Listening
Listen to a talk and choose the correct answer A, B, or C.
As part of our series on wildlife, I'm going to talk about tigers today. First, let's take a look at the current situation. Over the last 100 years, the world's wild tiger population has declined significantly. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 100,000 tigers in the wild. From an estimated 7,000-8,000 in the late 1990s, wild tiger numbers decreased by more than half in 2010. For the first time in 2016, there was a slight increase. However, there were still only about 4,500 wild tigers around the world in 2023. So, why are tigers endangered? What are the threats facing wild tigers?
First, tigers have lost a large part of their natural habitats. Their habitats have been destroyed or degraded by human activity. Forest clearance for agriculture and wood, as well as the building of roads and housing have forced tigers to survive in small, unnatural environments. As their habitats become smaller, they find it hard to find food. So they are forced to enter villages and attack farm animals, which often results in killing the tigers by the farmers.
However, the most serious threat facing tigers today is poaching and the illegal trade in tiger parts. Historically, tigers were poached for their skins used to make fur coats and home decorations. In addition, there is still demand for their bones, teeth, and other body parts, which are used to make traditional medicines. Nowadays, many people still believe tiger medicines can cure diseases although this has been proven to be wrong by scientists. The demand for tiger parts led to the creation of tiger breeding farms where tigers are bred in captivity and killed for their parts. These farms were originally set up with tiger conservation in mind, as a way to stop poaching. However, these breeding farms led to an increase in poaching.
What can we do to help save tigers? Well, we can...
