This article by Dr. Ullas Karanth in the Scientific American talks about evaluating where we are headed in the strenuous effort to recover this icon of nature’s diversity. Global efforts targeting tiger recovery began in the 1960’s. All the putative “wild tiger numbers” touted along the way (4000-5000 animals), however, are either glorified guesses or conjured up using poor methods. Overall our conservation efforts are going badly. Instead of the 25,000–50,000 that should be living in the wild, we’re urged to “celebrate” a miserable 5,000 with annoying frequency.
Read the full article here.
