Every year on July 29, the whole world celebrates International Tiger Day , which was established in 2010 at the International Forum “Tiger Summit” in St. Petersburg on the problems of preserving the population of this predatory animal.

The initiators of the establishment of the date were 13 countries that participated in the forum, in which tigers still live. During the event, a program for the restoration of the tiger population was also developed and adopted, designed for 2010-2022, the goal of which is to double the number of tigers over the specified period.

The tiger is under international protection, listed in the Red Book of the International Union for the Conservation of Animals, the Red Book of Russia and other protective documents of various countries. A complete ban on tiger hunting has been in effect since 1947, and in 1955 the capture of tiger cubs was banned and then strictly limited.

Unfortunately, there are only about 5,000 individuals left in the wild. Over the last century, the number of tigers has decreased by 25 times, and today these animals are under threat of extinction. In most cases, they become victims of poachers. And this problem cannot but worry conservation communities around the world.

But due to the measures taken, experts noted an increase in the number of tigers in the world in 2020. In India alone, the number of wild tigers was estimated at 2,600-3,350 individuals. This is about 75% of their total population in the world. In neighboring Nepal, where 121 tigers lived in 2009, there were 235 in 2020. A similar picture was observed in Bhutan and China, where tigers are increasingly being seen. This suggests that conservation measures are bearing fruit.

Fortunately, Russia is also among the countries where the number of striped predators is increasing. The territory of the Russian Federation is home to 95% of the population of the world’s largest tiger, the Amur tiger (approximately 200 Amur tigers live in the Far East, and there are about 750 of them in Russia). Much has been done for this, and measures are being taken to increase it.

^{Russia is one of the few countries where the striped predator population is increasing (Photo: Nick Biemans, under license from Shutterstock.com)}

In addition to creating new unique reserves and nature conservation areas on the territory of the country, work is also being carried out at the legislative level. For example, in 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed two laws according to which the sale and killing of rare cat species is subject to criminal liability, and the powers of gamekeepers and inspectors in the fight against poachers were expanded.

The main goal of the International Tiger Day is to inform the general public about the problem of tiger extinction and ways to protect them. Many relevant events are timed to coincide with this Day in different countries – thematic exhibitions, TV shows, excursions to zoos, charity and educational events and much more.

Let us recall that in Russia there is another holiday dedicated to these striped predators – Tiger Day in the Far East , celebrated annually at the end of September.

^{Of the nine known subspecies of tiger, only six remain today (Photo: Kichigin, licensed by Shutterstock.com)}

For information
The tiger is one of the largest land predators, second in weight only to the polar and brown bears. The weight of males reaches 275 kg (in some cases – 320 kg), the body length is from 2.5 to 2.8 m (excluding the length of the tail), the height at the withers is more than a meter.

The pattern of the stripes is unique to each individual tiger, which can be used to identify individuals, similar to fingerprints in humans. The tip of a tiger’s tail is always black.

Of the nine known subspecies of tiger, only six remain today. The Bengal tiger is the most numerous subspecies (40% of the total number of the species), and lives in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal. The Amur tiger is one of the rarest (about 11%) and the largest of all known subspecies, and lives in the Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krais of Russia, as well as in northeastern China. The Malayan tiger was recognized as a subspecies only in 2004 and lives in the Malaysian region of the Malacca Peninsula. The Chinese tiger lives in China, and the Indochinese tiger lives in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam . The smallest of the existing subspecies (about 150 kg) is the Sumatran tiger , found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

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Machine Translated by Google