The international tiger population continues to hover at an alarmingly low rate. Experts estimate there are approximately 3500 of the species walking the Earth right now, but that’s not satisfying preservationists who want to see more of the animals alive.
As a result, anti-poaching efforts and tracking technologies continue to advance to be one step ahead of not only the tiger species, but also the evils that try to poach them for their valuable bones and pelts.
As covered in Science Advances, scientists are expecting that advancements in these fields will help to double the number of tigers that walk the Earth by 2022. This includes some pretty high-tech satellite tracking technologies that will be used to track tiger whereabouts and keep them safe.
This kind of tracking will be significantly more accurate and effective at getting real-world numbers of tiger populations across the globe. Rather than keeping track of numbers annually, which is the older method of tracking tigers, these satellite tracking systems will provide near real-time tracking.
Other factors that will help to save the species are preventing the construction of massive highways where the big cats so often fall victim to casualties by impact, and preserving their natural habitat rather than moving it down for agriculture and commerce.
Tigers are far from the only species of animal that are dwindling in numbers due to poaching and other unnecessary losses; the Sumatran Rhino is another animal species that suffers a similar fate, and with the small amount of them left walking the Earth, they are a constant reminder of why we need to keep track of our wildlife and prevent them from dying off.
Source: Science Advances, National Geographic
