#tiger conservation

Excerpt:

The release is part of a project run by the government and conservation group WWF to provide tigers with prey to hunt and eat, which has helped the big cat make a remarkable recovery in Thailand.

The wild tiger population in Thailand's Western Forest Complex, near the border with Myanmar, has increased almost fivefold in the last 15 years from about 40 in 2007 to between 179 and 223 last year, according to the kingdom's Department of National Parks (DNP).

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.

[image descriptions in alt text]

This is a painting I did for the Dallas Zoo's "Zoo to Do" art auction event in 2019 to help raise money for the zoo. The theme was Tigers. 🐯With 2022 being the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese calendar, I thought I would finally post these 😅

I was REAL proud of this one, though I do wonder where it wound up?.. 🤔🧐 (Hopefully not in the home of a transphobe 🏳️‍⚧️)

Tigers of the world, both current and EXTINCT.

After over a hundred years of decreasing, tiger numbers are now on the rise!

In 2019, scientists in India carried out the largest and most in-depth tiger census ever recorded. The census was so big that they made an application to the Guiness Book of World Records to determine if it was the largest wildlife survey ever conduted for any species.

India is home to the vast majority of the world’s tigers, and it was shown that Indian tiger populations have seen at least a 6% increase since the last survey in 2014.

#repost @tsherinsherpa Ang Tsherin Sherpa (California, USA, b. Kathmandu, Nepal, 1968-). I recently learned of this painting of a tiger by this painter, who derives inspiration from the negotiation between tradition and modernity in Himalayan diasporic culture (in this case, traditional carpet weaving motifs and a collaboration with a tiger preservation refuge). Thanks to @siddharthavshah for the tip.