tiger cub
The arrival of 2010 found us sharing our planet with only six remaining subspecies of tiger. These are the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), the Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni), the South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis), the Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti), the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) and the Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica).
All of these are endangered with a real threat of extinction in the wild. In recent historical times we have already lost the Javan Tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica), the Bali Tiger (Panthera tigris balica) and the Caspian Tiger (Panthera tigris virgata).
Conservative estimates suggest fewer than 3,200 tigers remain. This is despite the money being spent on habitat protection and the protection of the animals themselves. Poaching continues and numbers are declining. The world’s good zoos recognize this problem and, under the auspices of regional and international zoological bodies, keep and manage tigers for which officially recognized herd books exist.
Stud books for the various subspecies show a family tree for all included animals going back to known wild-caught founders. Backed by DNA analysis, they help the studbook keeper and species coordinator advise owners which animals should be bred with which. In general, pairs of animals of a similar age and as little related as possible will be chosen.
Within the UK, zoo legislation requires that zoos holding any species (and this includes tigers) for which a herd book exists, MUST subscribe to it and the associated breeding programme. Otherwise, they would lose the zoo’s license and would have to close to the public. Unfortunately, such legislation is not international.
Breeding programs are designed to breed and maintain long-term healthy, genetically viable populations that, after training and health assessment, can be released into the wild at a future date. This is not a magic bullet and the programs look forward to a possible launch a hundred years from now.
Early release of tigers is not a viable consideration as poaching and habitat destruction continue. Other species may be considered where such movement could be of positive benefit to a declining wild population. This was done in late 2009 with the Northern White Rhino. Sometimes the reverse applies, whereby the entire wild population is taken from the wild. This was done with the California Condor. In 1987, it was reduced to just 22 birds and protectively bred in captivity, so today there is a population of over 300. More than half of these are in the wild. The removal of certain animals from the wild can serve to increase the genetic strength of the captive population.
One of the main problems with the managed population of tigers in captivity, regardless of subspecies, is the number of captive spaces. There is not enough. Reproduction has to be controlled. Tigers are an easy species to breed, but there has to be somewhere to accommodate the progeny. For this reason, contraceptive implants, the separation of offspring and the maintenance of same-sex couples and groups are used. The number in captivity must be controlled and the available genetic range must be maintained.
The long-term survival of the tiger is under direct and positive threat from those tiger keepers who keep and breed animals without pedigrees. Those who keep and breed unregistered tigers are, without exception, tiger farmers. No reputable zoo will be interested in the progeny. These animals will sooner or later disappear into the trade, ultimately supplying an illicit market for tiger parts.
These unmanaged tigers are selfishly bred without the slightest regard for the long-term survival of the various subspecies as a whole. The animals are crossed with a subspecific hybrid brother crossed with a sister and a mother with a son. In fact, this is deliberately done by collections that keep and breed white tigers. White tigers are NOT a species but a mutation. Most are hybrid mutations. They have no conservation value.
Those collections that maintain and breed purebred species but are not members of an official breeding program do not perform any useful function. Inevitably, the animals they produce will go into trade.
No single collection can have a ‘breeding program’. Any collection can be reproduced, but a breeding program needs the cooperation and commitment of several collections, and the more the better. It doesn’t give a damn how “rare and endangered” a tiger is. If it’s not in an official breeding program it’s worth nothing. Zoos that breed and breed or just breed non-stud book animals are not smart; in fact, they are harming, however indirectly, the long-term survival of the tiger.