WWF calls for ‘roar of support’ for wild tigers

The conservation group WWF has urged people to send in a recorded “roar of support” for wild tigers, whose numbers have plunged over the past century from 100,000 to fewer than 3,200.

The World Wide Fund for Nature asked the public to upload pictures or videos of them roaring to the site www.panda.org/roar or video hosting sites such as YouTube. They can also send in text messages of their roars.

Each roar submitted will be counted as part of a WWF petition to be presented to leaders meeting at a summit in St Petersburg in November on the conservation of wild tigers.

“We need to make noise about this campaign, this way we’re literally making noise,” said Fernando Zarur, online producer at WWF.

Countries invited to attend the tiger summit are Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Cabodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

“To encourage these powerful people to make the right decisions, and keep to their stated goal of transforming tiger conservation and doubling the number of wild tigers by 2022, we need you to stand up and roar – any which way you can,” said Michael Baltzer, head of the WWF’s tiger programme.