The beautiful, awe-inspiring Tiger is one of our planet’s most iconic animals.

But here’s the shocking truth; wild tiger numbers dropped by more than 95% since the beginning of the 20th century. To coincide with International Tiger Day, we’d like to invite you to get to know more about this amazing species.

As top predators, tigers help to keep their environment healthy.

It’s the way things naturally work in the wild – the predators prey on other animals, in this case herbivores (plant-eaters) such as deer. But without enough tigers to eat them, herbivores can overgraze and damage the land, disrupting the balance of the local environment.

Local people also depend on a healthy environment for food, water and lots of other resources. By helping protect tigers we’re also helping look after the places where they live, which is good for all the people and wildlife sharing that environment.