Kids want to know why tigers are endangered. These are the main reasons in simplified English. I have not written much on purpose. The word ‘endangered’ means that there is a real danger that there will be no tigers living in wild places one day fairly soon.
The first reason is because for a long time, about 100 years ago, hunters from Europe and England liked to hunt the tiger and many were killed. These people were hunting the tiger for fun. They could go home and proudly tell others that they had killed a tiger. These days people think it is bad to hunt tigers for fun.
Today a big reason is because there is less space for tigers to live in. The amount of space they have is half of what it was since 1980.
The number of tigers in the world is about 3,000 now. It was about 6,000, 20 years ago. There are less and less tigers. This means that one day there might be no wild tigers if this goes on.
The number of tigers able to produce cubs is around 2,150 in areas where the tiger is protected. The less tigers there are able to create new tigers, the more the tiger is endangered.
Even in places where the tiger is protected (they are called ‘reserves’) they are still killed by people. Most of these tigers are in India. They are killed by people (called ‘poachers’) because they can sell the dead tiger to someone else for a lot of money. That person then sells the tiger to someone else, in China may be, where it is eaten by rich people. They think it makes them better and stronger if they eat bit of tiger.
Tigers are also killed for their skin. People like the tiger’s skin. People also drink tiger bone wine. There is lots of money in selling these tiger things.
The tiger lives in a part of the world called Asia. The number of people living in Asia is growing. There are more and more people. These people need space and food. There are more farmers who take the forests where the tiger lives. There are more factories making things. All these take up space. This means less space for the tiger to live. If the tiger can’t live there are less of them which means they are endangered.
The tiger needs to eat large animals to live. There are less and less of these large animals because people are killing them for themselves. As there are more people, more of these animals are killed. The tiger has less food and therefore starves. There are less tigers and so it becomes endangered.
Because the tiger and people are often now forced to live in the same place, some weak tigers attack people for food. This means the people are more frightened of the tiger. They then kill the tiger. The reason for all this is because there are too many people in the area where the tiger lives. This happens in a large area called the Sundarbans which is in India and Bangladesh.
Forty-one people have been killed in this place over 2001-2003.
These are the main reasons why the tiger is endangered.
Source: IUCN Red List
Of course NOW it is in part due to modern day poachers but the number of tigers they kill pales into insignificance compared to how many the British aristocracy killed in the past.
Thanks for reminding me, Alan. I’ll add a line.