They’ll likely kill you if you get too close but Tigers are beautiful, magnificent animals. They’re also seriously endangered with a number of sub-species already extinct. And that’s why International Tiger Day exists to bring focus to conservation efforts and the plight of these big cats. In a twist you likely won’t see coming, the day was created by a certain Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit on Tiger conservation held in St. Petersburg in 2010. Putin has made it a mission to save the Amur Tiger, and one of the outcomes of the summit was to impose into law punishments and prison sentences for poaching, illegal trade and transportation of Tigers.

In support of International Tiger Day, here’s a map of the general former and current Tiger habitat for the nine identified sub-species. ChatGPT did a pretty good job which I verified against other, published maps. Labelling has improved significantly compared to what it was capable of earlier in the year, and our series of maps. What I like about what this map shows is that the same image generator can produce a VERY different aesthetic from, for example, yesterday’s Water Park map. This is largely down to the human input of crafting a prompt that directs the LLM to make the map within constrained guidelines. The point here, is if you, the human in the loop, know what you want, then you remain in control of the output. You are designing the map in your mind’s eye, and are asking AI to execute your plan.

Don’t lose your stripes if you’re perma-offended.

Original Prompt (ChatGPT)

I’d like you to make a map of Asia that illustrates the former, and current extent of territories of Tiger habitat. The Tiger is a single species but the map should illustrate the range of the nine sub-species namely the Bali (extinct), Sumatran, Javan (extinct), South China, Indochinese, Malayan, Bengal, Caspian (extinct), and Siberian (Amur) Tigers. Current habitat should be in a darker hue than the former habitat and different hues used for different sub-species so it’s possible to differentiate the different ranges on the map. I’d also like you to be careful about how you shade each hue on the map. There should be no internal variation in each hue. It needs to be a block colour rather than looking like a watercolour. Please include illustrations of the different tigers, identifying how they differ, and with an indication of the number of each sub-species currently estimated in the wild. Add source notes to the bottom of the map to indicate where your numbers were found. Feel free to include the Latin name for each sub-species. I would like the background of the map to show landmasses in light grey, and water as a lighter grey. In other words, a neutral backdrop should help the reader focus on the thematic content. Please add a title ‘Tiger Habitat Range’. There’s no need for north points or scale bars so please omit.