Tigers have been in existence for the last 2 million years according to fossil records. Modern humans, on the other hand, emerged a mere 150,000 years ago, according to the OOA (out of Africa) theory. What made tigers such a target for destruction by humans?
Tiger populations plunged from a 100,000 a century ago to less than 3500 today. Much of this decline is due to overhunting, loss and fragmentation of habitat, and more recently, the illegal trade in tiger parts that encourages poaching which has become a lucrative business (“with pelts selling for $20,000 and a single paw worth as much as $1,000, the value of a dead tiger has never been higher” according to the New York Times) to feed the needs of the rich, who, despite their wealth, have not acquired any wisdom and still believe in primitive “remedies” for their aches and pains (tiger “wine” made from tiger bones) and “aphrodisiacs” concocted from tiger penises (be warned – graphic images from BBC News). With the global human population now estimated at 7.1 billion and growing at a rate of 3.5 humans per second, we probably do not need to heighten our virility any further.
