What does it mean that generic tigers are being "managed to extinction"?
It’s fancy zoo speak for choosing to stop breeding them or getting new ones: it means once the current animals die of old age, they won’t be in AZA zoos anymore. The current generic tigers in AZA facilities - there’s very few of them now - are living out the rest of their lives in comfortable retirement, basically.
For folk not familiar with the term “generic tiger,” it means they’re basically subspecies mutts. Many of the tigers in zoos in the US and around the world don’t have a known lineage, and therefore it’s thought that their populations don’t serve a conservation purpose. (That claim can be debated, because imho seeing and learning about any tiger at all will increase people’s interest and investment in conservation, but that’s the official stance anyhow). Current tiger breeding programs in AZA zoos focus on specific subspecies: Amur/Siberian, Sumatran, and Malaysian.
So just to emphasize: AZA zoos are not letting tiger populations die out! They’re just switching away from tigers whose genetics aren’t known so they can focus on funding and housing endangered subspecies.
