Malayan tiger could be extinct within a decade, says minister

DPA Bangkok The Malayan tiger could be extinct within a decade, the Malaysian government believes, warning that “drastic extraordinary action” is needed to...

DPABangkokThe Malayan tiger could be extinct within a decade, the Malaysian government believes, warning that “drastic extraordinary action” is needed to prevent the big cat’s disappearance.Wan Junaidi, a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, told parliamentarians that there are fewer than 200 of the tigers left in the wild, according to Malaysian state media.“The species will be entirely extinct within a period of five to 10 years,” he said.The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which lists the Malayan tiger as “critically endangered,” estimates there to be 80-120 “mature individuals” left in the wild.The Malayan tiger, which features on the national coat of arms, has seen swathes of its jungle habitat cleared in recent decades for plantations of cash crops such as palm oil, also endangering animals such as the orangutan.According to Wan Junaidi, “the problem here is human beings themselves because the tigers’ natural habitat is the jungle wilderness but instead we have gone ahead to deforest it.” Malaysia and Indonesia, home to the endangered Sumatran tiger sub-species, produce around 85 per cent of the world’s palm oil.The IUCN lists the Malayan tiger as “critically endangered.