The tiger, with the scientific name Panthera tigris, is the largest cat species. Tigers belong to the genus Panthera. There are two subspecies of tigers: the continental (Panthera tigris tigris) and the sunda (Panthera tigris sondaica) tigers. This classification was done in 2017 by IUCN (the International Union for Conservation of Nature). Sunda tigers are found only in Sumatra. They also used to be on Bali and Java islands. So people commonly know them as Sumatran tigers. The continental tigers are the Bengal, Malayan, Indo-Chinese, and Amur (Siberian) tigers. Once, the tigers were found all over Asia, from Turkey and from the Caspian Sea southwards across the Tibetan plateau eastwards to the Manchurian and Okhotsk seas. In most of these areas, tigers are extinct or almost extinct. The populations are rather stable in northeastern China, Korea, Russia, and some parts of India and Himalayan areas.
Tigers are recognized by their black stripes on their orange fur. The underside of the limbs and belly are white or a lighter colour. They also have white spots behind their eyes. The largest tigers are the Amur tigers. Males can grow 3.7 meters long and weigh over 423 kg. Female Siberian tigers are 2.4 meters in length and can weigh around 168 kg. Sumatran tigers are the smallest ones. Males are 2.3 meters long and can weigh around 136 kg. Females are 1.9 meters in length and weigh around 90 kg. Tigers are very strong animals. One has reportedly tow a gaur bull weighing 700 kg. Tigers have short and thick necks. They have broad shoulders and big forelimbs, which makes them perfect for catching and holding prey. Their tongue is covered with hard papillae to scrape the flesh off the bones of prey. Tigers are solitary animals, which means that they live alone. The only time they are together with other tigers is when a female tiger has cubs or in the mating season.
The tigers are controlling their large populations of herbivorous prey, which puts stress on plant populations. As top predators, they can be viewed as keystone species. Tigers are listed as endangered species, and they belong to the Red List on the IUCN. The largest tiger population is in India. The main reasons why tigers are endangered are habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation, poaching, climate change, and human-wildlife conflict.

A century ago, around 100,000 tigers existed in the wild. Now, this number is around 3900.
In some Asian cultures, tigers are used to make health tonics and folk remedies. Therefore, the animals are poached. On illegal wildlife markets, they sell every part of the tiger. It is really hard to protect the areas where tigers live. Many countries, even those that strongly enforce tiger conservation laws, continue to struggle with the never-ending fight against poaching, which is now often organized by transnational criminal groups who make huge profits from wildlife crime and erode the security of local communities. The impact of a single animal is big. If a female is killed, it means that future breeding potential is lost. If a male tiger were killed, the other males would start a competition for the territory, and that could lead to potential injuries and death.
Tigers have lost around 95% of their historical habitat. Humans have destroyed, degraded, and fragmented their habitats. Also, rising sea levels and higher salt levels are causing habitat loss. The Sundarbans are home to the world’s largest population of Bengal tigers. The rising sea level is killing the Sundri trees (mangrove forests), which means the tigers have to move to higher ground to find prey. It is estimated that sea level rise and climate change could destroy all the suitable habitats for Bengal tigers within the next 50 years. Tigers need large areas for their survival, and they are also territorial. If the tigers are pushed into small territory, it can lead to conflicts with other tigers, and there’s also a higher risk of inbreeding.
Since the tigers have less space, they have to compete for it with humans as well. The forests are getting smaller, and there is also less prey for them in there. The tigers have to find food outside of the protected areas. Tigers also prefer to stay close to water. One of the reasons is to catch prey, and the other is access to fresh water. Since droughts are happening more often, it means the tigers have more human contact while looking for water. Therefore, they can end up close to human-populated areas, and there they can hunt domestic livestock. To avoid this, the locals capture or kill the tigers. Captured tigers are often sold in black markets.

Tigers are an “umbrella species.” That means that by protecting the tigers, we also help to protect the entire ecosystem. For example, inside the tiger reserve, more than 6,000 hectares of forest were saved from deforestation. The study estimates that this translates into more than one million metric tons of avoided carbon dioxide emissions. Researchers also calculated that by protecting these areas, more than 92 million dollars are saved on the cost of social emissions.

Sources:
https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Panthera_tigris/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/tiger
https://www.earthday.org/climate-change-could-wipe-out-one-of-worlds-largest-tiger-strongholds/
http://www.earthbrigadefoundation.org/en/wildlife-conservation/6-ways-climate-change-affects-tigers/
https://www.earthday.org/climate-change-could-wipe-out-one-of-worlds-largest-tiger-strongholds/
https://phys.org/news/2023-05-india-tigers-good-climate.html