What's Driving Tigers Toward Extinction? | National Geographic — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:03the tiger the largest of the big cats is
3. 0:07also the most endangered the population
4. 0:10of wild tigers has declined more than
5. 0:1295% in the past century what's driving
6. 0:19Tigers toward extinction and can we save
7. 0:22them fewer than 4000 tigers remain in
8. 0:28the wild the current decline of tigers
9. 0:31is primarily driven by poaching to be
10. 0:34the demand for tiger parts in China
11. 0:37international trade and tigers was
12. 0:39banned at 1987 yet lack of enforcement
13. 0:43and a growing demand has only made the
14. 0:45situation worse sophisticated criminal
15. 0:51syndicates transport Tigers and their
16. 0:54parts across international borders these
17. 0:56gangs are part of a multi-billion dollar
18. 0:59illegal wildlife trade Tiger parts are
19. 1:04sold for use in traditional Chinese
20. 1:06medicine from the nose erroneously
21. 1:09believed to treat epilepsy to the tail
22. 1:12used to treat skin diseases and nearly
23. 1:15every body part in between has been used
24. 1:18to treat various other maladies these
25. 1:22purported natural remedies date back at
26. 1:25least a thousand years and it's not just
27. 1:29health but also wealth that's driving
28. 1:32the demand Tiger bone wine has become a
29. 1:39luxury good among China's growing elite
30. 1:41selling for up to hundreds of dollars a
31. 1:44bottle the product is made by steeping a
32. 1:47tiger's bones in rice wine some believed
33. 1:51drinking the resulting elixir will cause
34. 1:53them to gain the tiger strength to meet
35. 1:57growing demand for Tiger bone wine China
36. 2:00established its first tiger farm in
37. 2:02night
38. 2:031886 a tiger farm is a facility that
39. 2:06breeds Tigers like livestock today there
40. 2:09are hundreds of tiger farms and other
41. 2:11captive facilities across China
42. 2:14Southeast Asia and South Africa many
43. 2:17which are suspected of being involved in
44. 2:19commercial trade these facilities house
45. 2:23as many as 8,000 tigers
46. 2:25that's roughly double the number in the
47. 2:28wild so why are wild tiger numbers still
48. 2:34declining most conservationists
49. 2:37aggrieved that Tiger farms simply drive
50. 2:40up demand for tiger parts also some
51. 2:44consumers believe medicine made from
52. 2:46wild Tigers to be more potent than that
53. 2:48from captive bred Tigers many Tiger
54. 2:52farms double as tourist attractions
55. 2:55tourists can take part in the latest
56. 2:57trend photos with Tigers and tiger cubs
57. 3:00but these encounters are far from
58. 3:03harmless to meet tourists demand for
59. 3:06Cubs Tigers on farms are speed bred
60. 3:10newborns are taken from their mothers
61. 3:12soon after birth so the females can more
62. 3:15quickly produce another litter in the
63. 3:17wild tiger cubs stay with their moms for
64. 3:20about two years
65. 3:21when farm tiger cubs grow up
66. 3:24they're slaughtered for their parts one
67. 3:29popular tourist attraction in Thailand
68. 3:31the tiger temple made headlines when an
69. 3:34investigation found it was essentially
70. 3:37operating as a tiger farm the temple
71. 3:40opened in 1999 claiming to be taking in
72. 3:43orphaned tigers it quickly ballooned
73. 3:46into a three million dollar a year
74. 3:48enterprise with busloads of tourists
75. 3:51paid to pet Tigers and bottle feed Cubs
76. 3:54in 2016
77. 3:57Thai authorities discovered that the
78. 3:59temple had been breeding Tigers without
79. 4:01a license all 137 of the temples Tigers
80. 4:05were seized during the raid authorities
81. 4:10also discovered tiger parts and 40 dead
82. 4:13tiger cubs the tiger temple incident may
83. 4:18have spurred the international community
84. 4:20to take more concrete steps to prevent
85. 4:22wild tigers from going extinct societies
86. 4:26the treaty that regulates international
87. 4:29wildlife trade now requires all
88. 4:31countries with Captain Asian big cats to
89. 4:34report on how they are ensuring the cats
90. 4:36and their parts don't enter the illegal
91. 4:39trade and it's not too late to save
92. 4:43Tigers beliefs in traditional medicine
93. 4:46are fading as the younger generation in
94. 4:49China moves toward more modern
95. 4:51evidence-based medicine also Tigers are
96. 4:55a resilient species females typically
97. 4:58give birth to six to eight Cubs in their
98. 5:01lifetime large areas of suitable tiger
99. 5:04habitat still remain and they have the
100. 5:07potential to support over 20,000 Tigers
101. 5:11experts agree that if demand for Tiger
102. 5:14parts can be curved and tires can be
103. 5:16protected in the wild Tigers may be able
104. 5:19to rebound for the latest news on Tiger
105. 5:23conservation and other wildlife issues
106. 5:26check out national Geographics wildlife
107. 5:29watch
108. 5:31[Music]