The Fate of Wild Tigers

This synthesis introduced the concept of Tiger Conservation Landscapes, mapping where tigers could still be found across Asia and classifying these areas by their potential to support recovery. The authors documented dramatic contraction of occupied range over the prior decade and warned that tigers had disappeared from large parts of their historical distribution. By ranking landscapes according to habitat extent, prey availability, and threat level, the work gave conservationists a spatial planning tool to direct investment. It underscored that protecting and connecting the best remaining habitats, while halting poaching and prey depletion, was essential to reversing decline. The study is frequently cited as a foundation for range-wide tiger strategy and for later doubling commitments, because it translated scattered field data into a coherent continental picture of where action could still succeed.