The tiger is the largest of all cats. The have long and beautiful coats with a reddish tint to them. They have white belies and black tails. They are noted and famed for the black/brown/ grey stripes that cover their body. Tigers are native to Asia. They will reach up to 13 feet in length (or 4 meters) these tigers display amazing adaptability as they are found in areas ranging from taigas to grasslands to tropical swamps. The weight of the tiger ranges from about 300 to 500 pounds. The tigers also differ in appearance according to wear they live, those that are in colder areas are paler in comparison and bigger, not surprisingly they also have thicker coats. The opposite occurs in the warmer areas. Its all about form and function… The smaller the tiger the more heat is given off (which is better in a warmer area). Further, the whiter tiger has a better chance of blending in a cold environment while this white tiger would be a painfully obvious in a warmer greener area (thus having no chance at hiding and catching prey)

The 4,000 tigers roam around India to Southern-Eastern China. They also roam around in Russia and Indonesia. These items roam around in solitude, as they are solitary animals and are also territorial. Tigers are among the worlds most famous creatures. There are eight subspecies of tiger and two of them are already extinct. The subspecies include the Bengal Tiger, the Indochinese tiger, the Malayan tiger, the Sumatran tiger, the Siberian tiger, and the South China Tiger. The other two tigers are the Balinese and Javan tiger, which are both extinct. The cause for this magnificent creature’s demise is poaching. This creature is persecuted. The tigers are sought for their rarity and beautiful coat. They are also sought out to serve as ingredients in Chinese medicine. In China for instance, necklaces made of tiger claws are believed to protect children from the evil eye. Tiger whiskers are thought to be a childbirth aid in India/ Pakistan; a poison in Malaysia; and a powerful aphrodisiac in Indonesia. Humans also destroy the tiers in other ways. For instance, the tiger faces a constant threat to its habitat. Humans cut down trees and attempt to urbanize every area. We also pollute the areas. Further, humans hunt down tigers in order to protect their livestock.

Surprisingly, tigers also have other predators besides humans. These animals are all larger than the tiger and include buffalo, bears, and elephants. The tiger is a cautious animal and does not like to hunt animals that are larger than itself, and will only do so if absolutely necessary.

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In India the conservation and protection of animals by law is almost nonexistent. Whatever is done is done by non-government organizations. As of now, India is one of the biggest markets where anyone can come and poach anything. So they supply China and Singapore, Germany and Japan … etc with everything from butterflies to the tigers. India is the current pool from which everyone is dipping into at the moment. There is a very corrupt system behind the conservation parks within India. The parks that are protecting the rhinos and tigers and such, allow poaching to go on freely. They do so because there are a lot of rich minerals located within the lands of the park, which the land owners want to capitalize on. The large sanctuaries are deliberately killing off their protected animals so that they may say “Oh well no there are no more tigers … etc so fine then let the miners come in.” If you remove the animals, you are going to remove the entire jungles, because the animals ( all of them from insects to large land animals) keep the jungles alive.

There’s this perception among humans, that as something grows more and more rare, it becomes valued more and people want it for themselves. Thus the rarer these animals become, the more people are going to attempt to catch them and then have others purchase them illegally. Animals in India are essentially on their last legs. An example would be the peacock, which is valued for its feathers. Tourists come into India, buying these feathers by the billion. These birds are killed for the feathers. The peacock is the national bird in India, yet it is openly killed for the feathers.

So as sad as it is, it’s essentially a race for the finish among Indian animals. Within India, it seems as though the newer generation hasn’t much changed from the old. The concept of preservation of environment has not swept into the mindset. India is a vastly growing country, and humans are attempting to urbanize as much as possible. The vulture for instance, is almost completely removed from India, there are only 18 vultures left, hanging about in a sanctuary, essentially waiting to die. There use to be a billion of them, and now they have been reduced to a slim few. It’s a real tragedy, but in today’s world, the modernization of society takes precedence over animal rights. For now, the creatures are all just waiting to die.

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There are a million different species of plants and animals on earth or there are 100 million species. More than fifty thousand species die out each year or a handful do. The death of one species can cause the collapse of an entire ecosystem or nature is more resilient than we realize.

The claims of those who wish to save endangered species and preserve biodiversity are countered by claims of those who wish to make use of earth’s resources. Because the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (as amended) puts the might of the federal government behind the right of every individual species to survive, disagreements about land use, whether for farming, building, or recreation, are now fought, as if by proxy, over the rights of snails and flies to avoid extinction. The road to this quizzical state of affairs has taken many twists, and the opinions on where we are today are almost as varied as those on where we should be heading.

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