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Quick Take
Surviving a Houston suburb encounter requires facing a Bengal tiger linked to 315 documented casualties.
A legal loophole in 4 US states permits the unregulated possession of dangerous Bengal tigers.
Counter-intuitively, wild tiger populations are surging in India and Russia despite 100 years of decline.
Transitioning the tiger to Black Beauty Ranch was necessary to mitigate illegal ownership risks.
Sunday evenings in the quiet suburbs of Texas are usually uneventful. It’s not unusual for visitors to turn up, and they are very welcome, but this particular guest caused total panic. A Bengal tiger (yes, a tiger!) was spotted prowling around a quiet Texas neighborhood. This TikTok shows the reaction residents had to its appearance.
Bengal Tiger Visits the Neighborhood
The A&E YouTube channel originally shared this clip. They aim to share “high-quality, thought-provoking original” content, and this certainly ticks the boxes. At the beginning of the video, we get a view from one of the local houses. This Houston suburb has neatly trimmed front lawns, an assortment of parked vehicles, and … a Bengal tiger striding casually along the street. The neighborhood group chat is on fire as the residents feverishly message each other. Everyone wants to know where this big cat has come from.
Bengal tigers are not typically spotted in residential neighborhoods.
©Savanking/Shutterstock.co
A woman dials 9-1-1 and waits for help to arrive, but help may be closer than she thinks! An off-duty sheriff’s deputy tries to hold back the tiger at gunpoint. The animal welfare organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has a list of incidents involving big cats in the United States since 1980. Not all of these involved tigers, but they did result in the deaths of 25 humans and the injury of a further 290. This guy is taking a risk!
An Escaped Pet Tiger
As the tension rises, a second man appears claiming to be the tiger’s owner. He manages to entice the tiger into his vehicle and drives away. When the police catch up with him, they find out that this was a 9-month-old tiger that was being kept illegally at a local house. Her name is India, and the police took her to a new, more suitable home at a wildlife rescue center. Black Beauty Ranch is run by the Humane World for Animals. They explain that four states “do not currently have laws on keeping dangerous wild animals as pets.” These states are Alabama, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.
Are Tiger Numbers Decreasing?
Some tiger population numbers are stable or increasing.
©Thorsten Spoerlein/iStock via Getty Image
According to The World Wildlife Fund, there is some good news about tigers. After 100 years of declining numbers, wild populations are beginning to recover. Tiger numbers in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Russia, and China are increasing or are at least stable. However, they still need a lot of help. Tiger populations in much of Southeast Asia are declining and are in crisis. The illegal trade in tigers, like the one resulting in the incident in the clip above, is not helping!
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The post Panic in the Suburbs: Watch a Bengal Tiger Stroll Down a Quiet Texas Street as Neighbors Look On appeared first on A-Z Animals.