There are less than 3,000 tigers left roaming the planet, a drastic decline from 100,000 tigers just a short century ago. There used to be nine tiger sub-species worldwide, but in the last 70 years, three have gone extinct - the Balinese, Caspian and Javan. Globally, the tiger has lost 93% of its habitat in the last 100 years.The Malayan tiger Panthera tigris jacksoni found only in the Malay Peninsula, was recognized in 2004 as the ninth sub-species. In the 1950s, there were an estimated 3,000 tigers in Peninsular Malaysia. Today, only about 500 Malayan tigers are believed to remain, but no one knows for certain.
The initial decline in tiger numbers was primarily due to large-scale loss of habitat but in more recent times, the most urgent threat is poaching for its body parts, persecution by angry villagers, and starvation as their prey is over-harvested.
Threats to the survival of wild tigers are mounting and a world without wild tigers may become a reality in our lifetime unless drastic measures are taken.
The tiger is endangered. It is in trouble, and the time to save the tiger is now or never. The Malayan tiger needs greater interest, concern and action from the Malaysian public.
More Malaysians must join the fight to save the tiger. It may not take much to push our tiger closer to extinction, but Malaysia must act urgently if we are to save our national icon of strength, beauty and courage.
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Tiger beer worth more than real tigers in Malaysia
12 February 2010
Kuala Lumpur – We are just a day shy of entering the Year of the Tiger, the year of hope for wild Malayan tigers.
While news of heightened awareness for tigers flood the media, articles about a tiger brutally killed in the Bukit Tapah Forest Reserve in Perak, Malaysia, speak of the harsh reality faced by our Malayan tigers.
Responding to reports that a tiger had attacked an Orang Asli, the Perak Department of Wildlife and National Parks made the gruesome find of a dead tiger with a wire snare still entwined around its severed left forelimb. The tiger was trapped in the snare for a few days, shot in the eyes and other parts of its body and attacked with spears fashioned out of hard palm stalks. It is also believed to have been poisoned.
From HERE
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