Why The Tiger Is Not Native To Africa
If you are visiting Africa on a safari and run into a tiger then that is definitely something to tell your friends. The reason for this is because tigers do not live in the wild in Africa, however if your are very lucky you may actually see one.
Tigers, lions and leopards come from the same family of cats called Felidae. This family can traces its origins back to a common ancestor in Africa. Experts believe that roughly 2 million years ago one offshoot of the Felidae began to migrate towards Asia and evolved into the tiger we know today. Once this species established itself in Asia they never returned to Africa though experts have no idea exactly why this happens to be the case.
According to J.L. David Smith a conservation biologist with the University of Minnesota there could be many reasons why tigers never moved back to Africa, but the best explanation the professor says is time.
Plenty of researchers believe that tigers roamed throughout much of Asia and many sub species spread out over time, but geographic boundaries probably made it impossible for the tiger to migrate back to Africa.
Whilst tigers are not currently native to Africa you can find tigers there in special reserves and zoos, some people even keep tigers as pets which is how you may come across a tiger in the wild.
Tigers are an endangered species in their natural habitat of India, Indonesia, Nepal, China and Russia, largely because their habitat is being encroached upon by humans and destroyed which also means a loss of prey. It doesn’t help that tigers are also heavily poached and this has meant that roughly only 3000 of these magnificent beasts are left in the wild according to the World Conservation Society. There are some 5000 tigers held in captivity in the United States where they are properly protected from poachers. In 2005 the Save China’s Tigers foundation adopted two very rare South China Tiger cubs and took them to an isolated corner of South Africa where they are being taught to adapt to the wild in the hopes they will both breed and pass their survival skills onto their offspring.
