Endangered Sumatran Tiger Cubs Filmed Playing in the Wild

A group of endangered Sumatran tigers were recently filmed in an Indonesian forest that is scheduled to be cut down. The Sumatran tiger is on the brink of extinction due to deforestation, and the WWF is hoping that the recent footage will prevent this particular piece of from from being chopped down.

Sumatran tigers have been endangered for decades, but their numbers have diminished to dangerous levels recently. There are currently about 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, down from about 1000 in the 1970s.

According to Karmila Parakkasi, who heads the group’s tiger research team on Sumatra island, the most recent footage is strange because it isn’t common to film so many tigers in such a short amount of time.

Parakkasi said:

“What’s unclear is whether we found so many tigers because we’re getting better at locating our cameras or because the tigers’ habitat is shrinking so rapidly here that they are being forced into sharing smaller and smaller bits of forests.”

The WWF says that permits are pending to cut down the forest, but the Foreign Ministry says that permits will not be issued in an area where an endangered species is known to live.

Here are some photos of the Sumatran tigers.

[Source: Washington Post]