Natural Factors:
* Prey Availability: Tigers rely on a variety of prey animals, such as deer, wild pigs, and buffalo. Fluctuations in prey populations due to disease, drought, or habitat loss can directly impact tiger numbers.
* Competition: Tigers may compete with other predators for food, such as leopards, dholes, and even other tigers, especially during times of scarcity.
* Disease: Tigers are susceptible to various diseases, including canine distemper, rabies, and feline leukemia. Outbreaks can significantly impact populations.
* Natural Disasters: Floods, droughts, and wildfires can disrupt tiger habitats and reduce food availability, impacting survival.
Human-Induced Factors:
* Habitat Loss and Fragmentation: Deforestation, agricultural expansion, and urbanization are the biggest threats to tiger habitats. This reduces available territory, isolates populations, and hinders prey availability.
* Poaching: Illegal hunting for tiger parts (bones, skin, teeth) for traditional medicine and other markets is a major threat, driving populations into steep decline.
* Human-Wildlife Conflict: As human populations expand, conflicts arise over shared resources. This can lead to retaliatory killings of tigers, especially if they attack livestock.
* Climate Change: Climate change impacts the distribution and abundance of prey species, leading to food scarcity and forcing tigers to adapt or face extinction.
* Inbreeding: Isolated tiger populations are more prone to inbreeding, which weakens their genetic diversity and makes them vulnerable to disease.
It's important to note that these factors often interact and influence one another. For example, habitat loss can lead to prey scarcity, increasing the risk of human-wildlife conflict and poaching.
Conservation efforts focus on addressing these threats by:
* Protecting and restoring habitats: Establishing national parks and reserves, creating wildlife corridors, and combating deforestation.
* Combating poaching: Strengthening law enforcement, promoting awareness, and tackling the illegal trade of tiger parts.
* Reducing human-wildlife conflict: Developing conflict mitigation strategies, providing compensation for livestock loss, and promoting coexistence.
* Monitoring and research: Collecting data to track tiger populations, understand their ecology, and inform conservation strategies.
The future of tigers depends on our ability to understand and address these threats effectively.