WWF launches year of the tiger to safeguard endangered species

A Bengal tiger ( Panthera tigris tigris ) camouflaged in the forest. Bengal tigers are found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar and Nepal. India is home to the largest population. It mostly inhabits the dry and wet deciduous forests of central and south India, the Terai-Duar grassland and sal forests of the Himalayan foothills, and the temperate forests of Bhutan Photograph: Jason Edwards/NGC/Getty Photograph: Jason Edwards/NGC/guardian.co.uk A Bengal tiger at a river bank, India. There are thought to be between 1,300 and 2,000 left in the wild. The mangroves of the Sundarbans (shared between Bangladesh and India) are the only mangrove forests where tigers are found Photograph: John Pitcher/Rex Features Photograph: John Pitcher/guardian.co.uk A Bengal tigress moves her cubs to protect them from predators, India Photograph: Michael K. Nichols/NGC/Getty Photograph: Michael K. Nichols/NGC/guardian.co.uk This file photo taken on 23 March 2009 shows a dead Bengal tiger tied up as a crowd gathers at the Kaliabor police station in the Nagaon district of Assam, after it was shot dead for killing two people and injuring two others. Tigers are increasingly coming into conflict with humans as their habitat shrinks and they are forced to seek food near settlements Photograph: STR/AFP Photograph: STR/guardian.co.uk Trenggani, a Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), plays with one of her three nine-month-old cubs in their enclosure at Ragunan zoo in Jakarta. Sumatran tigers are a critically endangered species because of poaching and habitat destruction, with between 300 to 500 tigers left in the wild according to WWF Photograph: Darren Whiteside/Reuters Photograph: Darren Whiteside/guardian.co.uk A seven-year-old Sumatran tiger which rubbed its face raw on the bars of its cage sits at the safari park in Cisarua, about 75 miles west of Jakarta. The tiger was captured in Sumatra's Riau province in September after it was believed to have killed five people. It is one of the few remaining Sumatran tigers, whose numbers have been declining sharply in the past decade and which conservationists fear may become extinct in the next decade Photograph: Reuters Photograph: guardian.co.uk A female Sumatran tiger with a wounded leg after being caught by villagers on 21 October 2009. Tigers are increasingly coming into conflict with humans as their habitat shrinks and they are forced to seek food near settlements Photograph: Andi Madusila/AFP Photograph: Andi Madusila/guardian.co.uk A Siberian tiger ( Panthera tigris altaica ), also known as the Amur, Manchurian, Altaic, Korean or North China tiger in Heilongjiang province, China. The last two censuses (1996 and 2005) found 450–500 Amur tigers left in the wild Photograph: Keren Su/Getty Photograph: Keren Su/guardian.co.uk A Siberian tiger in the snow Photograph: Grant Faint/Getty Photograph: Grant Faint/guardian.co.uk The Indochinese tiger ( Panthera tigris corbetti ) or Malayan tiger is only found in the Greater Mekong region of south-east Asia which spans Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam Photograph: WWF Greater Mekong Photograph: guardian.co.uk Rescuers remove steel string from the paw of an injured tiger in Malaysia's north Perak state on 4 October 2009. Malaysian wildlife authorities rescued the five-year-old Malayan tiger, badly injured in a snare set up by poachers near the country's jungle border with Thailand. The government said in July it had sought the help of the military to battle poaching, adding that Malaysia was committed to an ambitious plan to double the tiger population to 1,000 by 2020 Photograph: WWF Malaysia/AFP Photograph: WWF Malaysia/guardian.co.uk Caged south Chinese tigers ( Panthera tigris amoyensis ) at a tiger breeding complex in Guilin, China. This complex is home to 1,300 tigers. It is estimated that China has around 4,000 tigers bred in at least six farms from the Russian border in the north to the Vietnamese border in the south. The World Bank warned last month that China and other Asian nations should shut privately run tiger farms as they are inhumane and fuel demand for the endangered big cat's bones and skin Photograph: Sinopix /Rex Features Photograph: Sinopix /guardian.co.uk South China tigers called Madonna (front) and Tiger Woods roam at the David Tang Tiger Breeding Centre at Philippolis outside Bloemfontein. The tigers are two of four that were brought into the Laohu Valley Reserve in 2003 to mix in a wild environment, breed and brush up on their hunting skills before being returned to their native habitat in China. The most optimistic estimation of numbers in the wild is 30 Photograph: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters Photograph: Siphiwe Sibeko/guardian.co.uk The Javan tiger ( Panthera tigris sondaica ) became extinct in the 1980s. The picture was taken in 1938 at Ujung Kulon. In the early 19th century Javan tigers were so common that in some areas the were considered nothing more than pests Photograph: Public Domain Photograph: guardian.co.uk A photograph taken in 1899 shows a captive Caspian tiger ( Panthera tigris virgata ) at the Berlin zoo. It is widely believed that the Caspian tiger finally disappeared sometime in the late 1950s Photograph: Public Domain Photograph: guardian.co.uk A 1925 photograph of the Balinese tiger ( Panthera tigris balica ), which once roamed the island of Bali, has been considered extinct since the 1940s Photograph: Public Domain Photograph: guardian.co.uk Male white tiger Ice Boy walks behind tigress Snowflock in their snow-covered enclosure in the Nyiregyhaza game park in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary. This species is rare in the wild, but widely bred in zoos due to its popularity Photograph: Attila Balazs/EPA Photograph: Attila Balazs/guardian.co.uk Two ligers, tiger-lion cubs, at the tropical wildlife park in Haikou, capital of China's southernmost province of Hainan, 9 February 2010. The twins now have survived for 162 days since they were born last 1 September. Lion-tiger cubs have a relatively short life expectancy, due to differences in their chromosomes Photograph: Guo Cheng/Corbis Photograph: Guo Cheng/guardian.co.uk Golden tabby tiger sometimes known as "strawberry tiger" at the Buffalo zoo, New York Photograph: Dave Pape Photograph: guardian.co.uk A map showing the tiger's historic range in yellow and its present day range in orange. WWF has also released another interactive map of the 10 Top Tiger troublespots in 2010 Photograph: WCS/Smithsonian/WWF Photograph: WCS/Smithsonian/guardian.co.uk