If you travel to Africa and see a tiger, you are very lucky. As far as we know about tigers, they never live in the forests of Africa. But sometimes they are seen. Lions, leopards, and tigers belong to the Felidae family of cats, which is native to Africa.
Main Reason:
At the same time, exactly 2 million years ago for some reason, the Felidae moved eastward into Asia and these cats became the orange, black and white striped animals we know today. Tigers once lived in Asia, however, tigers have never returned to Africa, although scientists still don’t know the exact reason.
Professor J. L. David Smith of the University of Minnesota said, “One can imagine one after another as to why the tiger did not return to Africa, but they are all speculation.”
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Natural Causes:
Many wildlife researchers believe that, looking back at history, tigers stayed in Asia, and that all of those tiger subspecies migrated over time due to natural causes. Abdominal movements, probably for geographical reasons, made it much more difficult for tigers to return to Africa.
According to Shu-Jin-Luo, a biology researcher at the University of Minnesota, “Tigers did not come westward to India until 16,000 years ago.”
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Behind Story:
Now that tigers are no longer permanent residents of Africa, they can be seen in some African zoos and even as pets. And just like that two tigers came into the forest after getting rid of them. Even in July, a 310-pound (140 kg), 17-month-old pet Bengal tiger named Panjo escaped to South Africa.
Ponzo was released from his owner’s car while he was being driven to Africa for treatment. He was found two days later by his owner in a field and rescued from there. Tigers are known as ENDANGERED animals in India, Nepal, Indonesia, Russia, China, and many other places because of habitat destruction, poaching, and enemy attacks.
According to WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY (WCS), there are only 3000 tigers. Some 5,000 are in the United States, in places much protected from poachers. In 2005, the China Foundation released two South China tiger cubs to South Africa. Another South China tiger pair (MADONNA AND TIGER WOODS) is sent to a PRESERVE in South Africa which is 81,510 ACRES (127.36 SQR).
There they hunt their food, such as BLESBOK, white-faced antelope. They returned to reserves in China in 2008 after living independently in South Asia.
