The Remembering Wildlife organization has announced Remembering Tigers, the ninth book in a series designed to bring attention to species that are threatened around the world.
Remembering Wildlife is a fundraising photography book series that has donated over $1.5 million to protect endangered wild animals. The latest looks at all things tigers are beautiuflly illustrated by some of the world’s top wildlife photographers including Art Wolfe, Jonathan and Angela Scott, Greg du Toit, and Sergey Gorshkov.
The book’s aim is to raise awareness of the plight facing tigers and to raise money to protect them, with all profits from book sales going to conservation.
There are only around 5,500 tigers left in the wild and they are now restricted to just 10% of their historical range. Sales from Remembering Tigers will be used to fund conservation projects in areas where they are vulnerable.
Weighing up to 573 pounds (260 kilograms) and measuring up to 10 feet (three meters) in length, the tiger is the largest of the big cats. It is found in Asia, from India – where two-thirds of all wild tigers live – through to the Russian Far East and into China. Its habitat ranges from sub-tropical forests to snow-covered mountainous terrain. Numbers are increasing in some areas, thanks to conservation efforts, yet the tiger is the least numerous of all the large wild cats and is listed as “endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Threats include loss of habitat, illegal hunting for the Chinese medicinal trade, widespread killing of their prey for bushmeat, and retaliation for attacks on humans and livestock.
“It’s an oft-quoted fact that there are more tigers in captivity in the U.S. than there are left in the world, a stark reminder of how the future of tigers might end if conservationists do not continue their focus and their fight. Tigers are a bellwether for the health of an ecosystem. For every tiger protected in the forest, there are plants, trees, insects, birds and other mammals who thrive,” says the founder and producer of Remembering Wildlife Margot Raggett.
The book costs $60 and can be purchased here.
