Brace yourselves.... Tiger populations have declined by 97% throughout Asia in the last 100 years. The worlds' best loved species is thus surviving on a knife edge in the wild. Catastrophic habitat loss alone could push them over but their more urgent threat is being poached (poisoned, snared, shot) and packaged up for the insatiable traditional East Asian medicine trade. Even in 'protected' zones it's a constant battle to keep them safe, it seems that our planets' rarest art enjoys better security than its rare and irreplacable wildlife. 

Tigers are in my blood. I grew up sharing my bath and my bed with them. They lived in my home and my heart. They may no longer share my bed but they still live deep in the chambers of my heart & that heart grows increasingly heavy with the knowledge of the crimes my species has committed against theirs during my lifetime. Besides the purely ethical reasons to promote their continued survival, tigers are a vital component of the ecosystems they function within - without them prey numbers explode and landscapes die. Without them the political will to enforce habitat preservation falters as the eco-tourism value of regions diminishes. 

But the good news is that we have the knowledge, technology and power to bring tigers back from the brink, to narrate a happy ending for our stripy friends. This is what motivates me to root for the cause and not give up until the final hour.

Fauna and Flora International (FFI) fund the formidable Tiger Protection Conservation Unit (TPCU) operating in the Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra where up to 200 tigers live. I, along with 7 other zoo friends, will be joining them for a gruelling 10 day rainforest trek removing vicious snares set up to catch tigers and their prey. While waiting to be found by the poachers, the panicked victims will inflict terrible injures on themselves trying to break free from the wires which cut into their flesh. Everyday tigers die like this so that their body parts may be manufactured into aphrodisiacs, soups, plasters and pills; their meat and skin merely by-products. 

We have been warned the territory will be hostile, hot, humid and alive with biting, sucking and boring (as in 'boring into skin' not as in 'watching paint dry') creatures - some venomous just to make things maximally interesting! Poachers will also be a realistic threat. We will be sleeping on the ground under 2.5M of plastic sheeting, no tents... It'll be a leap into the unknown but I'm hoping to raise funds and awareness for FFI and the TPCU, save some tigers from a harrowing fate and - er- come back! 

One other important objective of my venture is to donate some of the funds raised to Wildlife Conservation Society - India Program which the Isle of Wight Zoo pledges financial support for every year. Along with zoo colleagues I have just completed a cycle challenge which raised over £3000 for the project we fund (Local Advocacy for Tiger Conservation) in Karnataka, India. We have provided thousands of pounds of funding for this successful project in and around the Bhadra/Kudremukh National Parks and tigers are stabilising in this area as a direct result of this. 

Thank you for reading. Thank you for caring. Thank you for contributing. Thank you for giving Panthera tigris a chance to keep on burning bright in the forest of the night... 

Charlotte (the self-confessed arachnophobe- yes there WILL be spiders too! Aghh! All for the love of tigers...) 

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