Endangered Tigers

Tigers are the largest species of big cat on the planet, with male tigers being up to 1.7 times larger than females. A fully grown male tiger can weigh up to 270 kg and be up to 3 metres long. (The average pet cat that you’ll find inside a house only weighs around 4 kg!)

There are fewer than 400 Siberian tigers left in the wild.

From English Online:

It is a bad time for the world's tigers. There were once a lot of these beautiful animals throughout eastern and southern Asia. Now, wild tigers live only in small areas of India, China, eastern Russia, and a few other countries.  

Conservationists (people who want to help save tigers and other animals) have been working for decades (a decade is 10 years) to save the big cats but the number of wild tigers continues to drop. There were about 100,000 tigers living in the wild 100 years ago, compared with no more than 5,000 today. As people destroy forests to make cities and farms, tigers have lost their living areas. As well, poaching (the illegal hunting of wild animals) —is a major threat to the cat's survival.

People sometimes hunt endangered species, like the tiger, to illegally sell the animal's body parts for souvenirs, medicines, and even food. Some people even pay high prices to buy tiger skins or other animal parts illegally. By selling just one tiger, poachers (people who kill tigers and sell their bodies) can make enough money to live for a full year.

A tiger skin trophy or souvenir found by the police. Tiger skins are illegal in many countries.

 A lot of people think that the tiger can heal sick people, although scientists have shown this is not true. For more than 3,000 years, Chinese medicine has used tiger parts to treat sickness and injury. Some people who use Chinese medicine believe that eating the animal's body parts will help cure diseases. For example, a liquid made of tiger-bone powder and plants is used to treat bone injuries and sickness. But it is not true that eating or drinking medicine made from tiger parts can help sick people.

Now, a new conservation idea is being discussed that could stop wild tigers from becoming extinct. Conservationists believe that a key to saving the world's wild tigers from extinction is to put an end to poaching of tigers. To do that, more police need to be trained to catch the hunters (poachers). Also, the illegal selling and trading of products made from endangered species should be better controlled.

Going hungry: Tigers scrabbling for food in the cages at Guilin

In China, there are places known as tiger farms. The animals live in cages. Each year, dozens of the captive tigers die of natural causes, such as sickness or old age. Some people believe that these tigers' parts should be sold for use in Chinese medicine.

 Where the tigers live at Guilin 'park'

Supporters of tiger-part farming say that this could help stop poachers. They think that there are many dead farmed tigers. If their body parts could be sold to medicine more easily, the tigers' value would drop and poachers would not make as much money from selling wild tiger parts.

Most people who want to save  tigers, however, do not want to test the idea. They don't believe farming will solve the problem. It costs as little as $20 (20,000 Korean won) for someone to catch a tiger using a simple trap but it costs thousands of dollars for a farm to raise one tiger from youth until adulthood. Therefore, poachers will continue to trap wild tigers because it costs a lot less money. 

Another fear is that poachers will sell wild-tiger parts but will say they came from farmed tigers. There is no way to tell the difference between a farmed and wild tiger.

The attitude may change if people become more educated about the plight of the animals and how endangered tigers are .

Further reading:
Tigers aren't Chickens But They Are Being Farmed Like It

Cruel World of the Tiger Trade

Questions

What is the main idea of the first paragraph?

Why are there so few tigers left?

Why do people hunt animals like the tiger?

How much money can a poacher make by selling one tiger?

How do some people think medicine made from tiger parts can help them?

Why do you think that some people still believe that medicine made from tiger parts will cure them?

How do conservationists think that poachers can be prevented from hunting tigers?

What are tiger farms in China?

What happens to some tigers on the tiger farms?

Why do some people support keeping tigers in tiger farms?

Why don't most conservationists approve of this idea?

Do you think that people should use tiger parts if they are very sick and believe it will cure them?