By Matt McGrath.
The environment correspondent.
Pete Morris is the image source.
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The tigers in Sumatra are in danger from two hydropower dams that are planned within their habitat.
The habitats of tigers and jaguars have been damaged by the expansion of hydroelectric dams.
More than one-fifth of the world's remaining tigers have been affected by dam construction.
The dams are said to have caused the tiger extinction.
The dams on their ranges are expected to quadruple.
The modern world has not been kind to tigers.
Over the past century, tigers have disappeared from most of their original range.
Their numbers have improved in recent years, but they are still classified as an "endemic" species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Bjorn Olesen is the image source.
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It's the same for jaguars.
The distribution of these lithe predators has halved between the US south-west and Argentina.
Efforts to develop hydropower for energy have had a negative impact on habitats occupied by these species, according to a new study.
Over a thousand existing dams intersect with the ranges of tigers and jaguars.
They worked out the impact of the construction on the forest areas and found that over 13500 square kilometres of tiger habitat had been flooded.
The image is from the same source.
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The roads help fragment the forest areas where tigers live.
This is likely to have had an impact on tiger numbers.
The co-author said that more than one in five tigers have been affected by habitat flooding as a result of the construction of dams.
The habitat loss is expected to contribute to the decline in the tiger population size.
The tiger population could be 20% larger if these reservoirs were not there, according to co-author Dr.lukegibbon from the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China.
"That goes a long way towards any goal to increase or double the global tiger population, as many policymakers have recently set their sights on."
The building of dams in some areas may have led to tiger extinctions.
The construction of roads and a hydropower dam can break a forest into smaller pieces.
The image is from the same source.
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tigers have disappeared after a dam was built in Thailand
In the 1980's, the construction of a dam and reservoir at Cheow Lan in Thailand flooded around 165 square kilometres of forest, breaking it up into more than 100 islands of varying sizes.
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tigers will not be able to survive in that fragmented forest landscape because of the creation of a large reservoir in the middle of the landscape.
The building of dams is more of a future than a current threat to jaguars.
Over 25,000 square kilometres of their ranges have been lost to construction, but the number of dams in their habitat areas is set to double.
The image is from Museo Pimentel.
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A cat is on the banks of a river.
Brazil is planning on building over 300 dams in the jaguar areas, which will be located in the Amazon.
It raises the question of whether the benefits of these developments outweigh the environmental costs.
Prof Neil Carter from the University of Michigan was not involved in the research.
The study shows the importance of the community working with planners, energy developers, and engineers to eliminate or reduce the impacts of dams on species before it is too late.
It underscores the importance of transparency on dam building projects, which include open data on project footprint, reservoir size, and megawatt capacity.
The study was published in a journal.
The tiger is a protected species.
Hydroelectricity.
