The Amur tiger, once on the brink of extinction, has hit its highest population level for at least 100 years, according to the WWF. Hunters, for generations, have tracked down and killed the world’s biggest wild cat as trophies!
They were victims of their own brilliant gold and black fur. The hunters also tracked them down for their bones that are perceived to have healing qualities, bringing them to the world of traditional Chinese medicines.
Alexei Vaisman, head of the Russia WWF’s anti-animal trafficking program said,
There is still demand from China for the bones of the Amur tiger. An Amur tiger skeleton from Russia will sell for around $5,000 in China.
It was by 1940s, that the sub-species had nearly disappeared, with only around 40 Amur tigers surviving in its natural habitat — the frozen wilds of the Russian Far East. The environmentalists had placed the beast – at times weighing eight times more than a human — on the endangered species list.
But, Vaisman informed that a Russian census this year amazingly showed 480 to 520 Amur tigers living on the remote edge of Siberia, marking the total world population to about 600.