Tiger stripes: as unique as a fingerprint
The thought of a tiger immediately conjures up the image of a large cat with an impressive head, orange fur and distinctive stripes. These stripes serve as camouflage for the animals in the dense undergrowth and are as unique as human fingerprints. Researchers can identify the animals individually based on their stripe patterns, for example on images from camera traps.
Tigers inhabit diverse habitats: from the tropical forests of Southeast Asia to the deciduous and mangrove forests of South Asia as well as grasslands at the foot of the Himalayas and the coniferous and birch forests of the Russian Far East. In their habitat, they are at the top of the food chain and play an important role in the ecosystem: they keep the populations of herbivores in check, which in turn have an influence on the vegetation. If the tigers are wiped out, the entire ecosystem will change.
Dwindling habitat threatens the tigers
The main reason for the disappearance of the tigers is the massive loss of their habitat: almost 95 percent of it has been destroyed in the past 100 years, with 40 percent lost between 2000 and 2010 alone. Today, the animals urgently lack needed retreat areas where they can find sufficient food and reproduce. Many habitats are now only small, isolated islands that offer the tigers hardly any opportunities to colonize new territories.
Poaching is also putting the tigers under severe pressure. The illegal trade in live tigers, their skins or body parts, which are believed to have healing powers in traditional Chinese medicine, is exacerbating the situation. In addition, tigers repeatedly end up in amusement parks or even in private households - an absurd reality. There are more tigers living in American households than in the wild.
The WWF wants to save the tigers and protect their natural habitat, and ARKU is supporting them.
Find out more at: www.wwf.org
Picture source: ©Narayanan Iyer (Naresh) / WWF-International
