The tiger had nine subspecies. Three of these are extinct and the other six
are on the critically endangered or endangered list according the IUCN (Union
for the Conservation of Nature) Red List.
Tigers are the world’s largest cat.
1. The Sumatran Tiger – Panthera Tigris Sumatrae
The name of the tiger is due to
the fact that these tigers can only be found on the Indonesian island of
Sumatra. According the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Services, there are between 500 to 400 tigers left. The Sumatran is the smallest of the remanding
subspecies of tigers. This tiger is on
the critical endangered list. The tiger
has the darkest coat, and the black stipes are broad and closely spaced and
even doubled. It also has striped
forelegs. Most of the remaining tigers
now live in five national parks, two game reserves and about 100 live in unprotected
areas that most likely will be lost to agriculture in the future. This is the greatest threat to these tigers,
followed by poaching. It is illegal to
hunt the tiger but this does not stop them.
China is a large consumer of tiger parts, as well as Taiwan and South
Korea and even in some North American cities.
Most
of the remaining Sumatran tigers now live in five National Parks, two Game
Reserves, though around 100 live in an unprotected area that will most likely
be lost to agriculture in the near future.
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| Sumatra Tiger |
2. The Bengal Tiger – Panthera Tigris Tigris
This tiger is found in India and
Bangladesh and also in Nepal, Bhutan and Burma.
They are also called the Royal Bengal Tiger. They are the most common subspecies of the
tiger and are the second largest of the remanding subspecies of tigers. There orange coat can black or brown
stripes. Each cat has their own unique
striping patterns.
Bengal tigers hunt medium and large sized
animals, wild boar, badges and water buffaloes.
Their prey can also be small elephants and rhino calves. The tiger can drag prey 5 times their own
body weight. The tiger hunts mostly at
night, and they kill their prey by severing the spinal cord or by inflicting a
suffocation bite, which is generally done on larger prey. Habit loss and poaching are threats to the
survival of this tiger. They are not
only killed for their skin but for their body parts which is used to make
traditional Asian medicines.
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| Bengal Tiger |
White Bengal Tiger has a striking
white coat. This is caused by a double
recessive allele in its genetic makeup and this only occurs once in every 10,000
births.
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| White Bengal Tigers |
3. The Indochinese Tiger – Panthera Tigris Corbetti
This
tiger is found in Cambodia, Laos, Burma and Thailand. They are also called
the Corbett’sTiger. They have the darker shade of orange than any
other subspecies of
tigers. The stripes act to help camouflage the tigers
from their prey. There are an estimated
number of 1500 of these
tigers left in the wild but because the tiger has a wide range some
scientist
believe that there could be
only as few as 1200 left in the wild.
The tiger diet consist
most of wild pig,
wild cattle and wild deer. The male
tiger is about 8 to 9.5 feet long (2.43 to
2.89 meters)
and females are 7 to 8.5 feet long (2.13 to 2.5 meters). The male weigh from
330 to about 430 pounds (149 to 195 kilograms). Habit close is also a bit concern, plus
poaching. Use of
body parts in traditional medicines also put this tiger at risk.
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| Indochinese Tiger |
4. The Malayan Tiger – Panthera Tigris Jacksoni
This
tiger is a separate subspecies of the Indochinese tiger. The Malayan tiger is very
similar to the Indochinese tiger but it
is smaller in size. They are found
exclusively the in the
Subtropical
forest in the southern tip of Thailand, and the peninsular Malaysia in
South East Asia.
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| Malayan Tiger |
5 The Siberian Tiger – Panthera Tigris Altaica
They are the largest of the
subspecies of tiger. They are also
called amur tiger. There are about 350
to 450 in the wild. They are found in the Primosky and Khabarovski Krais
areas of the Russian Far East, with a smaller population of about 35
individuals are found in the areas of the Russian Far East.
The tiger does not have strips on
its forelegs like the sumatran tiger.
The tiger can weigh up to 660 pounds (300 kilograms). The males can grow up to more than 10.5 feet
(3.3 meters) from head to tail. The same
threats exist for these tigers, habit loss, poaching and body parts used for
medicinal purpose.
