Conservationists agree that the tiger is an endangered species. A dying species, if you will. However, an estimated 3,726 to 5,578 tigers currently live in the wild worldwide, which is a 40% increase since last counted in 2015. The International Union did the counting for Conservation of Nature.
The cause of this increase is said to be an improvement in counting and monitoring the tigers. Luke Hunter, executive director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) big cat program, said in an interview with NPR, "A fairly significant chunk of that 40% increase is explained by the fact that we're better at counting them, that many governments, in particular, have really sort of moved heaven and earth to do massive scale surveys."
Dale Miquelle, a WCS Tiger Program Coordinator, "Although we still have a very long way to go, the new assessment shows that the tiger can be saved. There are more wild tigers alive today than in 2010, the result of range-state governments and partners committing to very focused protection of the species and its habitats. The threats have not gone away and will not for a long time. But there is every reason to believe the world can have even more tigers a decade from now if we double down on that commitment." There remains hope that tigers can return from their current status as endangered.
The initial decrease in the tiger population was likely due to poaching and human expansion, limiting the tigers' living space.
We await for more news.
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