Year of the extinct tiger
This February will see the start of the Year of the Tiger, in the Chinese calendar.
There are two extraordinary animals in that calendar.
One animal, the dragon, is already extinct and considered to be a myth. The other animal, the tiger, is nearly extinct, and is rapidly entering halls of mythology.
The world’s tiger population is at its lowest level ever, with possibly as few as 3,200 remaining in the wild.
It is estimated that one Bengal tiger dies every day. Just over a century ago there were more than 40,000 alive in India - now there are just 1,800.
Three subspecies of tigers – the Bali, Caspian, and Javan tiger – have become extinct in the past century. And a fourth may be on its way... many scientists believe the South China tiger is "functionally extinct".
Ironically, in the Year of the Tiger, the World Wide Fund Nature (WWF) has launched a last-ditch attempt aimed at saving the species. There is a desperate plan to release zoo tigers back into the wild
A plan has been adopted to help the South China tiger, A team is rearing zoo-bred tigers in South Africa and hope to release them in China.
The fewer tigers there are, the more financial there is to kill the rare commodity
At current availability, a tiger carcass can fetch up to $50,000, skins can reach up to $20,000, while a kilogram of the creature's bones can sell for about $6,000. And a tiger penis, for use in so-called virility pills, is priced at $28,000 for 100g.
Other people make a profit from tigers in other ways. In the interest of the tigers, here’s a few links to tiger related interests around Sydney, with a hope that you might see how relevant tiger mythology has already become to our culture.
Of course, no review of Tiger lore is complete without reference to one of the most famous poems refering to Tigers:
Tiger tiger burning bright William Blake
posted by peterh @ 7:44 PM
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