Endangered Tigers by Carl R. Green

Author:Carl R. Green
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Enslow Publishing, LLC

Man Versus Tiger

Alone and unarmed, a human is no match for a tiger. Give the human a high-powered rifle, a vial of poison, or a steel trap, and the tiger is still dangerous, but now the odds favor the human. If the human is a skilled poacher, there is a good chance the tiger will be killed. If a culture values wildlife less than the animal’s value in the marketplace, the killing will go on until there are no more tigers.

The struggle between man and tiger was not always so uneven. A hundred years ago, tigers killed hundreds of people each year. To protect villagers, Indian rulers organized tiger hunting expeditions. When the British came to India, army officers took up the challenge. Mounted on elephants or perched high in the trees, they shot tigers by the thousands. During a four-year span in the 1850s, one sharpshooter killed ninety-three tigers. Only when the tiger population fell to alarmingly low numbers in the 1960s did the government ban hunting. To protect the surviving tigers, parks and reserves were set aside.7

The killing reached new heights in China after World War II. Communist leader Mao Tse-tung needed land for new farms, factories, and villages. To clear the way, Mao declared that tigers were an “enemy of the People.” The slaughter that followed almost wiped out the Chinese tiger (P. tigris amoyensis) and put many tiger parts on the market. As a side effect, with tiger bone and parts plentiful, the demand for tiger medicines shot up. When the supply of Chinese tiger parts ran low, high prices inspired a surge in poaching in India and Sumatra. Only in recent years have the Chinese taken steps to save their few remaining tigers.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.