Last stands for the tigers

National Geographic (and dedicated researchers) describe where tigers are holding out, which main hold the key to their survival; which is unfortunately very dicey.

A last stand for tigers?

This is what sickens me:

"Nearly every part of a tiger--skin, bones, internal organs, eyeballs, claws, whiskers, even blood--can find a buyer on the black market. Where some people prize bone-infused potions for their reputed medicinal or aphrodisiac properties, others collect claws and other remnants as trinkets, talismans, and souvenirs."

It's sick to kill animals for their parts in medicine (which does nothing); it's really sick that so many ignorant people think having part of a tiger in some potion will do something for them.

Here's some more:

Just a little over a century ago, an estimated 100,000 tigers stalked through the forests from Turkey to the Russian Far East. Since the 1930s, three subspecies of Panthera tigris--the Bali, Caspian, and Javan tiger--have vanished.

Beyond the relentless pursuit of poachers, the wide-ranging tiger must cope with ongoing habitat loss, a primary threat to nearly every endangered species on Earth. Since 1900, the species lost close to 95 percent of its numbers and range.

Geez! Here's the minimal hope:

With most tigers confined primarily to these small, protected areas, the authors of the new study argue, it's crucial to protect these sites. In a call to action, the Wildlife Conservation Society's John Robinson, executive vice president for Conservation and Science, and Joe Walston, director of the WCS's Asia Program, along with 19 other tiger conservation scientists argue that it's time to redouble efforts to protect tigers where they live--before it's too late.

In the study, the authors identified 42 "source sites" throughout Asia, so-called because they contain enough tigers to repopulate the wider landscape. Nearly 70 percent of the world's last wild tigers, including most of the breeding females, live in these sites, which cover just 6 percent of their current range--a sobering 5 percent of their historic range.

and bottom-lining it:

Though long-term strategies--such as restoring the broader landscape, shutting down illegal trade routes and reducing the demand for tiger parts--are important, Walston acknowledges, they'll be irrelevant if the last source sites aren't protected. "We're at such a stage now that if we don't focus a disproportionate amount of our effort on source sites, all other strategies are bound to fail."

Another no-brainer.