What's Driving Tigers Toward Extinction? | National Geographic

[Music] The tiger, the largest of the big cats, is also the most endangered. The population of wild tigers has declined more than 95% in the past century. What's driving tigers toward extinction, and can we save them?

Fewer than 4,000 tigers remain in the wild. The current decline of tigers is primarily driven by poaching due to the demand for tiger parts in China. International trade in tigers was banned in 1987, yet lack of enforcement and a growing demand has only made the situation worse.

Sophisticated criminal syndicates transport tigers and their parts across international borders. These gangs are part of a multi-billion dollar illegal wildlife trade. Tiger parts are sold for use in traditional Chinese medicine, from the nose erroneously believed to treat epilepsy to the tail used to treat skin diseases, and nearly every body part in between has been used to treat various other maladies.

These purported natural remedies date back at least a thousand years. And it's not just health but also wealth that's driving the demand. Tiger bone wine has become a luxury good among China's growing elite, selling for up to hundreds of dollars a bottle. The product is made by steeping a tiger's bones in rice wine. Some believe drinking the resulting elixir will cause them to gain the tiger's strength.

To meet growing demand for tiger bone wine, China established its first tiger farm in 1986. A tiger farm is a facility that breeds tigers like livestock. Today, there are hundreds of tiger farms and other captive facilities across China, Southeast Asia, and South Africa, many of which are suspected of being involved in commercial trade. These facilities house as many as 8,000 tigers; that's roughly double the number in the wild.

So why are wild tiger numbers still declining? Most conservationists agree that tiger farms simply drive up demand for tiger parts. Also, some consumers believe medicine made from wild tigers to be more potent than that from captive-bred tigers. Many tiger farms double as tourist attractions. Tourists can take part in the latest trend: photos with tigers and tiger cubs.

But these encounters are far from harmless. To meet tourists' demand for cubs, tigers on farms are speed bred. Newborns are taken from their mothers soon after birth so the females can more quickly produce another litter. In the wild, tiger cubs stay with their moms for about two years. When farm tiger cubs grow up, they're slaughtered for their parts.

One popular tourist attraction in Thailand, the Tiger Temple, made headlines when an investigation found it was essentially operating as a tiger farm. The temple opened in 1999, claiming to be taking in orphaned tigers. It quickly ballooned into a three million dollar a year enterprise, with busloads of tourists paying to pet tigers and bottle-feed cubs.

In 2016, Thai authorities discovered that the temple had been breeding tigers without a license. All 137 of the temple's tigers were seized during the raid. Authorities also discovered tiger parts and 40 dead tiger cubs. The Tiger Temple incident may have spurred the international community to take more concrete steps to prevent wild tigers from going extinct.

CITES, the treaty that regulates international wildlife trade, now requires all countries with captive Asian big cats to report on how they are ensuring the cats and their parts don't enter the illegal trade. And it's not too late to save tigers. Beliefs in traditional medicine are fading as the younger generation in China moves toward more modern, evidence-based medicine.

Also, tigers are a resilient species. Females typically give birth to six to eight cubs in their lifetime. Large areas of suitable tiger habitat still remain, and they have the potential to support over 20,000 tigers. Experts agree that if demand for tiger parts can be curbed and tigers can be protected in the wild, tigers may be able to rebound.

For the latest news on tiger conservation and other wildlife issues, check out National Geographic's Wildlife Watch. [Music]