#tiger data

The discovery of a tiger in a Houston suburb two days ago has brought the topic of "pet" and privately-owned tigers back into the media. With that story, the myth that there are "more tigers in Texas than in the wild" is starting to pop up everywhere again. My research has proven that claim can’t be true.

Even though I don't have a huge presence on Twitter yet, I think it is really important to contribute my research on US big cat populations to the discussion of the tiger discovery on that platform. Twitter has a really active science communications community, and it seems like a perfect time to spotlight my work and the conclusion that there's no data behind the Texas tiger population claims.

Honestly, guys, I'm super nervous about this! I'm not only promoting my research in a much more public way than I normally do, but I'm tagging everyone from big conservation organizations like the WWF to one of the researchers whose work I cited repeatedly in the project.

If you’ve liked my tiger data write ups on Tumblr, it would mean the world to me if you'd retweet the Twitter thread or add your comments in support of my work. I love the work I do and I'm really proud of the #CrouchingTigerHiddenData project, but man - putting it out a different, more public forum is still a big deal.