Tiger is in the same family as a cat. While it is bigger and stronger, it is called Big Cat.
But, being strong, mighty, and gorgeous carnivore makes them hunted by human.
Tigers have been hunted down to less than 4,000 despite having several conservations and breeding attempts so far.
Tiger’s skin is made into expensive carpets and home decoration.
Fangs and claws have become exotic jewellery for strange people.
Parts of tigers, even that special organ, have been extracted to make medicine and aphrodisiacs with the wrong belief.
All of these are the main cause of the illegal poaching, making their number plunge from hundreds of thousands to only thousands within some decades.
This does not yet count deforestation of their habitats millions of hectares a year.
What would happen if tiger went extinct? You ask…
The habitat of tigers is in East, Southeast, South, and West Asia.
A group of tigers needs a large area of forest for them to hunt and survive.
When we remove one species out of the ecosystem, chain reaction happens.
Especially for this big carnivore, the effect is intensified multiple folds.
The animal that is at the top of the food chain controls large herbivores, such as, deer, wild boar, gaur, bull, fit for the resources.
If tigers were gone, these animals would increase uncontrollably.
They would then eat more vegetation until it depletes from that area.
It would later affect smaller herbivores, including insects, to find food and breed harder. Some species would die off. Some animals and insects would invade our farmlands causing terrible issue, which would surely affect our own food supplies.
On the site, forests with a few plants would get smaller in size, until they disappear. The soil would be deteriorated. Some large areas could become a wasteland or even desert.
Other animals would not survive. What we harvest from forests, crops, grains, herbs, fruits and vegetables would also disappear.
Moreover, there would be landslide, flash flood, cataract, and most importantly, the global warming and climate change.
Other consequences would be unimaginable including conservative forest hiking that is one of the major incomes of many countries.
In fact, from 9 species of tigers, Bengal, Siberian, South China, Indochinese, Malayan, Sumatran, Caspian, Javan, and Bali, the latter 3 had been hunted down to extinction.
The forests where the extinct tigers lived have been deteriorated since, as said above.
Nevertheless, before the crisis set fire, anyone can still help tigers easily in just 3 steps:
Some of us might think that this is far-fetched story from you, but even though we have never used or supported tiger poaching, we do contribute to harming forests and the environment more or less.
So, this International Tiger Day, July 29th, is a nice day for us to start looking after tigers and their home better together.
Because we do believe that
One Small Change -can make- One Big Difference
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