Giant Stuffed Tiger Facts

If your giant stuffed tiger is anything like Hobbes the tiger from famed comic strip

Calvin and Hobbes, then it comes alive whenever you want it to; he wears a cape and runs through the back yard pretending to be Superman, just like you; he sits patiently next to the bath tub while you complain to him about having to take yet another bath; he eagerly 'gobbles' up all the food you don't like that you drop to him from the dining room table. Oh, yes, your giant stuffed tiger is alive and well and living the high life, just as it should be.

That same lovely life of a giant stuffed tiger, however, cannot be said about tigers in the wild. There remains as few as 3,200 wild tigers in Asia thanks to ongoing poaching, habitat loss, illegal trafficking, and the cutting down of forests to make way for infrastructure and plantations. Since the 1940s, 3 sub-species of tiger have become extinct, and a fourth, the South China tiger, has not been seen in the wild for close to 25 years. Just seven percent of a wild tigers historic range, is occupied. Given the tiger population is in such dire straits, the World Wildlife Fund is on a mission to increase tiger populations by at least double to what they are now by the year 2022. Their campaign is called Tx2: Double or Nothing.

In launching their new initiative, the WWF has released an interactive map of the top 10 tiger trouble spots in the world, along with what their main threats are. First on the list is Malaysia and Indonesia, where pulp and paper along with palm oil and rubber companies are cutting down forests in these countries, which happen to be home to two of the endangered tiger sub-species. Next, in the Mekong region, roads and dams have either been built or will be built which breaks up the tiger's habitat. In East and Southeast Asia, there is still high demand for tiger bones, skin, and meat, which can only be maintained through illegal trafficking. In the United States, there are more tigers in captivity (there are an estimated 3,000+ in the state of Texas alone) than there are in the wild but there are hardly any laws preventing the animals from ending up being sold on the black market. Siberian tigers are having a tough time thanks to poaching of both them and their prey, in addition to increased logging in their habitat. In India, both humans and tigers are constantly coming into conflict due to the tigers' ever-shrinking habitat. And finally, in Bangladesh's Sundarbans mangroves, tiger habitats could see a reduction of up to 96 percent because of climate change.

While the fate of tigers in the wild is seemingly dire, by all accounts, most experts believe that the species has a chance and can thrive if they are given strong protection from habitat loss and poaching and have enough to eat. At a recent ministerial meeting held in Hua Hin, Thailand, 13 tiger range countries made a commitment to the WWF goal of doubling tiger populations by 2022; both the WWF and the Global Tiger Initiative will be helping all these countries to achieve that goal.

Your giant stuffed tiger has never had to contend with poaching or loss of habitat; their biggest problem has been nothing more than waiting to be cuddled and played with. It's always wise to never take a giant stuffed tiger for granted, after all, one day, like the real thing, they might just disappear altogether.

by: Angeline Hope

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