Tiger Stories

We sit down with WWF's policy lead on wildlife conservation, Leigh Henry, to learn more about what the Big Cat Public Safety Act is and why it's critical for the protection of tigers.

Illegal snaring is a rampant threat to wildlife and people in the forests of Southeast Asia. Snares are used to capture animals for the illegal wildlife trade. WWF-supported ranger patrols are working to address this crisis by removing snares. 

WWF India, in association with the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) Directorate, has implemented a program to significantly reduce the number of tiger-related deaths of honey collectors.

New camera trap images reveal the highest-elevation sighting of a tiger in Nepal, captured at over 8,000 feet in a densely forested area.

Leigh Henry and her colleagues from WWF’s Tiger’s Alive team visited Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam to continue the work of ending the illegal tiger trade and phasing out tiger farms.

Tiger King, Netflix’s new docu-series, is roaring with popularity, but behind the drama, there is a frightful truth: captive tigers in the United States are a significant conservation issue and could impact tigers in the wild.

In Nepal, citizen scientists are working with biologists from WWF to help protect tigers, rhinos, elephants, and other wildlife found in Bardia National Park.

In honor of World Wildlife Day, we celebrate some hopeful conservation stories to remind us actions make a difference and there’s still time to preserve our natural world if we all do our part.

New tallies from the country’s 2018 tiger survey demonstrate a stable or growing population, estimated at 2,967 individuals, bringing hope for the species’ recovery.

More than 200,000 acres of a transboundary territory for tigers, leopards, and other species have been established in the Russian Far East as a new protected area.

Established in 2010 and dubbed Tx2, it is arguably the most ambitious effort ever undertaken to recover an endangered species. Today, the overall tiger population decline has begun to reverse, with better data and improved surveys indicating there are likely now close to 4,000 tigers roaming free across the range states.Here are the Tx2’s top nine achievements to date.

Tigers living on the Malayan Peninsula—a region that includes parts of Thailand, Malyasia, and Myanmar—are at risk of going extinct in just the next two to three years.

The spot where I captured this image is between two trees, giving a sense of depth, and one, a “marking tree,” has been scratched everywhere by tigers.

Governments from around the world recently gathered to discuss the threat of wildlife trade on species.

In an enormous setback for wildlife conservation, China announced it will allow hospitals to use tiger bone and rhino horn from captive-bred animals for traditional medicine. The decision reverses a decades-old ban that has been instrumental in preventing the extinction of endangered tigers and rhinos.

In May, two Amur—or Siberian—tigers were released into Russia’s far eastern Evreiskaya Province, joining nine other rehabilitated tigers in the species’ historical habitat.

In an amazing show of progress for wildlife, Nepal is on track to become the first of the world’s countries to double its wild tiger population since 2010.

Rare footage of a tiger family offers exciting proof of tigers breeding successfully in the wild. The video shows a female tigress - named Rima - and her 3 cubs growing up in Central Sumatra. Rima then meets Uma, a male Sumatra tiger, and breeds successfully to have four more tiger cubs. Yet, tigers are endangered, facing a high risk of extinction in the wild. Today, there are only around 3,900 wild tigers worldwide. That’s more than a 95% decline from perhaps 100,000 just over a century ago.

On top of a ridge of in Indonesia, a healthy male Sumatran tiger was spotted by camera traps earlier this year. An important conservation tool, the cameras are equipped with infrared sensors that take a picture whenever they sense movement in the forest and help support WWF’s intensive tiger monitoring in central Sumatra. 

In a November 2016 story, WWF shared some good news: For the first time in a century, global tiger numbers had stopped declining and seemed to be on the rise.

In less than a decade, Bhutan’s Royal Manas National Park has achieved a big win for tiger conservation. From only 10 tigers in 2010, its population has now grown to 22. With a global population of as few as 3,890 wild tigers, every population increase matters. And it marks a significant step towards achieving the goal of doubling the world’s wild tigers.

Pavel Fomenko is a man of the wilderness and tiger protector with WWF-Russia. Here is his story.

From the world’s largest mangrove forests in the Sundarbans to temperate forests in the snowy mountains of Bhutan, protecting tigers and their natural homes helps provide benefits for thousands of other animals and millions of people.

Matt Erke works on landscape management projects that restore forests, engage and benefit communities, and protect ecosystems critical for biodiversity in the Himalayas.