Tigers are among the planet’s most recognizable large carnivores. Despite their iconic status, these powerful felines face severe threats, leading to their classification as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Some tiger subspecies, such as the Malayan and South China tigers, are even listed as critically endangered, with the South China tiger potentially extinct in the wild. Historically, tiger populations have plummeted from an estimated 100,000 individuals at the beginning of the 20th century to approximately 3,200 by 2009.
Habitat Loss and Fragmentation
The primary driver of tiger population decline is the extensive loss and fragmentation of their natural habitats. Human activities, including deforestation for agricultural expansion, logging, mining, and infrastructure development, have severely reduced available territory. For instance, conversion of forests for palm oil and soy plantations contributes significantly to this destruction. Sumatra alone has lost over half its forests in the last 40 years, largely due to palm oil and pulp plantations, directly threatening Sumatran tigers.
Infrastructure projects, such as road networks and dams, further exacerbate fragmentation, isolating tiger populations. This prevents them from moving freely to find food, mates, and establish territories. Isolated populations often experience reduced genetic diversity, making them more susceptible to diseases and less adaptable. With an estimated 95% of their historical range already lost, tigers are increasingly confined to smaller, scattered pockets of suitable land.
Poaching and Illegal Trade
Direct killing of tigers through poaching represents a severe threat to their survival. Tigers are hunted for their body parts, highly valued in illegal wildlife markets. These parts are used in traditional medicine, as symbols of status and wealth, or for decorative purposes. Tiger parts have been incorporated into traditional Asian medicine practices for centuries, believed to treat various ailments.
The illegal wildlife trade is a highly organized enterprise, often orchestrated by transnational crime syndicates. These criminal networks exploit high demand and limited enforcement resources in many tiger range countries. Poaching methods include snares, guns, and poisons. The scale of this problem is immense, with parts equivalent to at least 1,755 tigers seized between 2000 and 2015 alone, though the actual number trafficked is likely much higher.
Human-Wildlife Conflict
As human populations expand and encroach upon tiger habitats, encounters between tigers and people become more frequent, leading to increased human-wildlife conflict. Tigers, deprived of natural prey due to habitat loss and overhunting, may turn to livestock for food. This predation often results in retaliatory killings by villagers seeking to protect their livelihoods, sometimes involving poisoning carcasses.
Direct attacks on humans, though less common than livestock depredation, can also occur, particularly when tigers are forced into human-dominated areas. Such incidents fuel negative perceptions of tigers and lead to demands for their removal or killing. The increasing proximity between human settlements and shrinking tiger territories intensifies this conflict, creating a cycle that further threatens tiger populations.
Climate Change Effects
Climate change poses a long-term, indirect threat to tiger populations by altering their ecosystems. Rising sea levels, a direct consequence of global warming, threaten coastal tiger habitats. The Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, is home to a unique population of Bengal tigers adapted to this environment. Projections suggest that due to climate change and sea-level rise, there may be no suitable Bengal tiger habitat remaining in the Bangladesh Sundarbans by 2070.
Climate change also contributes to increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as floods and droughts, which can disrupt ecosystems and degrade tiger habitats. Changes in temperature and rainfall patterns can also affect the distribution and availability of prey species, forcing tigers to adapt or face starvation.