NEW YORK, New York, December 20, 2007 (ENS) – Conservationists estimate that today 5,000 tigers remain in the wild, down from 100,000 tigers that inhabited Asia alone just 150 years ago. Now, a new study of the potential for tigers to survive in Thailand has hope soaring that the endangered big cats may not be headed for extinction.Scientists at the New York based Wildlife Conservation Society, working with a scientific team in Thailand Department of National Park, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation, have been studying Thailand’s Western Forest Complex – a 18,000 square kilometer network of parks and wildlife reserves.
They learned that this area can potentially support some 2,000 tigers, which would make it one of the world’s tiger strongholds.