Captive tigers can help the wild ones according to new research
The number of tigers living in captivity has risen in the United States in recent years, prompting Congress to pass the Big Cat Public Safety Act of 2022. In fact, experts estimate approximately 5,000 tigers live in private facilities across the United States alone. Some conservation biologists have considered methods in which captive tigers could potentially help the wild tiger population.
This answer may reside in the genome of captive tigers. A recent study led by Jazlyn Mooney, co-principal investigator for the study and Gabilan Assistant Professor of Quantitative and Computational Biology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and Ellie Armstrong at the University of California, Riverside, was published by PNAS. The study explored these captive cats’ genetic ancestry for the first time. Their findings could lead to more efficient methods to monitor and manage the captive tiger population in the United States.