Changes

*Javan tiger, ''Panthera tigris sondaica''

*Javan tiger, ''Panthera tigris sondaica''

:The last wild tiger on the island of Java, Indonesia, was seen in the Meru Betiri National Park, 1976; it was declared extinct four years later<ref>http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/41681/0</ref>.

:The last wild tiger on the island of Java, Indonesia, was seen in the Meru Betiri National Park, 1976; it was declared extinct four years later<ref>http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/41681/0</ref>.

There have been numerous historical cases of man-eating tigers; sometimes claiming hundreds of victims. However, the animals involved were often found to have been injured, frequently by [[porcupine]]s or [[gun]]shot wounds, and healthy tigers do not generally eat people.

Tigers face numerous threats, all at the hands of man; apart from man they have no natural enemies.  Tigers require large tracts of territory in which to hunt and breed, but current studies indicate they have lost 91% of their former range due to the swelling human populations of southern and southeast Asian countries, especially China and India. Logging, settlements, and agriculture eliminated viable habitat, and the replacement of large game animals with livestock naturally caused additional tiger deaths as humans sought to protect their domestic animals.  The pressure brought to bear on tigers caused some to find an unnatural replacement for their diet - man.  In one instance, tigers killed 41 people in 18 months (2001-03) in the Sundarbans mangrove forest of Bangladesh<ref>http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-outcasts-bangladesh-s-tiger-widows-fight-exclusion-a-744594.html</ref>.

 

Illegal trade in traditional, Asian medicine has also taken a toll.  Products made from tiger parts have been traded for over 1,000 years, as Asian cultures believe in the healing power they claim the cats have, despite no evidence that such claims are valid<ref>http://www.singlevisioninc.org/tiger_body_parts_sold.html</ref>.

==References==

==References==