If you've ever seen a tiger at the zoo, you know just how majestic the animal is, but a sighting of a tiger in its own habitat is an even bigger treasure.
A post from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on Instagram said: "For the first time ever, a tigress and five cubs were filmed by camera traps in China."
The WWF said it's typical for a tiger to have one to four cubs, but they rarely have five, so this is good news for a species on the endangered list.
According to the WWF, tigers have lost 95% of their habitat over the years due to deforestation for timber, agriculture, roads, and other human activities. Climate change is also threatening their habitats. For instance, sea-level rise is an issue for a mangrove forest on the edge of India and Bangladesh, where tigers live. However, this tiger's habitat will disappear by 2070 if nothing changes.
Poaching and illegal trade are also threats to these big cats, as well as tiger farms. As tiger numbers rebound, they are increasingly competing with humans for the same space, leading to more human-tiger interactions.
According to the Global Tiger Forum, "about 5,574 tigers remain in the wild." They live in China, Nepal, India, Russia, and Bhutan.
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"China's tiger population has increased from an all-time low of 20 in 2010 to around 70 in 2025," per the WWF.
The organization said that many people haven't lived with tigers before, so they don't understand how to coexist with them. It's working to educate people to help keep them and the tigers safe.
It's why trail cameras like this are so vital. It helps conservationists more accurately count how many species are left and which areas need the most protection.
A five-year monitoring project in Bengkulu, Indonesia, is doing that vital work. The Bengkulu-Lampung Natural Resources Conservation Agency conducted a survey of the area and found 42 Sumatran tigers.
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Himawan Sasongko, the head of the agency, said it can create more accurate plans to protect the species using the gathered information.
According to the WWF, tigers play an integral role in the ecosystem by keeping "the balance between the prey animals and the forest vegetation which they feed upon."
Forests are also vital for the livelihoods of millions of people, so it's a symbolic relationship.
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