Since the onset of the Chinese New Year celebrations, we've been living in the year of the tiger. Numbers at tiger social gatherngs are dwindling, but it's not that they're not cool, or that nobody likes them; far from it. It's more that, as is sadly often the case, we've threatened their existence by removing their habitat and taking them from the wild for entertainment, 'medicinal' purposes and such specialities as 'tiger-bone wine'. To save you the trouble of googling it, tiger-bone wine is a drink made from the carcus of a tiger soaked in red wine. Seriously, a bottle of Blossom Hill from the corner shop does the trick, believe me.
That said, there's no point in being gloomy about these things, especially if you're a tiger, 'Carpe diem' and all that, so let's focus on the opportunities to give these beasts a helping hand. The WWF et al. have launched TX2, a campaign to double the number of Malayan tigers by the year 2020. Ambitious? Yes. Impossible? No. It would bring the numbers up to 1,000 individuals and ensure a bit of stability for a species teetering on the brink of uncertainty.
Positive thinking goes a long way, and the power of public support for a cause should never be underestimated. Get talking about tigers or get involved if you want to, just don't get complacent, because there's still a long way to go.
1 comment:
Hi Rachel, tiger bone wine, eh? Yucks!
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