Tiger, tiger

Feared...

Loved

...a sign in the Chinese zodiac

...a figure in some the world's major faiths

...an emblem for entire countries

One of the world's

most powerful predators...

That many would love to embrace.

No other animal on this planet

can bring such a nerve-tingling range

of emotions and reactions

to our minds.

By any standard, it is a truly remarkable animal.

Yet one that we are rapidly & relentlessy

driving to extinction

in the wild.

and make millions from tiger tourism

WHY?

Is their last refuge outside of zoos

going to be on our letter heads,

in our poems & songs

and on our childrens' bedroom walls?

Can we really look the tiger in the eye...

and confess that we admired everything about it

...except its existence?

And revered...

To all those companies

that put tigers in their logos, in their literature or on their products...

Portrait of a captive male Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) © Joel Sartore/National Geographic Stock / WWF International

© Martin Harvey / WWF-Canon

Mrs Indira Gandhi,

then Prime Minister

of India,

with a tiger cub

on her 50th birthday.

Mrs Gandhi, set up

a special task force

to plan India's

Tiger Project,

which was launched

on 1 April 1973.

Tiger (Panthera tigris), Bandhavgarh National Park, India.© Staffan Widstrand / WWF

Tiger skin seized at Shiphol Airport Netherlands, 1992

© Wil Luiijf / WWF-Canon

Tiger bones' medicine seized at Melbourne airport. Australia

© Frédy Mercay / WWF

Tiger bones, skull & skin recovered by staff of the Royal Chitwan National Park Nepal

© Soh Koon Chng / WWF-Canon

Chitwan National Park - Confiscated tiger and leopard skins and bones. Nepal

© Hartmut Jungius / WWF-Canon

Display of ivory and skins(clouded leopard,leopard,tiger and python skins. Also elephant tusks). A stall in Tachilek market. Across the border from Maesai in Thailand. Myanmar (Burma).

© Gerald S. Cubitt / WWF-Canon

Chinese medicines containing tiger and rhino parts confiscated by the USFWS. Los Angeles Airport, USA

© Wil Luiijf / WWF-Canon

Tiger bone products found at the Buyer Beware launch, International Airport, Birmingham, United Kingdom.

© David Lawson / WWF-UK

To those entire nations

who assign the qualities of a tiger to their laudable efforts

Burning not so Bright?

Female tiger captured by camera trap in Rimbang Baling-Bukit Tigapuluh Corridor, Riau, Indonesia. The picture was taken on 22th July 2009 © WWF-Indonesia / Tiger Survey Team

• There are now more

captive tigers in the US

than there are in the wild

(c) Uros Kovandzic / iStockphoto

• In the last 10 years

the wild tiger population has fallen

by more than 40%

93% of their historic range has gone

Up to 70 tiger traps are recovered EACH MONTH

in some forests of Indonesia

- cut down, burnt, built on or replaced by plantations -

Yet bought for as little as US$200 from a poacher

A tiger carcass can fetch

as much as US$35,000

To those of us

Tigers are poisoned, shot, trapped and snared.

Then skinned, crushed, mixed and poured.

who have at some time or other

pinned images of this true king of nature to our walls...

• In the 1990's there were around 7,700 tigers.

panda.org/tigers

Bengali tiger, Madhav Shivpuri National Park, India

© National Geographic Stock/ Michael Nicols / WWF

© Chris Martin Bahr / WWF-Canon

• Today, there are as few as 3,200 in the wild

The scientists tell us we have arrived at a TIPPING POINT.

NOW is the time

where WE decide their fate.

• Already, 2 of India's tiger reserves have no tigers.
• And more are on the verge of losing theirs.

We have lost 3 of the 9 sub-species of tiger

in the last 70 years

(That's 3 lost in the span of a single, western, human lifetime!)