Study: Rising Seas Threaten Bangladesh Tigers

[Coventina]

Source: ABC News

One of the world's largest tiger populations could be wiped out this century as rising seas threaten to engulf their dwindling habitat in the coastal mangrove forests of Bangladesh, researchers said Wednesday.

A projected sea-level rise of 11 inches (28 centimeters) above 2000 levels along coastal Bangladesh by 2070 may cause the remaining tiger habitat in the Sundarbans to decline by 96 percent, pushing the total population to as few as five tigers, according to the new World Wildlife Fund-led study published this month in the peer-reviewed journal, Climatic Change.

Studies in the past have shown that tiger populations below 25 have difficulty surviving.

Colby Loucks, WWF's deputy director of conservation science, said in a statement that tigers were capable of thriving in a wide range of habitats from the snowy forests of Russia to the tropical forests of Indonesia, but the projected sea-level rise in Bangladesh would likely outpace the tiger's ability to adapt.

"If we don't take steps to address the impacts of climate change on the Sundarbans, the only way its tigers will survive this century is with scuba gear," said Loucks, the lead author of the study.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=9609792

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:-(

[lurky]

1. The Bangladesh humans might be in trouble, too. n/t

[enid602]

2. don´t worry

The Indian Government is putting up a fence along the border to make ure the Bangladeshis can´t go anywhere.