site

  1. myWWF Sign in
  2. Sign up
  3. Help
  1. Home
    1. What We Do
      1. Priority Species

Tx2: Double or nothing

WWF's Tx2 campaign aims to double the wild tiger population by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022.

We are working to secure unprecedented funding, political commitment, and public support to save the tiger – and so much more.

Find out more!

2010 Year of the Tiger
Largest cat of all. Top of the food chain. One of the most culturally important animals on this planet.

But with as few as 3,200 surviving in the wild, the tiger faces extinction by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022.
Share |

Donate now

US$5
US$10
US$20


Latest news

Find what you were looking for?

Love tigers?

Then help us guarantee their survival:
  • Common Name

    Tiger; Tigre (Fr); Tigre (Sp)

  • Scientific Name

    Panthera tigris spp.

  • Status

    IUCN: Endangered A2bcd+4bcd; C1+2a(i) CITES: Appendix I

  • Population

    Possibly as few as 3,200 individuals

  • Habitat

    Indo-Malayan, Palearctic

  • Length

    140-280 cm

  • Horizontal Leap

    up to 10 meters

  • Did you know?

    It is reported that at 11 months, juveniles are already capable of killing prey

Tigers are...

  • On the brink of extinction
  • Suffering from rampant and systematic poaching
  • More numerous in US zoos alone than in all the world's forests put together
  • At the top of the food chain
  • Solitary hunters
  • The biggest cat species
  • Uniquely patterned: no two tigers look exactly the same
  • Losing ground: 93% of their historic range has been lost

4 subspecies gone already

Less than 100 years ago, tigers prowled forests from eastern Turkey and the Caspian region of Western Asia, across the Indian subcontinent and Indochina, north to the Russian Far East, and south to the Indonesian islands of Bali, Java and Sumatra.

But today, most live in isolated pockets spread across increasingly fragmented forests, in just 7% of their former range. 

3 subspecies –  the Bali, Caspian, and Javan tiger – became extinct in the 20th century, and many scientists believe a 4th, the South China tiger, is “functionally extinct”.

The other 5 may soon disappear

The future of wild tigers is at a tipping point, with the population at its lowest level ever – possibly as few as 3,200 remain.
 
Alarmingly, these remaining tigers are systematically being poached across the forests of Asia, largely to meet the demands of a continuing illegal trade in tiger parts. They have already been completely exterminated from some tiger reserves.

To make maters worse, the tiger's habitat and prey continue to disappear due to agriculture expansion, logging, and rapid development.

Without immediate, strong action to save the tiger, wild populations may disappear altogether by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022.

Help us improve  

YOU have already helped us improve this page. Please, send us comments below and help make it even better.
Did you find what you were looking for in this page? 
NO   YES  
 
* If 'NO', can you tell us what is missing?
 
In your opinion, how could we make this page better?
 
* Please enter the code pictured below into this field:

captcha
reload image

  
* Required information