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| Saberian Tiger |
The cross between the Bengal and
Siberian tiger has a paler orange fur than other tiger subspecies. They have brown stipes instead of black
stripes. The fur is much thicker than that
of any other tigers living in southern Asia to help them with the cold winters.
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| cross between the bental and siberian tale is paler orange (right) |
6. South China Tiger – Panthera Tigris Amoyensis
These tigers
are found in central and eastern China. In
1970’s these tigers were
considered
as pest by the Chinese government and hunted to the brink of extinction. They
are on the critical endangered list and are nearly extinct. There are about 47 tigers living in
18 zoos
in China. There are no tigers left in
the wild. The tiger has a yellowish fur
with
narrower and longer stripes than those of the Bengal
tiger. The male is bigger than the
female
and is between 7.58 to 8.666 feet (2.310 to 2.64 meters) long. The female is 7.25
to 7.83 feet (2.21 to 2.38 meters) long. The male weighs 287 to 386 pounds (130 to
175 kilograms). The female weighs 243 to 254 pounds (110 to
115 kilograms). The tiger
was known
to attack man and cattle for invading its natural habitat. The tiger could
consume between 39 to 88 pounds in a
single setting (18 to 40 kilograms). The male
tiger does not mix with the female tigers, only when it is in
the breeding season. The tiger
reaches maturity between 3 to 6
years. The gestation period is 103
days. The female tiger
can deliver up to 7 cubs but
the usual is 2 or 3 only. The mother
breast feed their cubs for 8
months
and at the age of 2 months they start eating solid food and leave the den.
Between the
age of 18 and 36 months, they are ready to hunt and become independent.
The future for these tigers does not
look promising and it looks like they will be the next tiger to become extinct.
Attempts are being made with breeding programs and so far they have been successful
but a lot of work still needs to be done.
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| south china tiger |
Extinct Tigers
1. The Bali Tiger – Panthera Tigris Balica.
This tiger
used to be found only on the Bali Island in Indonesia. It was the smallest tiger of
the tiger subspecies. The females
could weigh as little as 14 pounds (75 kilograms) and
the males could reach around 200 to
220 pounds (90 to 100 kilograms). The
Bali tiger
reached extinction
through hunting. Bali tigers had darker,
shorter fur than any other t
tiger subspecies. The tiger had a bar-shaped pattern on its
head. They had a lifespan
roughly of 8 to 10 years
in the wild.
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| bali tiger |
2. The Caspian Tiger – Panthera Tigris Virgata.
This tiger was
caller the Hyrcanian Tiger, Persian Tiger and even the Turan Tiger. These
tigers was lived around the
Caspian Sea, through Turkey, Iran and Central Asia to the
the
Chinese desert of Xinjiang. They were
some of the biggest of the tiger subspecies,
together with the Bengal tiger. Males usually exceeded 6.56 feet (2 meters)
in length.
The tiger had a brighter golden coat, with brown-gold
stripes. In winter the coat would
become
less bright and the pattern would not be so pronounced. The stripes were
narrower
and closer together than any of the other tiger subspecies. When the Russians
came to Turkey in the late 1800s, they hunted the Caspian
Tiger. They also hunted the
natural
prey of the tiger so many of the tigers would die from starvation. In the 1990s it
was believed the last of these tigers died, but nobody
seemed to have interest in those
days, so it
was never investigated or confirmed.
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| caspian tiger |
3 The Java Tiger – Panthera Tigris Sondaica
These tigers were found exclusively on
the island of Java. The male tigers were
very small, about 250 pounds (115 kilograms) and the females were even smaller.
Their noses were long and narrow.
Their stripes were also narrow.
In 1947 these tigers were protected but it
came too late. It was in the 1970s that
this tiger came extinct. It was believed
that the tigers were poisoned by the locals who wanted to protect themselves, and
of cause hunted for financial gains.
They also faced starvation and their prey was being killed to the point
of extinction.
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| java tiger |
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