Continued human incursions for agricultural land, dams, logging, and road construction have fractured and destroyed over 90% of the tigers’ native habitat. As tigers roam in search of prey or new territory in these altered landscapes, they often come in direct contact with human-controlled territories, leading to many tiger deaths. Tigers are also unrelentingly poached for their skins and body parts. An adult tiger carcass can command over $10,000 on the black market.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 9 subspecies of tigers; 3 are now extinct. The global population of wild tigers is currently estimated to number 3,890 individuals, down from around 100,000 at the start of the 20th century. In fact, there are more privately owned tigers in the U.S. (5,000) than live wild over the entire planet.