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O'Neill, E.
Tigers: Worth More Dead than Alive. It's time to choose whether we will memorialize wild tigers, or save them
2008  World Watch (21): 6-11

Of the nine tiger subspecies that once thrived, poaching, conflict, and competition with human populations have driven three species to extinction and three others to near extinction within the past 50 years. The South China tiger, vigorously persecuted after a bounty was placed on its head by Chairman Mao himself, is considered to be functionally extinct. The "world's favorite animal" continues to be worth more dead than alive. Demand persists for its skin, bones, organs, and meat, and competition with tigers for land and prey (such as deer and wild pigs) steadily intensifies as human populations grow. A recently published study estimates that the tiger's range has shrunk more than 40 percent just since 1995, and much that remains is highly fragmented, with some patches able to support only a few adults. Increased habitat fragmentation also provides easier access for humans competing with tigers for prey. Although secured within the Meru Betiri Reserve of Indonesia (see map), the last remaining Javan tigers-which had been driven to the brink of extinction by hunting and habitat loss-ultimately died off due to lack of prey. No threat is driving tigers more rapidly toward extinction than poaching for consumption and trade, however. In 2004, India was stunned to discover that the entire tiger population of its Sariska Tiger Reserve (more than 20 individuals) had disappeared, Between 1999 and 2004, China alone seized 80 tiger skins and 31 skeletons, and it is safe to assume that this represents a fraction of animals actually slaughtered and trafficked during that period. Rumored to have an astonishing range of properties, from anti-convulsive effects (tiger eyes) to enhancing sexual prowess (tiger penis soup), tiger products in particular demand today include plasters (externally applied poultices containing ground tiger bone and herbs, believed to provide relief from pain, such as that caused by arthritis), tiger bone wine (the product of steeping skeletons in alcohol for an extended period, believed to treat illness and improve sexual capacity), and skin for adornment and home decor.

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