As Dorothy, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow followed the Yellow Brick Road, they feared the animals they might encounter. "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" Today, a more realistic fear is the animals we might never encounter. Sadly, the wild tiger population is being threatened by poaching, habitat loss and population fragmentation. Want to learn more? Here are my recommendations for tiger hunting on the Web.
At the beginning of the century there were an estimated 100,000 wild tigers. Today only about 5,000 to 7,400 tigers remain in the wild. Not only have their numbers decreased, but in the past seventy years, three tiger subspecies have disappeared completely. What can you do? Start by reading the inspiring stories of how kids around the world have helped by raising money and writing letters. My favorite clicks are the interactive, online simulation games called Tiger Adventures. Try your hand at traveling undercover in India to capture tiger poachers, or tracking a tiger escaped from the airport customs office.
Join National Geographic photographer Nick Nichols on assignment in India, hunting for the ultimate tiger photo op. "I'm bored by wildlife photography in the conventional sense. I realized while scouting that it would take tremendous patience to get the type of image that I wanted. . . . The more conventional techniques—jeeps and elephants—allowed me to get to the tigers, but I needed other techniques to photograph them in their own environments. I settled on grass 'hides' and camera traps."
Why does a tiger roar? "Tigers roar to challenge other tigers at long range, to defend their territory from intruders, and to contact tigers of the opposite sex." You can hear a tiger's roar in several different formats (RealAudio, WAV and AIFF). All this roaring sure made my cat's ears perk up. She must have thought I brought home a really big kitty. Other fun stuff includes a paper tiger to print and fold, a tiger slide show, and a quiz.
The following links are either new discoveries or sites that didn't make it into my newspaper column because of space constraints. Enjoy!
Cyber TigerTiger Watch | Tigers Art Gallery |
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