Tigers are on the verge of extinction Intro) This speech means a lot to me, I created it with passion, and with the sole intention of getting this message to reach ppl…  Please read it carefully, I find that if you read the sentences with bold underlined words twice, it helps to get my point across.  I cry every time I read this speech, I don’t know how many others there are that have what I have, this passion for wildlife, and life itself.  Here is an outpouring of my soul.  It is filled with statistics and educational numbers, but please please take the time to read them.  You might have NO idea what is going on!  I was so shocked and disgusted by what I found out, others need to know too.  I do put in lots of good things too, to lift the spirit of those reading, to let you know there IS hope.  Here it is, emotion, tears, passion and compassion in one:   1) General Info Tigers are the largest species of cat in the world.  Their large majestic bodies are patterned with stripes that have inspired many stories and poems.  The Siberian Tiger is the largest, weighing up to 350 kilos.  An adult Bengal Tiger consumes an average of 13 pounds of meat a day, 4 thousand 7 hundred pounds a year.  A Tigress with two cubs can need as much as 6 thousand 8 hundred pounds a year.  On average, it takes 10 to 20 attempts before one kill is made. Siberians, also known as Amur Tigers after the Amur River, live in Eastern Manchuria and Southern Russia, North of Vladivostok.  Their numbers have dropped to fewer than 500 as of a year ago.  The Sumatran Tiger’s numbers are estimated to be between 600-800.  The Indian Tiger’s population is estimated to be between 2,500 and 3,750.  Their relatives in Indo China range from Laos to Malaysia, and their numbers are lower than 2000. The Tigers in China have a much more grim number; Fewer than 30 Tigers are left in the wild in all of China.  That’s about the same as the number of people in this classroom right now.  And China’s big:  9 million 5 hundred some odd square kilometres.  And there are fewer than 30 of the largest, most beautiful and revered predator left in all that space?  They must give way to the people in China of course.  They are left with only small amounts of habitat left.  With so few Tigers in such a confined area, the genes are becoming to mixed.  Inbreeding is common.  As a result, the offspring suffer abnormalities and only a small percentage of them make it to adulthood.  Other adult Tigers (usually male) have been known to kill cubs, and even other adults, to eliminate competition for territory and prey.  The other species of Tigers, the Caspian, the Javan, and the Balinese, are already extinct.  White Tigers, caused by a gene carried in DNA, can occur in any Tiger species.  But this gene is extinct in the wild, and only exists in captivity.     2) Why are Tigers Dissapering? In India, home to the greatest population of wild Tigers, around 40 percent of the land was forest and jungle.  After India won her freedom the forests were cleared to make way for more civilisation.  Now, only 15 percent of India is covered with patches of forest.  Out of all of India, only 3 percent is specifically set aside for wildlife.  Loss of habitat is the biggest problem.  Tigers need a certain amount of space to function properly.  The Tigers aren’t the only ones loosing habitat; their prey is being forced out of they’re territory as well. Poaching has also taken a bite out of the Great Cat’s population.  A single tiger can bring in 15 thousand dollars, more than most locals make in a year.  In one Burmese bazaar, tiger skin was being sold for 5 $ a square inch, and a square inch of rib for 4.50.  They are butchered for Chinese medical practices, although no part of the Tiger is scientifically proven to help any of the ailments it’s used to treat. Tiger stomach is used for stomach-aches and vomiting, Nose of the Tiger for epilepsy, and, hung over a roof, it will induce the birth of boys.  Tiger teeth are taken for hydrophobia, or fear of water.  Whiskers for toothache.  Thousands of Tigers have died needlessly for unorthodox medicinal purposes.  Also the beautiful fur adorning the Great Cats has long been sought out for it’s mysterious beauty.  At the turn of the century, British officers would spend weeks on hunts, killing up to 120 Tigers in just ten weeks.  Royals of India would also go on long hunting expeditions.  The maharajah of Surguja holds the record; he’d shot 1 thousand 1 hundred and 50 Tigers by 1964.  Today, massive hunts like that would likely prevent the population from ever getting back to normal. Some, that are unable to hunt, turn to killing humans.  Villages have lost scores of people before the culprit Tiger is brought to justice, usually by shooting, or a bomb hidden within some bait.  Traps are also used, for getting rid of dangerous Tigers, but also for poaching, but they result in needless suffering for Tigers and also many other species of wildlife that should happen to come across the trap.   3) What's hapening in Captivity? Tigers are also being bread in captivity.  I think this is essential if the population is ever to recover from the impact of mankind.  A list is kept listing all captive tigers and their DNA makeup, so that the captive population can stay genetically diverse.  Artificial Insemination is used to produce offspring, but the operation is seldom successful.  But sometimes, no human intervention is needed in zoos, and some tigers happily form bonds with each other.   I’ve seen a number of tigers in various zoos.  It’s a sad thing to see.  I was recently at the Sandiago Zoo in California.  The Tiger enclosure has a glass wall for observation, and I was up close to it trying to get a glimpse of the massive cat.  Then, my eye found him.  I had to strain my neck upward to the top of a cliff.  He was pacing back and forth, back and forth.  I watched him for several minutes, just watching him walk.  I was about to leave to observe from above, when he climbed down from his ledge and went above a stream.  He stood, posing, on a log above the stream that ran through his “territory.”  