Burma's Tiger Population Collapsing

[hatrack]

Yangon, Myanmar - Myanmar's tiger population has plunged drastically, to 150 or fewer in recent years from an estimated 3 000 nearly 25 years ago, a local journal said on Monday.

Surveys by the forest department and the United States-based Wildlife Conservation Society, found there were only about 125 to 150 tigers left in the country, The Myanmar-language Flower News reported. There were an estimated 3 000 tigers in Myanmar in 1980-81, before the number plunged to an estimated 600 to 1 000 in 1996, the journal said.

Myanmar, which has the largest number of tigers in the world after India, has created the world's largest tiger reserve in northern Kachin state's Hukaung Valley. It's also drawn up a tiger protection plan with WCS.

Myanmar is home to two species - the Bengal and the Indochinese. There are eight known tiger species in the world, the paper said."

EDIT

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw1114418520985B255

[phantom power]

1. My daughter got this little toy zoo for her birthday

with figures of elephants, polar bears, tigers, etc. I sat there, playing with her, but inside all I could think was that she will probably live to see them disappear.

Lately I feel like I'm sitting the death-watch for life on earth. Life as we knew it, anyway.

[hatrack]

2. Reminds me of something my wife & I saw at a gas station

This was a few years ago. We stopped to fuel up and noticed a very special stuffed toy display inside - "Endangered Wildlife Friends".

We were tempted to add "Sponsored by BP! More Endangered Wildlife Friends Coming Soon!" but didn't have suitable cardboard/magic markers on hand in the car.