Tigers, turtles and wolves: the species that have bounced back, by the numbers

Between 2010 and 2025, the world’s wild tiger population grew from about 3,200 to 5,700 individuals, an increase of more than 70%. In 2025 the green turtle became the first sea turtle to improve its status on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, moving from “Endangered” to “Least Concern”. In Italy the wolf population has risen to 3,500 individuals, compared with just 100 specimens a few decades ago.

The data concern animal populations distributed on a global scale — tigers in various Asian countries, green turtles across the oceans monitored by the Red List, wolves across Italian territory — and not single individuals or isolated episodes: these are population trends measured over a period of fifteen years for tigers and of several decades for Italian wolves.

The figures come from the Living Planet Index, compiled by the Zoological Society of London, a research body independent of the organisations that promote conservation policies. The index analyses a total of 35,803 population trends relating to 5,790 vertebrate species, observed from 1970 to 2022. The green turtle’s status was updated by the IUCN Red List, which is also a scientific body independent of the parties that benefit from the news.

These recovery cases should be read within the broader picture presented by the same report, which according to the Living Planet Report 2026 points to a decline in monitored vertebrate populations from 1970 to today, without the available excerpt specifying its extent as a percentage: tigers, green turtles and Italian wolves remain positive exceptions within a trend that the index describes as widespread decline.

The data were reported by Il Fatto Quotidiano and by the World Wildlife Fund website, both traceable as a primary source to the Living Planet Report 2026 compiled by the Zoological Society of London.