Steve Winter/NG Image Collection
Tom McHugh/Science SourceMichael Nichols/NG Image Collectionb. The critically endangered
California condor.a. A female tiger
with her cub,
Bandhavgarh
National Park,
India.c. To avoid attachment to humans, handlers use puppets
to rear captive condor chicks for release into the wild.✓✓THE PLANNER
The Challenges of Protecting
Rare Species
Although a large, powerful predator, the tiger—found in India,
Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, and a few other Asian countries—is
in danger of becoming extinct (Figure a). About 3200 tigers
remain in the wild, down from an estimated 100,000 a century ago,
and the areas in which they are found have declined to only 7
percent of their historical range.
Tigers are protected by law, yet they are illegally hunted to
meet a growing demand for tiger skins, bones, organs, and meat;
some body parts are used in traditional Asian medicine. Many of
the laws passed to protect tigers are not enforced. Also, as the
human population continues to grow, more wild land is altered
for human needs, leaving tiger habitat increasingly fragmented,
and humans hunt the same animals that tigers do.
Clearly, a concerted commitment is needed at local,
national, and international levels if wild tiger populations are to
be saved. Science, economics, social standards, cultural beliefs
and traditions, political factors, human population growth, and
national and international policies can all influence the fate of
wild tiger populations.A very different species, the California condor, has hovered
on the brink of extinction for some time (Figure b). A huge
bird that scavenges carrion and requires a large, undisturbed
territory, the California condor once ranged across North
America. The species’ low birth rate and particular mating habits,
combined with habitat destruction, poaching, DDT poisoning,
contamination of food supplies with lead shot, and power line
hazards, rapidly decimated condor populations. By 1982, only
22 condors remained, all in California, and the species faced
imminent extinction.
Recovery efforts took the controversial step of capturing all
remaining wild condors to initiate captive breeding (Figure c).
The first captively bred condors were released into the wild in- Care and training of young birds has evolved to address
reintroduction challenges; lead poisoning in particular remains a
major threat. No condor population is yet self-sustaining (able to
replace its numbers without captive breeding), but their numbers
are climbing slowly. As of March 2012, condors totaled 405—still
short of the recovery program’s goal of 450 individuals—with
more than half living wild at four sites in California, one in
Mexico, and one in Arizona.
CASE STUDY