A male Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), lays in the grass of his enclosure at the Toronto Zoo, staring off into empty space.

There may be as few as 150 of these tigers left in the wild, endangered significantly by habitat loss which has accelerated in the past 50 years. Palm oil is a big part of that, which is an ingredient in a diverse range of products we enjoy every day. However, the palm oil industry in Sumatra is quickly leaving tigers and other species like elephants without a place to live, pushing them into local communities where they pose a threat to people and themselves from conflict. One of the most heart breaking things I experienced while in Sumatra was seeing vast landscapes, once covered in the most diverse ecosystem in the world, converted to support only a single species for profit. I walked through these palm oil forests and the silence was deafening. It was a haunting emptiness I will never forget.

Palm oil isn't necessary for our survival and there are plenty of alternatives. Please visit this website (http://ran.org/the_problem_with_palm_oil/) for more information about how you can make informed purchasing decisions that don't involve this product.

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Tigers are the largest of the big cats and are exclusively found in Asia from India to Vietnam, from Indonesia to the Russian Far East. The tiger can be divided into 9 subspecies: 4 are currently critically endangered and 3 are already extinct. Though estimations of tiger populations only a few years ago was 5,500-6,000, today populations are likely closer to 3,500 and are still declining. Dramatic declines of the tiger in India, thought to host the majority of the world's tigers, have fallen to less than 1,411. Overall, the past decade has seen a 40% reduction in tiger habitat, which now represents a mere 7% of its historic range. Poaching is a significant problem throughout the tiger's range, the demand for its body parts in traditional medicines, tonics, and exotic dishes driving a lucrative trade that is wiping out entire populations. Long-term threats include habitat fragmentation and prey depletion, which is accelerating the tiger's demise and subsequently reducing the long-term genetic viability of many populations.

If you want to help, the best for you to do is to educate yourself (http://www.savethetigerfund.org), never buy products made from tigers or endangered species (http://www.wildaid.org), and tell others. Contact me for more information.