【英语时差8,16】虎迹寻觅（在线收听）

Early results from a count of tigers in eastern India are providing hope for efforts to save that animal. A team of Indian environmental workers recently counted the tigers in the Sunderbans forest. The workers searched the ground and collected hundreds of footprints. Each tiger has a paw print that can be used for identification, just like a human fingerprint. Gathering prints is dangerous. The collector could come across the owner of the prints at any time. The Indian government started Project Tiger in nineteen-seventy-three in an effort to save the cats. But since the nineteen-seventies, the number of Indian tigers has dropped from about five thousand to an estimated three-thousand-five-hundred. One problem is illegal hunting. Tiger parts are highly valued in East Asia for use in traditional medicines. Another problem is development. People and tigers compete for food and space. Tigers kill an estimated fifty villagers a year in the Sunderbans forest. Forest officials are trying to improve economic conditions for villagers.