Tiger BlogFest - Act II

We watch them in zoos, Kipling made sure all children would know how fierce and strong they were by making tigers villains. But their apparent strenght is nothing compared to how fast their habitat is disappearing. Wild and hidden, he plays hide and seek with tourists on elephant back in India, the lazy beast in European zoos, but behind those giant piercing eyes, the tiger keeps his freedom. Worldwide image of the jungle as we know it, that very image is slowly changing. Kids know them from books or cartoons, not many of them actually saw them "in the flesh" as Pink Floyd sang it.

Captive reproduction does not make it all, environment protection and rural populations awareness will make most of the job, as long as governments do their part. Once it was the battle against fur, sponsored by influent movie stars wearing nothing but... jeans, or walking down catwalks wearing bloody coats of fake fur. Now is the time for people to realize that the whole thing resides in well managing the forests of South-East Asia, especially Malaysia, were timber and rubber plantations are day-by-day eating on tiger land. They own their forest, for they are the kings of the jungle. Kids learn that in school. Adults should perhaps go back to their pupils' days, to acknowledge that fact: man and tiger can indeed cohabitate and share the same ecosystem, if and only if we raise the issues to an international and more widespread level. Diplomatics have always prevented wars, let this one between a single species of cats and the business of a few be public and carried out in the press... Save the tigers, save the forest!