Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris)

The Sumatran tiger is classified as a critically endangered species (IUCN classification), and the more positive estimates hold that approximately five hundred animals are left on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. This smallest sub-species of the tiger once also lived on Bali and Java, but human activity led to their extinction in the 21st century, and now conservationists fear that unless due action is made, the Sumatran tiger may meet the same fate. There are two main pressures on the Sumatran tiger: poaching and deforestation. During the last three decades, about half of Sumatra’s forests have been lost to logging and as forest areas are cleared, human settlements encroach on tiger habitat which often entail poaching of the tiger’s prey which in turn increases the conflict between humans and tigers.