https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/its-global-tiger-day-how-is-the-effort-to-save-them-going/

Today is Global Tiger Day—befittingly so because of the cat's immense popularity among people both in its Asian home and world-wide. It is a day to evaluate where we are headed in the strenuous effort to recover this icon of nature's diversity.

Global efforts targeting tiger recovery began in the 1960's. All the putative “wild tiger numbers” touted along the way (4000-5000 animals), however, are either glorified guesses or conjured up using poor methods.