Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. There's a real chance tigers could become extinct within a decade, not through evolution but human action. This isn't just sentimentality about one species though, saving tigers is important for multiple reasons.
To protect tigers we have to preserve their habitat which is currently being destroyed at an alarming rate. Other species call those areas home too so if we can save tigers, we save those species too. Not forgetting of course that deforestation also contributes to climate change so we need to protect all we can. We can't just replant rainforest.
Have a look at this amazing video, http://youtu.be/ysa5OBhXz-Q
it shows how fragile ecosystems and food chains are. It's hard to understand the impacts of removing an apex predator like the tiger. Countless villages rely on rivers that are generated within tiger reserves. Changing landscapes caused by tigers becoming extinct will be devastating.
I wanted to do something that would really challenge me so I'm doing a 9 day trek to Chomolhari basecamp in the Bhutanese Himalaya in May 2015 - the most physically challenging thing I've done before is drag myself up Ben Nevis so I'm training hard! Just for an idea, the trek reaches around 5000m in altitude four times where there is approximately 40% less oxygen. Up there the temperature can really drop at night.
I've chosen to trek in Bhutan specifically as it was the country surveyed for tiger populations in the BBC's 'Lost Land of the Tiger'. Do watch it if you get chance, it inspired me to do this. See where Gordon Buchanan places the highest camera traps? That's the altitude I'm going to so it will hurt.
My aim is to raise as much money as possible for the TigerTime campaign run by the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation. The campaign does lots of brilliant work supporting tiger conservation, anti-poaching and education projects to help protect the remaining 3200 wild tigers. To make it clear they are only critically endangered because of human action. More info is available at TigerTime.info.
I'm personally covering all costs related to the trek so that all the money raised will go directly to TigerTime. The more money I can raise, the less I'll notice the pain so please donate if you can!
Between now and then I'll be mostly going up and down the Wrekin in my free time.
A huge thank you for your interest,
Jane.
Donation through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.