My first thought was “Kodak Moment” and I focussed my camera.  He looked at me through the shudder, than up towards the sky, as thought trying to tell me “Help me!  Let me leave this awful place!” If this were a dream of mine, with a happy ending, he would have sprouted wings and flown away to some wonderful utopia that only does exist in my dreams. I put my camera down, later on I found I did take some pictures, and they make me cry to look at them.  He climbed onto another overhang , and was standing not more than 10 meters away from me.  The look on his face crushed my heart.  I couldn’t see the wondrous beauty that this magnificent animal portrayed, only a crushed soul.  I could see the resentment, the anger, and the sadness in his eyes.  He went back up to where I could no longer see him.  Someone behind me remarked, “He hardly ever comes down from there.  We’re lucky to have seen it.”  I went up to a higher outdoor observation area, where I could see him.  He was pacing again, back and forth in from of a chain link fence meant to protect him form the outside world, and vice versa.  I could see the places on the ground where he put his broad paws each time; I could see the little spots void of grass, worn away from walking on them for year after year after year.  “Lucky?”  I don’t know that, if I had had the choice to see that sight, if I had known what exactly I would have seen there, what happened to me, how I was changed, if I would have chosen to see it…  If it gets this message across to people, if I can CHANGE something, it was worth it.  It was beautiful, but a little piece of me cried inside for what man has done to this poor animal who has done nothing to deserve such a cruel fate. We are responsible for the downfall of Tigers, I think we should be responsible for bringing them back.  Captive breeding seems to be working, and right now, there are twice as many Siberian Tigers in captivity than there are in the wild.  If we can eliminate poaching altogether and reintroduce a stable population into the wild, the largest cats in the world might have a better chance of surviving.   4) What are international governments doing to save the Tiger? For one, efforts are being made to reserve more habitat for wildlife, where no humans are allowed to go.  30 years ago, there were about 80 national parks and sanctuaries, and there are some 450, at least on paper, and still more are being planned.  More man power is needed to keep villagers from driving cattle into the reserves, thus eliminating plant life, and the Tiger’s prey that feed on it.  One of India’s reserves, Sariska, is one of 18 Project Tiger sanctuaries.  A classic example of what many reserves have experienced:  In 1988, there were officially said to have been 45 resident tigers in Sariska, but that figure was likely inflated by bureaucrats more so trying to impress superiors than save wildlife.  A year later, there were no more than 16 Tigers in Sariska.  They had been shot.  18 Tigers and 30 or more leopards before 1988.  The reserve sprawls over 300 square miles.  But only patches of isolated forest are available for wildlife, and adolescents seeking a territory of their own must venture through populated areas to find new wilderness.  This increases the number of human/tiger encounters. In many of India’s sanctuaries, the number of visitor flocking to see wildlife threatens to disrupt to animals that the sanctuary is meant for.  Every day, mahouts riding atop tame elephants scour the jungle for a Tiger on it’s kill.  Then they take visitors to watch and take pictures.  This is disruptive for the daily routine of the Tigers!  But progress is being made also, and in India, a nursery distributes over 40 thousand saplings to be planted in villages each year.  School children have planted around 20 thousand trees in and around their villages. Other corporations and governments are trying to help as well, and in 1995 the Exxon Corporation pledged more than a million $ annually for a five year world-wide Save the Tiger Fund.  Pressure from the US helped persuade China and Taiwan to enforce their ban on trading tiger bones.  Still, lack of commitment allows more animals to be lost to the greedy hands of poachers.  Tiger Link, a new all India network of individuals and organisations persuaded 320 members of parliament, representing more than 250 million people, to sign an appeal to the Prime Minister demanding that the central government strengthen and reorganise it’s Tiger Protection.   5) Conclusion Ultimately, the Tiger won’t be safe until they are worth more alive, than dead.  Some villages have realised this valuable fact already, and have been allowed to keep half the proceeds from wildlife viewing, in exchange for many miles of newly planted forest.  The deal was a success, and in the first year alone, they raised 308 thousand $ from entrance fees.  The more wildlife they have, the more money they can take in.  This is good for all wildlife in the area.  Man and Tiger can co-exist.  If the tiger is lost, so is a whole eco system dependent on all the key life forms that tie in with the existence of the tiger.   If we, 6 billion strong,  can not save the tiger,  6 or 7 thousand strong,  than how on earth…….. can we save ourselves? Afterward This was written by Heidi Cordsen, for my Block B English Class, at the beginning of the year 2000.  I am very passionate about this subject, I could not read this speech without crying or quivering somewhat.  Even in front of the whole class, I went outside myself for a few minutes when I was describing the tiger in Sandiago Zoo, and how I looked at him, and he looked at me.  That was a powerful moment in my life.  I hard just remembering it, it’s almost indescribable…  I can tell when an animal is mad, or being playful, or wanting to die to escape the misery that is their life.  I hope you found this speech informative, I myself was shocked at what I found out…  If you wish to e-mail me, please do.  Heidi Cordsen Area51_a@hotmail.com, heidi@ilovechocolate.com

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