A 4-month-old tiger cub resting in the bamboo grove in Bandhavgarh National Park, Madhya Pradesh, India on May 17, 2017. Barcroft Media—Barcroft Media/Getty Images
Excerpt:
For much of the last century, the tiger’s future hasn’t been so bright: in their native Asian habitats, tigers face poaching, unchecked deforestation, increased human encroachment and disappearing prey. But recent national and international programs have helped the species find some footing. In 2010, 13 Asian nations that are home to tigers, including India, joined together in the Global Tiger Recovery Program, pledging to double the global tiger populationby 2022 — the next Year of the Tiger per the Chinese horoscope. The group also decided to annually mark July 29 as Global Tiger Day.
India’s track record with tiger populations has been encouraging. Numbers have steadily risen in census reports since 2006 with the 2014 survey finding an estimated 2,226 wild tigers across the country. The 2018 All India Tiger Estimation is currently underway and is said to be the world’s largest wildlife survey in terms of “coverage, intensity of sampling and quantum of camera trapping.”
The striped cat has been a part of India’s culture for as long as anyone can remember. The warrior goddess Durga is often depicted riding one. Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book, cast the tiger as the villain in his famous collection of stories, perhaps inspired by the creatures that roamed his birthplace of Mumbai (then called Bombay) in the 18th and 19th centuries. Kings across India hunted the tiger for its prized coat and bragging rights.
(I found a source for the story above: NPR from 2010)
“The tiger is just trying to be a tiger,” Vaillant says.
“What’s so fascinating to me about that region is that there are human beings and tigers hunting for the same prey in the same territory – and they don’t have conflicts.” But if you make the mistake of attacking a tiger, you will regret it, he says.
Make sure to water your tigers so they grow big and strong like Seth!! Every day is a good day when you start off giving a tiger a shower. Lather.rinse.repeat 😉😉😉 – Master Keeper Honey Wayton
A 22-month-old female scaredy cat tiger appeared to get the shock of her young life when she encountered a dead leaf floating on a pool of water in the Bandhavgarh National Park, India. Clearly unusure about just what was approaching her, the partially submerged youngster’s tail shot up in the air and with teeth bared she let out her most fearsome growl – all in an effort to scare the humble leaf away.
Picture: HERMANN BREHM / NPL / Rex Features
I CAN’T BREATHE
OMFG I AM DYING!
this is like the happiest thing I have encountered in a while
they should form a support group.
I lost it when I saw the tail, before I even read the comment oh my god
My name is cat And wen I see An unnown thing Approaching me Prepared to fite I show my teef I growl real loud I scare the leef
First of all, it’s not nice to take pictures without sourcing them to the photographer. Which is doubly important because if you had you would have found the rest of Paul Wiggin’s photos of this sumatran tiger cub from the Chester Zoo and and used this one instead, which is objectively 10x better in every way
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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