2017: Tigers are going extinct

The Malaysian tiger
only 63 left in the wild

During the second half of the 1900's the tiger population dramatically plunged by over 95% on global scale. By the 1970's, tigers disappeared from central Asia, by the 1980's from Java and by the 1990'ss from South China. Three of the nine sub-species,Bali-tigers, Javan-tigers and Caspian-tigers were extinct as early as the 1980's.

Tiger counts continued to decline into the first decade of the 21st century. By 2010, geologists estimated that India, which once was a stronghold for tigers, had less than 800 wild tigers left, while some of the rarer sub-species had only less then 30 on the counting-balance. Poaching remained a serious problem, with tiger skins fetching up to 15,000 Euro's in China. Tiger-habitat loss was accelerating tremendously, with farmers encroaching into tigers' territory and forests being cleared to make room for palm oil plantations.

The Cambodian tiger
only 49 left in the wild

Summits between conservation groups and the few countries where tigers remained showed to be  little effective, and were more about politicians eager to be seen doing something, rather than tackling the issues on the ground. Within a few years, there are no longer any viable breeding populations of tigers, setting them on the path to irreversible extinction  Once the most recognizable and popular of the world's dominant species, this animal will soon go extinct just like the dodo, with only small numbers remaining in zoos and private posession.