Relentless Tiger Poaching Brings Activists and INTERPOL Together

Photo courtesy of Brian Scott.

On the Chinese lunar calendar 2010 is the Year of the Tiger, which commences on February 14, 2010 and ends on February 2, 2011. The tiger is the third sign in the Chinese Zodiac cycle, symbolizing fighting courage, which was admired by the ancient Chinese as the sign that keeps away the three main tragedies of a household — fire, thieves, and ghosts.

Things are currently a little different in real life. The tiger is not fairing so well against both the destruction of its habitat and poachers.

In the early 1900s, tigers roamed throughout Asia and numbered over 100,000, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Its current estimates indicate that less than 3,500 of these remain as a whole in the wild. Tigers today are pouched for their skins, but almost every part of their bodies can be used for either decorative or traditional medicinal purposes.

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Looming Extinction of Asian Toothless Ant Eaters Could Spell Disaster for Regional Ecosystems

The ecosystems of our planet are very carefully balanced schemes, and sometimes the role of a single species is so important that its extinction can bring widespread destruction to that system.

This is the fear currently gripping governments and ecological groups in Asia as the four pangolin toothless anteater species of the continent move near extinction because of rampant pouching due to insufficient multi-national legislation.

“Pangolins and their ecological role have been overlooked despite their potential ability to control termites and ants, which may save us millions of dollar per year in pest destruction.

“A pangolin of three kilograms can consume up to 300-400 grams of termites per feeding,” said Azrina Abdullah, regional director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, a wildlife trade monitoring network, which is a joint program of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

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