Why Tigers Are Taking Over Tinder

Hans Rasmussen wanted to meet women online. On the advice of a friend, he went wild with his profile photo on the dating app Tinder, choosing a picture of himself crouching next to an adult tiger. The photo
made him seem worldly, he thought, even dangerous. "At the time, I did not know that every single person in America would be doing the same thing," said Mr. Rasmussen, 31 years old, who oversees supply-chain planning at a San Francisco consumer-electronics company. Eleven percent of American adults have used dating sites or mobile apps, according to Pew Research figures. Daters have millions of possible matches at their fingertips, and few ways to separate themselves from the herd. Enter the tiger. On popular dating platforms like Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid, thousands of daters have turned to big cats to help them catch the eye of potential mates. But while tigers are scarce in the wild—the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies tigers as an endangered species—they've become a nuisance online, users say