Saving tigers from extinction, with a little help from satellites

Butchered: Indonesian police display two skins of young Sumatran tigers and their bones, seized from a man in Banda Aceh, Sumatra, on March 21. Aside from being heavily poached, tigers are losing their forest home worldwide. Photo: AFP

The world has lost almost 8% of forest crucial for tigers over a 14-year span, with the largest losses occurring in Indonesia and Malaysia due to the expansion of industrial agriculture.

A new study estimates that global forest clearing since 2001 led to the loss of habitat that could have supported some 400 tigers. This is potentially devastating, considering the current global tiger population is fewer than 3,500 individuals.