The Sumatran Tiger is the smallest species of tiger in the world and is only found in the dense jungles on the tropical island of Sumatra in South-East Asia, where these formidable predators would have once roamed throughout the island.
However, with expanding human settlements and increasing amounts of activity in the forest, the Sumatran Tiger has become severely under threat from disappearing from the wild forever as they lose vast amounts of their natural habitats to deforestation to make way for agriculture.
Logging of the tropical timbers, mining and expanding palm oil plantations have all led to interactions between people and the native tiger populations becoming increasingly common, and often results in the tiger being either killed or captured as people fear for both their livestock and their own lives.
However, despite the areas that are protected as national parks, habitat destruction still continues and is heavily unregulated leaving little hope for Sumatra's remaining tigers (which are actually genetically different compared to their larger cousins found throughout the Asian mainland).
Today the Sumatran Tiger is not only one of the most rare and elusive animals in the world, it is also one of the most endangered with as few as 500 thought to still exist in wild. To learn more about Sumatran Tigers please read the full article.