Back From The Brink, Amur Tiger

There were once 9 subspecies of tigers. Three have gone extinct in the 20th century. A population of hundreds of thousands have been reduced to fewer than 3,200 tigers remaining in the wild today. Tigers persist in less than 7% of their historic range. “Tigers are hunted as trophies and also for body parts that are used in traditional Chinese medicine. Over 90% of Amur tigers are found in Russia. However, in the 1940s the population fell to just 40 animals. At the eleventh hour this subspsecies was pulled back from the brink of extinction. In 1947, Russia became the first country in the world to ban tiger hunting and grant tigers full protection.” Poaching increased after the collapse of the Soviet Union, however conservation groups have kept the population stable at around 540 individuals.