A new assessment reveals that the number of tigers living in the wild has increased by about 40% since the last assessment in 2015.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list study now estimates that there are between between 3,726 and 5,578 tigers living in the wild globally.
In response to the IUCN’s new tiger count, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) released a statement which stressed that, while the new estimate of tigers offers both hope and evidence that tigers can be saved, conservation still has a long way to go to ensure the survival of the tiger species.
“The threats have not gone away and will not for a long time,” wrote Dale Miquelle, WCS Tiger Program Coordinator, “But there is every reason to believe the world can have even more tigers a decade from now if we double down on that commitment.”
Tigers have been declared extinct in Laos, a status which was verified by a study in 2019 which confirmed their absence.
Lao tigers are believed to have been lost due to the large-scale practice of snare trapping, which indiscriminately kills animals. Tigers roamed the outskirts of Vientiane as recently as the 1980s.
