Recent findings released by the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) revealed that tiger populations from Russia to Vietnam are starting to increase, with conservation groups and national governments counting around 3,890 tigers in these areas. However, a group of biologists is now calling these findings into question, claiming that the proposed increase might not be what it seems.
The WWF used data from the International Union for Conversation of Nature (IUCN) to arrive at the conclusion that tiger numbers have grown to 3,890, a huge leap from 2010 numbers that pointed to around 3,200 tigers. The conservation organization suggested that the positive trend stemmed from better survey methods and protection efforts, as well as increases in the tiger populations in countries such as Russia and India.
"This offers us great hope and shows that we can save species and their habitats when governments, local communities and conservationists work together," said Marco Lambertini, WWF International's director general.
Now, a group of biologists are suggesting that these statements are based on unreliable data and could be misleading us to underestimate the danger that the tiger population is facing.
"Having devoted years of our lives to trying to understand and save wild tigers, we believe their conservation should be guided by the best possible science," the group said. "Using flawed survey methodologies can lead to incorrect conclusions, an illusion of success and slackening of conservation efforts, when in reality grave concern is called for."
The group claims that 70 percent of tigers exist in just 10 percent of the remaining 1.2 million hectares of tiger habitat, and tigers who do not live in these regions are at a huge risk of dying out.
"The landscape and country wide numbers which are generated by officials of various countries and regurgitated by WWF-GTF combine are totally unreliable because of deep statistical flaws that arise from the very nature of tiger spoor surveys," said Ullas Karanth, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's India program. "This has been clearly demonstrated in a paper by some of us, published last year. Science should not get so long to get absorbed into conservation practice."
The WWF recognizes the fragile nature of their data and suggests that it is possible that their claims could be overconfident.
"WWF shares the concerns of authors of the statement that tiger population data should be based on the best scientific data available and that the increase in tiger numbers should be balanced with recognition of the severe threats that tigers continue to face, that some populations have been decimated over the last five years and that serious rates of habitat loss still threaten tigers and tiger population recovery," the organization said.
