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Announcing the Extraordinary Tigers for Tigers Challenge!
University of Missouri, Auburn University and Clemson University have joined forces with World Wildlife Fund to initiate a friendly competition to see which school can raise the most money to stop tiger farming and the illegal trade in tiger parts.
While this challenge is being launched as a good-hearted, friendly competition between rival schools, the threat facing the world’s tiger population is deadly serious. The tiger mascot schools will compete to raise $75,000 to help end the illegal tiger trade in China and the Eastern Himalayas. In 1993, the world celebrated China’s domestic ban on trading tiger bones, flesh and skins. But when the cheering stopped, a sickening new enterprise began: tiger farms—where over 4,000 tigers are currently being bred for their body parts.
Today, a few Chinese businessmen are pushing the government to repeal its domestic trade ban, to open up the market for farm-bred tiger parts. With a revitalized market will come an increase in poaching, threatening dwindling populations of wild tigers across Asia. Donations from this program will help set up an enforcement network in priority places such as the Eastern Himalayas and the Mekong to keep tigers in the wild and off the market.
Help Mizzou win the Tigers for Tigers Challenge by donating today!
Visit www.worldwildlife.org/tigersfortigers
and make your contribution to save our mascot.
Alumni and Friends are encouraged to make an additional contribution to ensure our Mizzou tiger program is leading the way as we educate the conservation leaders of tomorrow.
India's Tiger Population Severely Overestimated in the Past
12 August 2007 - A new report from the government-run Wildlife Institute of India estimates that no more than 1,500 bengal tigers remain in India. This estimate differs from previous reports of over 3,000 tigers from less than a decade ago. Tiger expert Valmik Thapar points to inadequate protection of existing parks and rampant poaching by organized crime rings as the leading cause of decline. Read the full story here. Or listen to the story on National Public Radio here.
World Wildlife Fund Launches New Tiger Campaign
7 June 2007 - UPDATE - Tiger Mosaic unveiled at the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). View a slideshow here.
23 April 2007 - World Wildlife Fund and 30 other tiger organizations have launched an on-line campaign to send a message to China to keep the ban on trade in tiger parts and prevent the legal trade of farmed tigers. This international campaign encourages participants to show their support for tiger conservation by uploading photos to create a tiger mosaic from the photos they receive. The finished product of 50,000 photos will demonstrate the world's support for wild tiger conservation,and will be presented to delegates from 171 countries at the June meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in the Netherlands. Add your photo to the mosaic at http://www.worldwildlife.org/tigermosaic/
Even Less Habitat Remains for Tigers
20 July 2006 - The most comprehensive scientific study of tiger habitats ever done finds that the big cats reside in 40 percent less habitat than they were thought to a decade ago. The tigers now occupy only 7 percent of their historic range. Learn more here at the Save the Tiger Fund Web site.
More Tiger News
Recent tiger news from Save the Tiger Fund
Poachers Put Bengal Tiger in Additional Peril
from National Public Radio
Tiger Poaching Still at Danger Level
from BBC news
Russian Poachers Kill Most Intensively Studied Tiger, Olga
from Mongabay.com
Some good news for Siberian Tigers
from National Geographic.com
Listen to an interview with MT4T co-chair Matt Gompper and coordinator Dana Morris on KBIA (91.3 FM) from March 19, 2005
For the latest worldwide tiger news, visit www.savethetigerfund.org or www.worldwildlife.org/tigers
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Mizzou Tigers for Tigers News
2007 News
OCTOBER IS TIGER AWARENESS MONTH
DID YOU KNOW….
• There are only 3,000 tigers left in the wild – a 97% decline in the last century?
• The Bengal tiger, once thought to be the most numerous of the tiger subspecies, has only 1,500 individuals in the wild?
• Habitat loss, illegal poaching, and loss of prey threaten the remaining tiger populations?
WHAT IS MIZZOU DOING TO SAVE OUR MASCOT?
• Mizzou Tigers for Tigers was organized at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1999 as the nation’s first tiger mascot conservation program.
• Our organization raises awareness about the plight of tigers and raises funds for international conservation efforts to save wild tigers.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO SAVE OUR MASCOT?
• Join Mizzou Tigers for Tigers! Find out more at TIGERS.MISSOURI.EDU
• Learn about the issues threatening tigers and attend the fun and educational events during Tiger Awareness Month 2007
Members of Mizzou Tigers for Tigers and visiting artist Francesca Owens (3rd from left) show their claws at a reception for Francesca on October 4.
Results are in from the remote camera trapping study in Nepal
Last winter MT4T donated funds to WWF-Nepal for a camera trapping study that will document habitat use by tigers in the Parsa Wildlife Reserve, at the eastern most end of the Terai Arc Landscape, adjacent to Chitwan National Park. The donation allowed field researchers to operate camera-trapping stations over a broad area to provide photographic evidence of tigers and their prey species in the reserve. Potentially, the team will also be able to determine population estimates of tigers in this reserve so that more complete management plans can be developed.
