Tiger theme by Jennifer Hoffman
Download: Tiger.p3t
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| Tiger Temporal range:
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| A Bengal tigress in Kanha Tiger Reserve, India | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Suborder: | Feliformia |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Subfamily: | Pantherinae |
| Genus: | Panthera |
| Species: | P. tigris
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| Binomial name | |
| Panthera tigris | |
| Subspecies | |
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| Tiger distribution as of 2022 | |
| Synonyms[3] | |
The tiger (Panthera tigris) is a member of the genus Panthera and the largest living cat species native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail, and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is traditionally classified into nine recent subspecies, though some recognise only two subspecies, mainland Asian tigers and island tigers of the Sunda Islands.
Throughout the tiger's range, it inhabits mainly forests, from coniferous and temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in the Russian Far East and Northeast China to tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests on the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. The tiger is an apex predator and preys mainly on ungulates such as deer and wild boar, which it takes by ambush. It lives a mostly solitary life and occupies home ranges, which it defends from individuals of the same sex. The range of a male tiger overlaps with that of multiple females with whom he mates. Females give birth to usually two or three cubs that stay with their mother for about two years. When becoming independent, they leave their mother's home range and establish their own.
Since the early 20th century, tiger populations have lost at least 93% of their historic range and are locally extinct in West and Central Asia, in large areas of China, and on the islands of Java and Bali. Today, the tiger's range is severely fragmented. It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, as its range is thought to have declined by 53% to 68% since the late 1990s. Major reasons for this decline are habitat destruction and fragmentation due to deforestation, poaching for fur, and the illegal trade of tiger body parts for medicinal purposes. Tigers are also victims of human–wildlife conflict as they attack and prey on livestock in areas where natural prey is scarce.
The tiger is legally protected in all range countries. National conservation measures consist of action plans, anti-poaching patrols and schemes for monitoring tiger populations. In several range countries, wildlife corridors have been established and tiger reintroduction is planned..
The tiger is among the most popular of the world's charismatic megafauna. It has been kept in captivity since ancient times and has been trained to perform in circuses and other entertainment shows. The tiger featured prominently in the ancient mythology and folklore of cultures throughout its historic range and has continued to appear in culture worldwide.
Etymology[edit]
The Old English tigras derives from Old French tigre, from Latin tigris, which was a borrowing from Classical Greek τίγρις 'tigris'.[4] Since ancient times, the word tigris has been suggested to originate from the Armenian or Persian word for 'arrow', which may also be the origin of the name for the river Tigris.[5][6] However, today, the connection between the animal and the river is doubted, and they are likely to be homonyms.[6]
Taxonomy[edit]
In 1758, Carl Linnaeus described the tiger in his work Systema Naturae and gave it the scientific name Felis tigris, as the genus Felis was being used for all cats at the time. His scientific description was based on descriptions by earlier naturalists such as Conrad Gessner and Ulisse Aldrovandi.[2] In 1929, Reginald Innes Pocock subordinated the species under the genus Panthera using the scientific name Panthera tigris.[7][8]
Subspecies[edit]
Nine recent tiger subspecies have been proposed between the early 19th and early 21st centuries, the Bengal, Malayan, Indochinese, South China, Siberian, Caspian, Javan, Bali and Sumatran tigers.[9][10] The validity of several tiger subspecies was questioned in 1999 as most putative subspecies were distinguished on the basis of fur length and colouration, striping patterns and body size of specimens in natural history museum collections that are not necessarily representative for the entire population, it was proposed to recognise only two tiger subspecies as valid, namely P. t. tigris in mainland Asia and the smaller P. t. sondaica in the Greater Sunda Islands.[11]
This two-subspecies proposal was reaffirmed in 2015 through a comprehensive analysis of morphological, ecological, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) traits of all putative tiger subspecies. The continental nominate subspecies P. t. tigris constitutes two clades: a northern clade composed of the Siberian and Caspian tiger populations, and a southern clade composed of all other mainland populations.[10] In 2017, the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group revised felid taxonomy in accordance with the 2015 two-subspecies proposal and recognised only P. t. tigris and P. t. sondaica.[12] Results of a 2018 whole-genome sequencing study of 32 samples from the six living putative subspecies—the Bengal, Malayan, Indochinese, South China, Siberian and Sumatran tiger—found them to be distinct and separate clades.[13] These results were corroborated in 2021 and 2023.[14][15] The Cat Specialist Group states that "Given the varied interpretations of data, the [subspecific] taxonomy of this species is currently under review by the IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group."[16]
