How many tigers in Texas?

We don't know how many tigers there are in Texas. This is because generic tigers (non-purebred tigers) need not be registered with the authorities under a licensing scheme. We see large figures circulating around the internet: 4,000 or 5,000 tigers in Texas which are numbers far greater than the total of all tiger subspecies in the wild.

However, Lynn Culver the executive director of the Feline Conservation Federation says that there are "not 5,000 tigers" in Texas. She says that there are between "259 and 325 tigers living in Texas" (33 licensed facilities). These figures however come from USDA licensed facilities. What about the unlicensed facilities? How many are there?

Lynn says that most US states have less than 50 tigers. Florida is the next big tiger state with 227 tigers in 35 licensed facilities.