The team captured a diverse assortment of predators, prey, and other wildlife in the reserve including tigers, leopards, elephants, Sambar deer, jungle cats, and wild boars.
Tiger (Panthera tigris) slowly walking through the camera trap (photo by WWF-Nepal).
Read more about Terai Arc Landscape
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/asia_pacific/
where/nepal/our_solutions/conservation_nepal/tal/project/index.cfm
MT4T Program Newsletter Now Available
Download a copy of our most recent newsletter to learn about what Mizzou Tigers for Tigers and MU are doing to save our beloved mascot.
MT4T Newsletter - MT4T05_07
Tiger Suffers Setback in Recovery, Euthanized
Sadly, after complications from surgery to repair limb deformities, abused tiger was euthanized. Read more here http://munews.missouri.edu/NewsBureauSingleNews.cfm?newsid=14547
MU veterinary surgeons heal abused tiger
MU surgeons specializing in angular limb deformities help a young tiger rescued from a fair and carnival circuit. Read more of the story:
MU sugeons help heal a tiger
Doctor's operate on begal tiger's leg
Mizzou Tigers for Tigers Donates to Tiger Project in Nepal
MT4T donated $3800 to WWF-Nepal for a camera trapping study that will document habitat use by tigers in the Parsa Wildlife Reserve, at the eastern most end of the Terai Arc Landscape, adjacent to Chitwan National Park. The donation will allow field researchers to operate eight camera-trapping stations over a broad area to provide photographic evidence of tigers and their prey species in the reserve. Potentially, the team will also be able to determine population estimates of tigers in this reserve so that more complete management plans can be developed. We hope to have links to tiger images as soon as they are "captured."
Read more about Terai Arc Landscape
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/asia_pacific/
where/nepal/our_solutions/conservation_nepal/tal/project/index.cfm
2006 News
$2 Million Gift Supports Tigers in the Wild and on the Court!
MU Alum, Bruce Loewenberg, makes generous gift to help save wild tigers. Read more here.
Mizzou Tigers for Tigers Featured in Homecoming Activities
During Tiger Awareness Month (2006) Mizzou Tigers for Tigers was selected by the Homecoming Steering Committee as one of two service organizations to benefit from homecoming fundraising. Read about Tiger Awareness Month in the Missourian 2006 Official Homecoming Guide and in the Oct. 4 edition of the Missourian.
2005 News
Mizzou Tigers for Tigers Student Organization
Wins Award 
The Mizzou Tigers for Tigers Student Organization was the proud recipient of the Peter H. Raven MU Environmental Leadership Award. This award is named after Peter H. Raven in recognition of his service to the University of Missouri and to preservation of environmental resources. Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Raven is the Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden Nicki Carter, President of MT4T Student Organization, receives award from Jan Weaver, Director of Environmental Studies, in MU's Peace Park during the Earth Day celebration.and past Curator of the University of Missouri.
MU Students take a field trip to the St. Louis Zoo
Winter 2005
The program welcomed its new coordinator, Dana Morris, in February, 2005. Dana is finishing a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences where she has studied forest fragmentation and migratory birds. She has experience working with local and international conservation organizations as a biologist and has worked with a conservation organization in Kenya that trains Kenyans in wildlife research and promotes community-based conservation, which is one of her many interests. She is excited to be working with Mizzou to save our magnificent mascot in the wild.
2003-2004
In 2003 Mizzou Tigers for Tigers commenced supporting the doctoral training of Abi Tamim Vanak. Abi represents the future of India’s wildlife; he is a promising young researcher and educator who has already proven himself through on-the-ground research endeavors. Abi has a history of working on important conservation topics, including tiger conservation, as well as working with national and international environmental organizations (e.g. the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, one of India’s foremost conservation NGOs, and the Wildlife Conservation Society, a global leader in addressing carnivore conservation issue). Abi shows outstanding potential to be a significant figure in the future of India’s conservation community and we at Mizzou Tigers for Tigers feel privileged to be able to assist in his graduate training.
Teaching for Tigers curriculum, a series of conservation education exercises oriented towards the 4th grade and designed by doctoral student Meredith Rogers (Education, 2006), was implemented in several mid-Missouri schools. The program works within the guidelines of the State of Missouri’s Show-Me Standards to enhance how Missouri’s elementary students acquire knowledge and skills to solve problems, make decisions, and act as responsible members of society. A three-phase curriculum teaches students about endangerment of the world’s tigers while integrating themes such as math, geography, communications arts and research skills.
Our hope is that some day the tiger will not be on the endangered list and we can tell the success story of the wild tiger! Until then, we are dedicated to continuing to reach out, study, and tell the plight of this majestic animal.
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