Scientists estimate only about 3,000 wild tigers are left in the entire world. Tiger territory once stretched from Turkey to the Russian Far East and just a century ago, before the terrible toll of hunting and habitat destruction, 100,000 tigers inhabited the wilds of Asia. Now their descendents hang on in a tiny fraction of their former range, prowling fragmented pockets of habitat where keeping enough tigers alive to breed is increasingly difficult. Three of the nine tiger subspecies became extinct during the 20th century, leaving only the half dozen living species featured in this gallery.