Tiger populations are expected to have increased by 40% since 2015, but with only 3,726 to 5,578 still roaming the earth, conservationists said on Thursday that the tigers still represent an endangered species.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the increase in numbers is the result of better monitoring, and the population is thought to be stable or growing. Projects like the IUCN Integrated Tiger Habitat Conservation Programme “are succeeding” and demonstrate that “recovery is possible as long as conservation efforts continue.”
There are believed to be between 3,726 and 5,578 wild tigers, which is a 40% increase over the 2015 estimate.
The tiger was still listed as endangered, but the population trend showed that initiatives like the IUCN’s integrated tiger habitat conservation program “are succeeding and recovery is conceivable as long as conservation efforts continue,” the organization stated.
The main dangers included habitat damage brought on by agriculture and human settlement, hunting and poaching of tigers’ prey, and poaching of tigers themselves.
The IUCN stated that protecting the species requires “expanding and connecting protected areas, ensuring they are successfully maintained, and collaborating with local communities living in and around tiger habitats.”
According to the World Wildlife Fund, the population of wild tigers has begun to increase in their primary habitats in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Russia, and China after a century-long decrease.
The IUCN revised its “red list” of threatened species, the most comprehensive source of information on the state of worldwide conservation for plants, animals, and fungi, and it also included a reevaluation of the number of tigers.
Additionally, dams and poaching have put all remaining sturgeon species in danger of going extinct.
The IUCN director general, Bruno Oberle, stated that the red list update released today “highlights the fragility of nature’s wonders, such as the unique spectacle of monarch butterflies traveling across thousands of kilometers.”
“We need effective, fair-minded protected and conserved areas, together with resolute action to fight climate change and restore ecosystems, to preserve the amazing diversity of nature.”
The list places species in one of eight threat categories. The most recent assessment included 147,517 species, 41,459 of which were classified as endangered.
9,065 of them are considered to be critically endangered, 16,094 to be endangered, and 16,300 to be vulnerable.
The list, which was created in 1964, includes 902 extinct species, including 82 that have gone extinct in the wild.
