Nature’s fiercest felines “big cats” creatures of magnificent strength, ferocity and beauty are rapidly facing extinction. Around the world, the populations of many species have precipitously declined in the last fifty years. Sixteen of the 36 wild cat species are considered vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered by the IUCN.
Today more tigers live in private captivity in Texas than in the wild, where conservationists estimate that around 3,000 of the endangered animals remain. No one knows for sure how many big cats — including tigers, lions, panthers, cheetahs, leopards and others — are kept today in backyards and apartments across the United States, but estimates run as high as 20,000. (The Endangered Species Act does not prohibit domestic trade in captive-bred wildlife.)