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Renee Bergeron

Ms. Wing

Pre-AP English Period 6

4 March 2018

The Critically Endangered Sumatran Tiger

Through the evergreen trees in the Indonesia forest lays the Sumatran Tiger, the

smallest type of tiger in the world. Thousands of species walk along the massive trees

and others live in the clear, blue water that runs through the forest. With many villages

and deforestation nearby, these magestic tigers as well as other species are becoming

extinct. Logging is a major problem as well as poaching which is threatening a variety of

animal races. Deforestaion and logging is taking away the habitat and homes of various

species and with the continuous destruction of the forest, these tigers will soon be just a

memory. These black and orange striped animals are dropping in population rapidly.

With many organizations trying to keep the number from decreasing, there is a hope for a

population increase. Silently, these hazel eyed mammals are looking back and forth at

their surroundings to watch for the multiple different threats. These beautiful animals that

rome through the forest floor rely on a change in the environment and society in order to

prevent extinction. Without a change in poaching, deforestation, and logging, there is

almost no hope for the survivial of the Sumatran Tiger along with many others.

The Sumatran Tiger is a species of tiger that lives around the Indonesia island

called the Sumutra. They live in the lowland forest to the mountain forests, including
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areas of evergreen, swamps, and rain forests. This beautiful mammal is critically

endangered due to poaching, logging, and hunting. Some people who live in nearby areas

kill the tigers for their protection. Most people, on the other hand, kill them for their meat

and bones. The bones from Sumatran Tigers are being used for medicines while poachers

kill tigers for their meat or for sport. The poachers that do not hunt for sport, use the meat

for food and some even use the fur for different materials. A few of the hunters will use

all parts of the tiger for a variety of reasons. Some even die due to breeding with

ancestors. There are only about 440-660 of them left in the world and this number

continues to decrease.

These mammals usually reproduce from November to April, although they can

reproduce at whatever time they want. The food is often better from November to April

which is why more cubs are usually born during that time period. The females often give

off an odor which attracts the male tigers. There is usually two to three cubs in a liter, but

there can be up to six. At some times, their mother leaves them alone in order to hunt so

that she can produce milk for her cubs.

The sumatran tiger usually hunt for larger mammals that are often much bigger

than them such as wildebeest. If they can’t manage to get one, they will prey on smaller

animals or even rodents such as mice. There hunting style is very unique. It is easier for

them to hunt due to their fur, which blends in with their surroundings almost like

camoflauge. They then pounce on their prey, taking the other animal down. Although

they are very good hunters, tigers usually only get one animal in twenty attempts due to

the fact that some animals are fast and sense the attack.
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Although these tigers are magnificant, they are actually one of the smaller tigers.

Then males weigh from 220 pounds-310 pounds while the females weigh anywhere from

170-240 pounds. The other two populations of tigers that once lived there both went

extinct. Due to the amount of hunting and killing of the sumatran tiger, this species can

become extinct. There are many organizations, such as the World Wild Life, in the area

that try to prevent the killing of these tigers as much as possible, but it is extremely hard

as the main cause of extinction is destruction of habitat. Logging is a very big part of the

decrease in population; the number of tigers has been cut in half in the last couple of

years. Even though these animals have benefits towards the people, the society needs to

realize the impact on the population.

Deforestaion is a huge problem and it is very hard to stop that, therefore making it

hard to keep the population up. Currently Indonesia’s biggest problem is deforestaion so

not only is the population of tigers going to get wiped out, but all the other species living

in the area will start to die off as well;“There are now only two regions on the​ Indonesian

island with enough breeding females to sustain the species, according to a new

study”(Leahy). Wildlife watch set up cameras in the forests to try to keep track of the

tigers and to learn to recognize them individually. They noticed that the number of tigers
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in areas with no logging and less deforestaion, the number of tigers were twice as high

than that of a forest containing both. This just goes to support that in order to stop the

decrease in the sumatran tiger population, there needs to be a limit or a stop to the amount

of logging and deforestaion in the

Indonesia area.

Paper and palm oil industries are the cause for the majority of the deforestation.

There is less than 31 million acres left of the forest that both tigers and elephants rely on

to survive. Simple materials such as napkins, paper towels, toliet paper, etc. is all from

deforestation. If we don’t start to limit the amount of deforestaion, thousands of species

will die. It doesn’t have to be just one company to make a difference in the number of

species, everyone can help just by limiting the use of simple things that people use

mulitple times daily. There are not many of these gorgeous animals left in the world and

they are only located in the Indonesia forest. The population would increase greatly with

no pouching, less logging and deforestation, and less pollution. There is so much carbon

dioxide that is being emitted due to the amount of forests being destroyed. If there isn’t a

stop to this, the sumatran tiger species and many others will die off.
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Deforestation has been an ongoing problem for years, but nothing has been done to

change the amount of trees and habitats being destroyed in the process. The government tries to

control the amount of logging, but nothing changes and the population is still decreasing. There

are not enforced laws to control all of these issues. For example, although poaching is suppose to

be illegal, people still do it and some just do it for the sport. There are not very many

consequences for poaching. This isn’t just for the Sumatran Tigers, but there are many species in

which people hunt them and it is not controlled. By beginning to make the laws strict, people

will begin to follow the rules more. It is as simple as increasing the fine for poaching. If the

government does this, then many species will be prevented from going extinct. Although the

government should be fixing these problems, the people of the society also need to start limiting

extra resources which can also make a big impact on the population.

If there is not a change for these gorgeous tigers, many species including them, will

become extinct. The population is decreasing rapidly due to human activity and industrailization.

Organizations are trying to prevent the decrease, but humans can make a difference as well. By

saving simple items such as paper, tissues, woods, etc. this can limit the amount of resources

needed and cut down the amount of deforestation that occurs through many different forests. If
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society begins to cut down on the amount of extra resources, then many species, including the

Sumatran Tiger, can be saved.

Works Cited

Bhattacharya, Shaoni. ​Sumatran Tiger Being Hunted to Extinction. ​New Scientist, 16 Mar. 2004,

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4779-sumatran-tiger-being-hunted-to-extinction/

BioExpedition. ​Sumatran Tiger. ​Bio Expedition, 29 Jun. 2012.

http://www.bioexpedition.com/sumatran-tiger/

Kasnoff, Craig.​ Tigers in Crisis.​ ​Quattro Theme​ On​ Genesis Framework​, 2018.

http://www.tigersincrisis.com/sumatran_tiger.htm

Leahy, Stephen. ​Extremely Endangered Tiger Losing Habitat-and Fast. ​National Geographic, 10

Dec. 2017.

​https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/12/palm-oil-sumatran-tigers-extinction

-big-cats-animals/

WWF. ​Sumatran Tiger.​ WWF, 12 Feb. 2012.

https://www.worldwildlife.org/publications?species_id=sumatran-tiger
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