96,110 is the difference a mere century can make in the wild. It is a catastrophic 96% decline in the world’s tigers. There were an estimated 100,000 still living in their natural habitat in the early 1900’s. There are just 5,574* left today.

Three of the nine known subspecies have become entirely extinct. The Malayan Tiger - the subject of our piece - is listed on the IUCN’s Red List as Critically Endangered. Its numbers have dipped from 3,000 in the 1950’s, plummeting to 500 between 1990 and 2003, now down to the lowest estimate in history, recorded in 2013, with just 250-340 adult tigers believed to remain. This translates to just 80-120 with the potential to breed. We have lost over three-quarters of this subspecies over the past generation and there is not one pocket of habitat with a population of more than 50 Malayan Tigers left in existence.

*data updated in 2025 following WAF's note