Humans have destroyed nearly all the tigers on the planet — only about 5% remain in the wild

People constantly write me letters full of abuse, saying that I have no right to defend tigers! There were letters from Russia, from the Far East, and also a couple of letters from India, when I wrote about conflicts with tigers there. People sincerely wonder: “How can anyone defend tigers at all?” and in every letter they try to convince me that there are far too many predators. The same justifications appear in the mass media, and recently even some pseudo-experts—actively lobbying the interests of hunting structures that have long been trying to achieve the legalization of shooting Red Book animals—have begun to “chew over” the theory of a “sharply increased population.” Including tigers.

Conflicts really have become numerous, tigers have been seen more often—this is a fact, and we, speaking out in defense of wildlife, are saying exactly this: it is not that the tiger population has increased, but that their natural habitat and prey base have been critically reduced. We, humans, provoked the conflicts ourselves and now we are watching victims appear on both sides! Every year both people and tigers die from these clashes.

Most often people do not want to see either arguments or facts. A person who kills animals for entertainment, calling it “sport hunting,” will never admit that they knowingly committed a crime against wildlife! An official who adopts a bill to increase the scale of shooting animals for the sake of momentary profit will never admit that they personally signed off on a crime. And a resident of the hinterlands in Russia or India, increasingly encountering a tiger near their home, will never believe that they are on the verge of complete extinction. It will always seem to them that “I see tigers more often, which means there are too many of them.”

We tried to explain that if a tiger has nothing to eat and nowhere to live, it will inevitably become SYNANTHROPIC and will look for food near humans. But this always turned out to be useless—people absolutely refuse to see reality!

TIGERS ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION

And now let’s turn to the facts—how many tigers are actually left in the wild.

I will immediately highlight the key, scientifically proven fact — THE TIGER POPULATION HAS DECLINED BY MORE THAN 95% IN JUST THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS. By the standards of time, that is literally an instant—the lifetime of our great-grandfathers!

If in 1900 there were about 100,000 tigers in the world, today only about 4 thousand individuals remain in the wild. At the same time, three of the nine tiger subspecies have gone completely extinct (the Javan, Balinese, and Caspian tigers), and a fourth subspecies (the South China tiger) has not been found in the wild for several decades. No one knows whether it exists at all today!

Here are the real numbers! On the entire planet, in the wild, there are about 4 thousand tigers left. People destroyed the rest.

And historically, the extermination of tigers was entirely deliberate. For example, in the colonial era (and the first decades of the 20th century), thousands of tigers were killed in trophy hunts by various kinds of wealthy people and officials. For instance, an Indian maharaja of the state of Rajasthan personally killed more than 3,000 tigers in his lifetime. In addition, just a few decades ago there were also state campaigns to destroy tigers as “pests.” For example, in China in the 1950s, Mao Zedong declared the tiger an enemy of the people and organized its total extermination!

Only in 1987 was an international ban introduced on commercial trade in tigers and their parts, and since the early 1990s bans were introduced on domestic markets in countries such as China and Vietnam. But it hardly helped at all—such measures raised the price on the “black market,” and buyers, wealthy people from all over the world, began competing for a “rare tiger derivative.” According to global scientists and experts, from 2000 to 2022 law enforcement agencies confiscated at least 3,377 tigers (live animals, skins, bones, etc.) in more than 50 countries. And that is only what was discovered and seized! Not to mention the real scale of tiger killings.

Demand for tiger body parts began to grow rapidly, giving rise, among other things, to the emergence of “tiger farms.” Even today, IN CAPTIVITY on tiger farms there are between 7 and 8 thousand tigers, which is twice as many as remain in the wild. Officially, such “farms” are registered as zoos or entertainment centers; however, in practice they are factories for breeding and killing tigers for profit. Tigers are bred there “on a conveyor belt,” purely for subsequent slaughter, to satisfy demand for bones, skins, tinctures, and other products sought on the black market.

By the way, people wrote to me in letters about these farms, saying: maybe the existence of such an industry is not so bad? Like, if they raise them in captivity, they won’t kill wild ones? But reality is the exact opposite—creating such farms only fuels demand even more and erases the line between what is permissible or impermissible in using body parts of an endangered species. Moreover, a kind of “caste division” has emerged: buying a tiger part from a farm as an “economy option,” while ordering the killing of a real wild tiger living in nature is equated almost literally to “magical practices.” Various potions made from parts of a wild tiger are considered “especially medicinal.”

As a result, the extermination of tigers continues right now.

Prices for tiger body parts are enormous. For example, a skin costs up to 25,000 US dollars, bones in raw form are used in traditional medicine and cost around 1–2 thousand US dollars per kilogram. A concentrated extract is made from bone material—bones are boiled for days in a steamer until they dissolve into something like glue. The cost of such perversion is even higher and reaches $6,500–13,000 per kilogram. In some cases, tiger glue is paid up to $15,000/kg, especially if it is made from the bones of a wild, rather than a farmed, individual.

Thus, THE RARER TIGERS BECOME IN THE WILD, THE HIGHER THEIR PRICE ON THE BLACK MARKET.

CONFLICTS

In recent years there have been more conflicts in the wild. Really a lot of problems! Hungry, deprived tigers come out to people in search of food. At the same time, people increase the scale of forest destruction, transfer vast territories into private hands for organizing sport entertainment hunting, and exploit the last refuges of wildlife.

So what are tigers supposed to do? On the whole planet their number is about 4 thousand individuals. Where should the last survivors go? How critical has the situation become, that even small tiger cubs huddle under village houses, painfully dying of hunger? 

In Russia we have been talking for a very long time about the problem of tigers coming out to people. In the Far East it has led to victims—already several people killed, and also many dead tigers! And experts find old festering bullet wounds on the tigers, meaning people were simply shooting at the predators.

And for a long time we were told that there were no problems with the prey base! Like, there really are too many tigers. But last year we managed to achieve official recognition of all the problems at the state level—all the problems we talked about were confirmed.

Unfortunately, the situation is not changing for the better. 

What needs to be done to stop the destruction of tigers?

We see the destruction of all the world’s ecosystems—the last protected territories are isolated from each other, torn into pieces. And at the same time, states continue to “develop” wildlife refuges, finally destroying the animals’ habitat.

Since the problem is global, it can only be solved comprehensively.

First. 

We launched a Public initiative to protect tigers — specific steps and proposals to the state that will, above all, prevent conflicts between tiger and human, and also restore the animals’ habitat.

Take part in the initiative and help us achieve changes!

Second. 

We developed the Concept of the Territories of Full Ecological Tranquility (TFET), with specific scientific research confirming the global destruction of the biosphere. Within the framework of our Concept it is necessary to urgently change the existing protected-area system, connect together scattered fragments of remaining ecosystems, and create enforced refuges for wildlife.

Sign the International petition and help spread the Concept so that as many people as possible can learn about it. If millions stand up in the struggle for Life—we can change the world.

Otherwise, our children will be able to see tigers only in pictures. People will erase a keystone species from the face of the Earth, and along with it a multimillion-year evolutionary history.

© PAVEL PASHKOV