Amur Tiger Extinction

Amur tigers, among the five other surviving subspecies, have an endangered status. Tigers across the world are dying out, but the Amur tiger has some key issues that make it one of the more likely of the remaining subspecies to become extinct for good due to Asian’s lust for medicine from these tigers, habitat loss, and low genetic diversity.
Amur tigers have become extinct in China, Korea, and other Asian countries because the Chinese use parts of the Amur tiger for medicinal purposes. Hunters learned quickly that they could get rich selling these beasts to the Chinese. The tigers could bring in as much as $50,000 apiece. However, tiger hunting was banned in China due to the serious impact this was having on their population. However, poachers still try to break the law and get rich if they can catch a tiger.

Amur tigers have gone through serious habitat loss. These tigers once populated much of Asia as well as Russia, but no longer. They live only east of the Amur River in the wild and are split into two groups that seem to have no contact with one another. Although Russia is fairly unpopulated, more and more poachers are moving into tiger territory to find food for their families. Tigers are occasionally killing humans when they have no other meat since it’s their last resort. Habitat loss affects all tigers, even if they seem to live in an obscure location. However, Amur tigers are nomadic creatures and are able to adapt better than other animals.

In the 1940’s, it was discovered that Amur tigers had been so severely hunted that their numbers became about just 35 individuals in the entire world, which meant they have extremely low genetic diversity. Serious measures were taken to save the tigers. Their population has been steady at 500 tigers for many years now, but they’re still in danger. This is very bad since the genetics of the 35 tigers that remained could cause serious inbreeding. The two groups split that number in half, giving Amur tigers the lowest genetic diversity of any remaining tigers. However, Amur tigers born in captivity are said to show genetics no longer carried by those in the wild, which is a very promising sign. They’re also famous for having one of the biggest comebacks of all time, if not the single biggest.
Amur tigers have been very near extinction due to poaching for medicine, loss of habitat space, and a small genetic pool. Despite these difficulties and being endangered, they’ve made significant progress in their return over the last few years thanks to human cooperation and concern. If people continue to involve themselves in adding new genetics to the Amur tigers’ gene pool, they can possibly get off the endangered list.

Sources:

. “Endangered Species Alert: Amur Tigers Found to Have an Effective Wild Population of Just 35 : TreeHugger.” TreeHugger. Discovery Communications, LLC., 2012. Web. 26 May 2012. <http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/endangered-species-alert-amur-tigers-found-to-have-an-effective-wild-population-of-just-35.html>.

. “Siberian Tiger at Tigers in Crisis.” Tigers in Crisis. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2012. <http://tigersincrisis.com/siberian_tiger.htm>.

Vaillant, John. The Tiger. New York: Random House, Inc., 2010. 88.

. “WWF – Tiger – Overview.” Wildlife Conservation, Endangered Species Conservation. N.p., 2012. Web. 26 May 2012. <http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/finder/tigers/index.html>.