Tigers are the largest wild felids and among the most endangered. Their individual welfare in the wild depends on prey availability, territory security, and freedom from human conflict.
Wild tiger welfare is threatened primarily at range boundaries — where tigers leaving protected areas encounter human settlements, livestock, and persecution. Individual tigers killed in human-wildlife conflict die from shooting, poisoning, or snaring, often slowly. Tigers that kill livestock trigger retaliation that can extend to territory-wide poisoning campaigns affecting multiple individuals. Camera-identified individual tigers allow welfare monitoring: injured animals can be identified, animals with poor body condition flagged for intervention, and corridor movement patterns assessed for safety. Maintaining continuous natural habitat between reserves reduces the conflict zone that tigers must traverse, directly reducing welfare incidents. Successful recovery programmes in Nepal and India demonstrate that tiger welfare and human coexistence are simultaneously achievable with appropriate investment.