
There are reports of many tigers that have been kept captive in Europe and the U.S., but their numbers in wildlife and captivity are unverifiable.
The World Wildlife Fund organisation had reported in July 2014 that an estimated 5000 tigers were in captivity in the U.S. which exceeded the tiger population of approximately 3,200 living in the wild. It had added that the world’s largest populations of tigers exist not in the wild, but in captivity in the United States.
The Guardian article dated 10 November 2019, quoting the World Wildlife Fund, states that only 6% of America’s captive tiger population lived in zoos and facilities accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums and the rest were in private hands. It further added that some captive tigers were regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, others by state laws, and that some were not regulated at all.
Although there have been reports of a huge number of tigers being kept in captivity in Europe and the United States, there is insufficient evidence available to verify the exact numbers of captive tigers to conclude that there are more than double the number left in the wild.
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