The Common Creature On The Menu

Tigers.  We have known them for decades.  On Sundays parents may take their children to zoos to see the beautiful creature, to see their power and their ancientness.

In Asian culture tigers are depicted as being king of all beasts, fearless and royal. 

Painting by Zhang Shanzi (1882-1940)

In Bangladesh, Malaysia, and in South Korea, the tiger is the national animal.  In China, the tiger is a member in the zodiac and seen in Buddhism as symbolizing anger.  Many other cultures also use tigers in their religion and in their folklore.

We all know (hopefully), Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book".  Shere Khan the tiger is the enemy of the man-cub, Mowgli. 

And we also all know (hopefully), of the bouncy, bouncy, fun, fun, fun Tigger in Winne-the-Pooh.

 

 



And we even went to great lengths to create plush out of our favorite animals.  Like the Beanie Baby, India, for example.

So, there you go.  Tigers are quite loved and quite common and one might think they'll always exist and we'll always see them around in zoos and on Animal Planet and the National Geographic show and BBC.

But now here they are, feared to become extinct, reduced to less than 4000 in the world.  According to the World Wildlife Fund's website called WWF Global, since the 20th century, the numbers of these beautiful creatures met with a drastic reduction.  From an approximate 100,000 to about 3,200.

Wow...  Wonder what did that, eh?

There are actually three types of tigers already extinct; the Bali tiger, the Caspian tiger, and the Javan tiger.  The Bali tiger lost its last in the late 1930s in the island of Bali in Indonesia.  The Caspian tiger (reminds me of Prince Caspian in the Chronicles of Narnia), was never seen again by the mid-1970s.  And last, the Javan tiger was never spotted again after the 1990s.

Now, they are on the menu of the Endangered Species list.  But the WWF is putting effort in saving these beautiful creatures.

If you're interested in saving the tigers, check out

WWF Tiger Adoptions and ways you can help

Also, please tell your friends about the situation with tigers.  Things need to be done and creatures need to be saved!

Later on I'll post more reasons on why we should save the tigers and what is making them reduce so dramatically.



References
Tiger Wiki
WWF Global Tiger Populations
Tiger Painting