The following tables are based on the classification of the tiger as of 2005,[9] and also reflect the classification recognised by the Cat Classification Task Force in 2017.[12]
| Population | Description | Image |
|---|---|---|
| Bengal tiger formerly P. t. tigris (Linnaeus, 1758)[2] | This population inhabits the Indian subcontinent.[17] The Bengal tiger has shorter fur than tigers further north,[8] with a light tawny to orange-red colouration,[8][18] and relatively long and narrow nostrils.[19] | 
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| †Caspian tiger formerly P. t. virgata (Illiger, 1815)[20] | This population occurred from Turkey to around the Caspian Sea.[17] It had bright rusty-red fur with thin and closely spaced brownish stripes,[21] and a broad occipital bone.[11] Genetic analysis revealed that it was closely related to the Siberian tiger.[22] It has been extinct since the 1970s.[23] | 
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| Siberian tiger formerly P. t. altaica (Temminck, 1844)[24] | This population lives in the Russian Far East, Northeast China and possibly North Korea.[17] The Siberian tiger has long hair and dense fur.[24] Its ground colour varies widely from ochre-yellow in winter to more reddish and vibrant after moulting.[25] The skull is shorter and broader than the skulls of tigers further south.[19] | 
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| South China tiger formerly P. t. amoyensis (Hilzheimer, 1905)[26] | This tiger historically lived in south-central China.[17] The skulls of the five type specimens had shorter carnassials and molars than tigers from India, a smaller cranium, orbits set closer together and larger postorbital processes; skins were yellowish with rhombus-like stripes.[26] It has a unique mtDNA haplotype due to interbreeding with ancient tiger lineages.[12][27][28] It is extinct in the wild as there has not been a confirmed sighting since the 1970s,[1] and survives only in captivity.[15] | 
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| Indochinese tiger formerly P. t. corbetti (Mazák, 1968)[29] | This tiger population occurs on the Indochinese Peninsula.[17] Indochinese tiger specimens are smaller with smaller skulls than specimens from India and appear to have darker fur with slightly narrower stripes.[29][30] | _832-714-(118).jpg)
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| Malayan tiger formerly P. t. jacksoni (Luo et al., 2004)[31] | The Malayan tiger was proposed as a distinct subspecies on the basis of mtDNA and micro-satellite sequences that differ from the Indochinese tiger.[31] It does not differ significantly in fur colour or skull size from Indochinese tigers.[30] There is no clear geographical barrier between tiger populations in northern Malaysia and southern Thailand.[1] | .jpg)
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| Population | Description | Image |
|---|---|---|
| †Javan tiger formerly P. t. sondaica (Temminck, 1944)[24] | This tiger was described based on an unspecified number of skins with short and smooth hair.[24] Tigers from Java were small compared to tigers of the Asian mainland, had relatively elongated skulls compared to the Sumatran tiger, and longer, thinner and more numerous stripes.[30] The Javan tiger is thought to have gone extinct by the 1980s.[23] | 
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| †Bali tiger formerly P. t. balica (Schwarz, 1912)[32] | This tiger occurred on Bali and had brighter fur and a smaller skull than the Javan tiger.[32][33] A typical feature of Bali tiger skulls is the narrow occipital bone, which is similar to the Javan tiger's skull.[34] The tiger went extinct in the 1940s.[23] | 
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| Sumatran tiger formerly P. t. sumatrae (Pocock, 1929)[35] | The type specimen from Sumatra had dark fur.[35] The Sumatran tiger has particularly long hair around the face,[17] thick body stripes,[30] and a broader and smaller nasal bone than other island tigers.[30][19] | _close-up.jpg)
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Evolution[edit]
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| Phylogeny of the Panthera based on nuclear DNA[36] |
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The tiger shares the genus Panthera with the lion, leopard, jaguar and snow leopard. Results of genetic analyses indicate that the tiger and snow leopard are sister species whose lineages split from each other between 2.70 and 3.70 million years ago.[37] The tiger's whole genome sequencing shows repeated sequences that parallel those in other cat genomes.[38]
The fossil species Panthera palaeosinensis of early Pleistocene northern China was described as a possible tiger ancestor when it was discovered in 1924, but modern cladistics places it as basal to modern Panthera.[39][40] Panthera zdanskyi, which lived around the same time and place, was suggested to be a sister species of the modern tiger when it was examined in 2014.[40] However, as of 2023, at least two subsequent studies considered P. zdanskyi likely to be a synonym of P. palaeosinensis, noting that its proposed differences from that species fell within the range of individual variation.[41][42] The earliest appearance of the modern tiger species in the fossil record are jaw fragments from Lantion in China that are dated to the early Pleistocene.[40]
Middle- to late-Pleistocene tiger fossils have been found throughout China, Sumatra and Java. Prehistoric subspecies include Panthera tigris trinilensis and P. t. soloensis of Java and Sumatra, and P. t. acutidens of China; late Pleistocene and early Holocene fossils of tigers have also been found in