accurate data on tiger numbers and food sources is crucial. The $10 million initiative, called Tigers Forever, was officially...

World's most endangered big cat is assessed by experts then releasedNEW YORK -- Just three days after catching a Siberian tiger in the Russian Far East, an international team led by biologists from the Wildlife Conservation Society captured another species last week that carries the dubious distinction of being the world's most endangered big cat: an extremely Far Eastern leopard.One of only 30 left in the wild, the animal was captured in a "trapline" "“ a series of snares set out...