The primary threats facing tigers are: Wild tigers are being directly hunted to meet the demands of the illegal wildlife trade market. Tiger parts are consumed for traditional medicinal purposes across Asia, with a heavy demand in China. The international illegal trade in wildlife products is a booming business, and is estimated to yield more than $6 billion a year. Not only are tigers hunted, but their wild prey, like deer and wild pigs, have been overhunted by people either for subsistence or for sale. A depleted prey base means that tigers will often attack livestock to feed themselves and their cubs, thus fueling human-tiger conflict. Due to an increasing human population, humans and tigers are living in close proximity in many places across their range, which far too often results in human-tiger conflict situations. Wild tigers are frequently persecuted when villagers take retaliatory measures to protect their livestock. Tigers need intact habitat in order to survive but their habitat is increasingly under threat and either being destroyed or fragmented from agricultural developments, especially large monocultures like palm oil plantations.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 07:57:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015