If you’ve ever seen a tiger in a zoo, you know how majestic this animal is, but seeing a tiger in its own habitat is an even greater treasure.
“For the first time ever, a tigress and five cubs have been caught on camera in China,” the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said in an Instagram post.
WWF says tigers typically give birth to one to four cubs, but rarely five, so this is good news for an endangered species.
Over the years, tigers have lost 95% of their habitat due to deforestation for timber, agriculture, roads and other human activities, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Climate change also threatens their habitat. For example, rising sea levels are a problem for the mangrove forests on the edges of India and Bangladesh, where tigers live. However, if no changes are made, this tiger’s habitat will be gone by 2070.
Poaching and illegal trade also pose threats to these big cats, as well as tiger farms. As tiger populations rebound, they increasingly compete with humans for the same space, leading to more human-tiger interactions.
According to the Global Tiger Forum, “approximately 5,574 tigers still live in the wild.” They live in China, Nepal, India, Russia and Bhutan.
“The number of tigers in China has increased from a record low of 20 in 2010 to around 70 by 2025,” WWF said.
The group says many people have not lived with tigers before and therefore don’t know how to coexist with them. It works to educate people to help keep them and tigers safe.
That’s why trail cameras like this one are so important. It could help conservationists more accurately calculate how many species are left and which areas are most in need of protection.
This important work is being carried out in a five-year monitoring project in Bengkulu, Indonesia. The Bengkulu Lampung Natural Resources Conservation Agency conducted a survey of the area and found 42 Sumatran tigers.
Himawan Sasongko, head of the agency, said the information collected could be used to develop more accurate plans to protect the species.
According to the WWF, tigers play an integral role in the ecosystem by maintaining “the balance between their prey and the forest vegetation on which they depend.”
Forests are also vital to the livelihoods of millions of people, so this is a symbolic relationship.
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