在美国各大学，卡通吉祥物（Mascots）很受学生们欢迎。身着各种服装的卡通形象经常担任拉拉队，为本校运动队呐喊助威或者表演助兴。来自全美各学校的一些卡通老虎还代表各校一起为保护野生虎大声疾呼。

老虎相貌威武，体形雄壮，但有些学校展示的老虎形象却很乖巧可爱，例如奥本大学（Auburn University）的卡通奥比（Aubie）就很招人喜爱。体育题材的作家雅格布·科恩霍伊泽（Jacob Kornhauser）说，奥比看上去好像图书馆员，形象却是一只老虎。其他学校的卡通老虎则比较威猛，例如陶森大学（Towson University）的卡通老虎名为刀克（Doc），尖牙利齿，虎视眈眈。

不论是有趣还是威猛，各校展示的卡通老虎都要求全世界认识到老虎属于濒危物种。目前公认老虎有9个亚种，人们认为其中3个亚种已经濒临绝迹。今天全世界仅有3,200头老虎生存于世，一个世纪前的数量是100,000头。

挽救老虎（Tigers for Tigers） 是一个为保护老虎成立的联盟性组织。该联盟的管理人员肖恩·卡奈尔（Sean Carnell）说，这个联盟发动56所以老虎为卡通吉祥物的学校共同努力挽救老虎。参加联盟的学校共有450,000名学生，粉丝人数达650万。他从在克莱姆森大学（Clemson University）就学的时候开始积极从事有关工作。克莱姆森大学（Clemson University）于1997年开始参加联盟的活动，该校的卡通老虎以孟加拉（Bengal）为名。

该联盟是全国挽救野生动植物协会（National Wildlife Refuge Association）的下属组织，通过社交媒体、倡导型项目和计划在海外呼吁保护老虎。

卡奈尔说，大学生们可以为保护老虎注入热情、能量和新的方式。例如去年夏季，该联盟在国际保护老虎日（International Tiger Day）利用#WhereRtheTigers的推特标签向约2.700万人发出呼吁。

https://share.america.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/AP_4000066952051.jpg2015年大学美式足球锦标赛期间，奥本大学队与密西西比州立大学（Mississippi State）队进行对决。图为卡通老虎奥比在赛前向观众致意。 (© AP Images)

皮毛斑斓的老虎全身都是宝，身体上几乎每一个部分都能在黑市上卖个好价钱。有些文化还认为老虎可以入药治疗风湿、癲癇、傷寒和痢疾等疾病。虎骨还可以粉碎后浸泡成药酒。

老虎还因为丧失栖息地面临绝境。原来老虎在从亚洲到俄罗斯远东地区的广大地区生存。近来幸存的老虎所剩无几，星星点点地分布在从印度、越南到南方的印度尼西亚一带以及中国和俄罗斯远东地区。

该联盟支持为挽救老虎建立的研究生项目。例如，克莱姆森大学的硕士生沃拉迪卡·查德哈利（Vratika Chaudhary）正在印度从事相关研究。全世界70%的野生虎以印度为栖息地。她在几年前开始研究老虎，当时她在印度加尔各答（Kolkata）获得牙科手术专业的学位。她在外出从事口腔健康检查的过程中，听到人类与老虎发生冲突的事例。她就读的牙医学校离孙德尔本斯（Sundarbans）地区很近，那里有一片大森林，地处印度和孟加拉国之间，是全世界最特殊的老虎栖息地之一。

查德哈利说，“我了解到更多有关情况，诸如南亚生物多样性的丧失，物种分布分割零散等生态问题，认识到很需要进行这方面的科学研究，于是我放弃了牙医的职业生涯。”

她在印度坎哈国家公园（Kanha National Park）担任野外自然学者一年后，于2013年来到克莱姆森大学开始研究对印度老虎等野生肉食动物造成威胁的传染性疾病。她说，研究工作对保护老虎具有了越来越重要的作用。

该联联盟还在俄罗斯积极从事有关工作。俄罗斯是450头阿穆尔虎的栖息地。

这些工作都是保护全球物种工作的一部分。每年3月3日是世界野生动植物日（World Wildlife Day）。

 

‘Give me a T!’ A spirited group hopes to save this tiger.

Mascots are big at U.S. colleges. They cheer on their schools’ beloved sports teams and entertain the crowds. But one group of tiger mascots representing schools from across the U.S. is teaming up to protect real tigers in the wild.

The tiger’s appeal as a mascot is based on its status as the largest of the great cats. Yet some mascots involved in the effort are cute and cuddly, like the costumed Aubie at Auburn University. (Sportswriter Jacob Kornhauser says that “essentially, Aubie looks like a librarian that happens to be a tiger.”) Others are more menacing like Towson University’s growling, toothy costumed tiger, named Doc.

Fun or fierce, the college mascots want to spread the word that tigers are endangered. Of the nine subspecies of tiger that are generally recognized, three are considered extinct. Only 3,200 tigers remain in the wild today, down from 100,000 a century ago.

The Tigers for Tigers coalition harnesses the passion of 56 colleges with tiger mascots, their 450,000 college students and 6.5 million fans to save wild tigers, said Sean Carnell, the national “spirit campaign manager” for the coalition. He became active in the effort when he was a student at Clemson University, which has a Bengal tiger as its mascot. Clemson started its own Tigers for Tigers effort in 1997.

The Tigers for Tigers Coalition is part of the National Wildlife Refuge Association and uses social media, advocacy programs and projects abroad to help protect tigers.

“College students can bring a passion, energy and new, fresh approach to tiger conservation,” Carnell said. Last summer, for example, the coalition reached some 27 million people via #WhereRtheTigers on Twitter during International Tiger Day.

https://share.america.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/AP_4000066952051.jpgAuburn mascot Aubie greets fans before a college football game against Mississippi State in 2015. (© AP Images)

From its whiskers to its glorious striped coat, nearly every part of the tiger is sold on the black market for a lot of money. Some cultures falsely think tiger parts cure rheumatism, convulsions, typhoid fever and dysentery. Tiger bones have been crushed and put in wine.

Tigers also are threatened by loss of habitat. The tiger once ranged across Asia to the Russian Far East. It currently survives only in scattered populations from India to Vietnam and south to Indonesia, and in China and the Russian Far East.

Tigers for Tigers supports graduate research on tigers. An example is the work that Vratika Chaudhary, a master’s student at Clemson University, is doing in India, home to 70 percent of the world’s wild tiger population. Her interest in tigers started several years ago when she was getting a degree in dental surgery in Kolkata, India. During her visits to hold oral health camps, she heard stories about man-tiger conflicts. The dental school is close to one of the most special tiger habitats in the world — the Sundarbans, a mangrove forest that extends between India and Bangladesh.

“As I learned more about biodiversity loss, habitat fragmentation and other conservation issues in south Asia, I realized there was a great need for scientific research and decided to leave my dental career,” Chaudhary said.

She worked as a field naturalist in Kanha National Park in India for a year and then came to Clemson University in 2013 to begin research on infectious disease threats to tigers and other wild carnivores in India. “Researchers play an increasingly important role in tiger conservation,” she said.

Tigers for Tigers also is active in Russia, home to 450 Amur tigers. The efforts are all part of the global interest in protecting species. March 3 is World Wildlife Day.