Species profile
Panthera tigris
Tiger
This is a curated published estimate, not a live census. Estimates may refer to mature individuals, wild individuals or a documented range and are not directly comparable between species.
EN · Endangered — Endangered — very high risk of extinction in the wild
About this species
Tiger (Panthera tigris) is part of the curated SpeciesWatch catalogue and is classified as Endangered. A tiger's stripes are not just fur-deep: they continue in the skin, and no two tigers share the same pattern — each animal is a walking fingerprint. Its recorded population direction is increasing. That is encouraging, but it does not remove continuing pressures or make every population secure.
Habitat, behaviour and ecological role
This profile associates the species with terrestrial, forest. These labels summarise environments used during different stages of its life rather than drawing an exact range boundary. Unlike most cats, tigers love water and are powerful swimmers, often cooling off in pools and even hunting prey in rivers. Its anatomy and behaviour are responses to those environments, while movement can connect distant places requiring different forms of management.
Why this species is at risk
A single tiger's territory can span over 100 km², which is why protecting tigers also protects entire forests and the people who live near them. The catalogue records 4 principal pressures for this profile: Poaching, Habitat loss, Prey depletion, Human-wildlife conflict. They should not be treated as isolated causes. Habitat change, exploitation, pollution, disease and climate stress can reinforce one another, while the importance of each pressure varies between regions and through time.
Conservation outlook
Protecting and reconnecting habitat is a priority, together with infrastructure planning that keeps feeding, breeding or migration routes functional. Direct protection needs to combine enforcement with conflict prevention, demand reduction and local benefits that make coexistence viable. Actions need long-term monitoring and revision as evidence changes; a positive intervention in one place does not by itself represent recovery across the species.
Editorial review: 2026-08-21
Threat factors
Known occurrences
Dots are georeferenced occurrence records from OBIS (marine) and GBIF (global), not individual animals and not a complete range map. Up to 500 recent API results are cached; the profile renders at most 500 points.
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Listen to this species
Khao Khieo, near Khao Nang Rum Wildlife Research Station, Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, Uthai Thani · 0:37 · https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/