I have sad news to share. According to this article from The Guardian, tigers have just been declared functionally extinct in Cambodia. This means there are likely no more breeding populations in that country. The last time anyone saw a tiger in Cambodia was in 2007, when a camera trap took a picture of one.
The original article claims that Indochinese tigers (Panthera tigris ssp. corbetti) used to be plentiful in Cambodia’s forests. But poaching of tigers and their prey have now driven these most magnificent of cats to functional extinction. Apart from being a massive loss in its own right, this is a setback for the Global Tiger Recovery Program: the ambitious plan to double wild tiger numbers by 2022 (GTRP, 2011). But all is not lost.
In March, the Cambodian government approved a plan to reintroduce tigers into a protected forest. They are already working with other tiger range countries to acquire a few wild individuals for reintroduction. This will not be easy, but it is a step in the right direction. All species have a right to exist, but few creatures hold as much cultural significance as Panthera tigris (tigers’ scientific name). Therefore every effort should be put into restoring Cambodia’s tigers.
Click here for the original article from The Guardian
Further Reading:
Goodrich, J., Lynam, A., Miquelle, D., Wibisono, H., Kawanishi, K., Pattanavibool, A., … Karanth, U. (2015). Panthera tigris. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015: e.T15955A50659951. Retrieved from http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/full/15955/0.
The Tiger: the Most Magnificent Cat of All
The Jaguar 
No. This is devastating.
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It is very sad :( But with any luck the reintroduction will succeed and this loss will not be permanent. Reintroductions of big cats are challenging, but they’ve worked in the past.
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We destroy and then we rebuild.
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Unfortunately that seems to be the way of things. We seem to struggle at not destroying in the first place. That applies to more than just wildlife.
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I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. We are so quick to throw things away and replace with something smaller and faster…cars, dogs, belongings…mostly tangible things but also, feelings and those less tangible things that devalue and deconstruct. Food for thought.
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That’s really sad, I hope they’ll be successful with their reintroduction plan..
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Me too…and that we can somehow reduce the demand for tiger parts. As long as poaching pressures remain so high tigers will continue to decline.
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It’s really devastating. I hope their new plan works.
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As do I.
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Cool.
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What a shame!
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Yes, this really is terrible news :(
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😦
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This is a very sad news for me. I love tigers so much.
:(
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It’s very sad for me too :(
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:(
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Humans… how much they can disappoint me sometimes!!!
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News like this is very upsetting :( But we cannot give up.
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That’s true!
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This is really sad news Josh. I fear the same with poaching of rhinos in South Africa:(
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Yes, especially now that South Africa lifted its ban on trading rhino horns.
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When people dont see how the extinction of these animals affect them, they dont care. Little do they know that it would change the way the world runs in a few years
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You understand that remarkably well. Many times when people poach animals like tigers their main concern seems to be how much money they’ll make in the short term. But removing top predators like tigers has far-reaching consequences for their ecosystems…which ultimately effects people as well. Not to mention the wonder and majesty that is removed when tigers become extinct in an area. In fact apart from climate change, the removal of top predators is now considered to be humans’ second most significant impact on the planet.
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