Reported By:
| Edited By: |Source: ANI |Updated: Mar 11, 2018, 04:24 AM IST
The last remaining Siberian tigers living in North-East China could disappear within decades due to poaching and illegal logging, experts have warned.
Chinese authorities and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) research found that Siberian tigers are one of the most endangered species.
The population of Siberian tigers has dwindled from 300 to between 18 and 22 in the past seventy years.
"If the government fails to take effective measures, it's foreseeable that these creatures could disappear from China within 10 to 20 years. The poaching of wild animals, which is the tigers' main food source, is the greatest threat to their survival,” The China Daily quoted Beijing WWF biodiversity and operations Director Zhu Chunquan, as saying.
He added that extensive logging in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces has shrunk their natural habitats.
A WWF survey of the wild tigers' habitats in Heilongjiang and Jilin found that an average of 1.6 traps were laid every 10 kilometers to hunt down the animal.
"Volunteers from the WWF hold campaigns to remove traps every year, but we've gradually accepted the fact that we cannot clear all the traps ourselves. To effectively protect the tigers, we need to call on more people to stop eating wild animals. This isn't something that can be done over a short time, though," Chunquan said.
China's State Forestry Administration admitted that most wild Siberian tiger reserves do not have effective monitoring system due to technical constraints and mismanagement.
