Tigers need large reserves

Asia's tiger reserves could support more than 10,000 wild tigers - three times the current number - if they were managed as large-scale areas that allowed movement between breeding sites, according to a study.

Just 3,200 tigers live in the wild, down from 100,000 a century ago. A November summit in Russia of leaders from the nations that host the world's last wild tigers pledged to double their numbers by 2022.

The study, co-authored by scientists from environmental group WWF, said that could be achieved and even exceeded if global efforts were made to preserve breeding areas and ensure they were connected by habitat corridors.

Some 20 priority tiger conservation landscapes with the highest probability of survival could support more than 10,500 tigers, including about 3,400 breeding females, the study said.

In one case, forest corridors to reserves in India helped keep up tiger numbers in Nepal.