Tigers are the most charismatic and feared of the Big Cats, with black stripes on a reddish-orange fur that make them immediately recognizable.
Its current range comprises sections of the Indian subcontinent, the Russian Far East, parts of China, the Indochinese Peninsula, and the Indonesian island of Sumatra, although being extensive in the past. India alone is home to more than 70% of the world’s wild tiger population.
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Tigers live where?
Tigers are an endangered animal, with a population decline of 97 percent in the previous century. Tigers were to be found all throughout Asia, but presently just 13 tiger range nations are known to exist.
India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Russia, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam are the countries involved. However, in several of these nations, there is just anecdotal proof of tigers’ present existence.
Tiger Range Countries
1. India
India is home to the world’s largest population of wild tigers. According to the most latest tiger census, the nation contained 2,967 tigers, accounting for more than 70% of the total wild tiger population. It is a huge jump from 2,226 tigers in 2014.
In 2006, the nation has just 1,411 tigers surviving in the wild. Conservationists and inhabitants of the nation raised an alert, prompting significant measures to safeguard the species. As a consequence, the number of tigers gradually increased to 1,706 in 2010, and then increased further.
2. Nepal
Nepal, the Himalayan nation that boasts the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, is also home to a considerable number of wild Bengal tigers.
There were just 121 tigers in the nation in 2009. The number has risen to 198 by 2013. More excellent news came from a poll performed between 2017 and March 2018. The number of tigers in the wild has risen to 235, about twice the number in 2009.
3. Bhutan
Although tiny in area, Bhutan, another nation in the Himalayas, and bordering India, is home to 103 tigers.
When the government performed its first countrywide census in 2014, the tiger population was discovered. Prior to this investigation, the tiger population in the nation was thought to be 75.
4. Bangladesh
Bangladesh, a South Asian nation bordering India, features tigers that live in the Sundarbans region’s unique mangrove forest ecosystem.
Poaching, habitat loss, and climate change are some of the main dangers to the Sundarbans tigers. The nation has roughly 114 tigers in the Sundarbans area as per a report by the Dhaka Tribune.
5. Russia
Russia, too, has made significant progress in maintaining its tiger population, which had been dwindling for generations owing to poaching and habitat destruction.
The tiger population in Russia was estimated to be between 480 and 540 tigers in 2015, according to the most recent census. Tigers present in the nation are well-adapted to living in Siberia’s severe winter climate.
6. China
China has the greatest illegal marketplace for poached tiger parts. These pieces are utilized in the manufacture of traditional Chinese medicine or for decoration in houses.
As a result, it’s hardly surprising that the nation only has roughly 50 wild tigers. In China, however, tigers are grown in vast numbers in captivity.
Sadly, the illicit tiger trade market operating in the nation has not only practically wiped off the country’s natural tiger population but is also responsible for removing tigers from many other countries.
7. Thailand
The tiger has suffered a great deal in Southeast Asia. According to surveys, Thailand is home to between 100 and 160 wild tigers.
Both the Malaysian government and international conservation groups like Panthera are now paying close attention to the country’s protected regions. In this regard, some favorable impacts have been seen.
8. Malaysia
Malaysia’s tigers have also suffered tremendously from poaching the habitat loss. Tigers are thought to number between 250 and 340 in the nation.
9. Vietnam
Vietnam also has a robust underground industry trafficking in tiger body parts. Traditional medicine in the nation is made from tiger bone paste.
Although tigers previously flourished in Vietnam, currently only anecdotal proof of the presence of tigers is available. No tigers have been photographed in Vietnam since 1997.
10. Cambodia
Cambodia’s wild tigers were just recently extinguished. In 2007, the last wild tiger was photographed in the nation using camera traps in the Mondulkiri Protected Forest.
The World Wildlife Fund classified tigers functionally extinct in Cambodia in 2016. The animal is presently being reintroduced into protected regions.
11. Indonesia
Sumatran tigers, which numbered roughly 1,000 in 1978, are found in Indonesia. Only around 400 of these tigers are thought to be left in the nation today. Accurate numbers, on the other hand, are scarce.
12. Laos
Laos has likewise lost almost all of its wild tigers. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the nation has few or no breeding female tigers. In 2010, Laos had just 17 tigers, according to the country’s authorities.
13. Myanmar
Although the number of tigers in Myanmar has not been officially tallied, it is thought that some tigers still exist in the country’s woods. Surveys are required to get precise numbers.
Tiger’s Habitat
When sufficient food is available, tigers may flourish in an astonishingly varied range of settings. Tigers may be found in tropical wet broadleaf and dry forests, subtropical moist broadleaf forests, evergreen woods, and even the Sundarbans’ mangrove swamp forests.
Tigers have also been observed in the subalpine forests of the Himalayas in northern India, Nepal, and Bhutan. Tigers may be found in the montane and peat swamp forests of Sumatra.
They may be found in both evergreen and deciduous woods in Thailand. Temperate broadleaf, Korean pine, and mixed woods are home to Siberian tigers.
Tigers are under threat.
Tigers suffer a variety of hazards throughout their range, including habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation, and poaching. Linear infrastructure development, such as road and railway building across forests, fragments tiger habitats, restricting gene flow between tiger populations.
Tiger poaching for body parts is a major danger to the species, particularly in Southeast Asian nations, China, and Russia. Traditional Chinese medicine formulations that have no scientific foundation utilize tiger components.
Tiger populations are facing a new threat: climate change. Sea-level rise and severe weather events such as cyclones are posing a threat to tiger conservation in India and Bangladesh’s Sundarbans.