The Caspian Tiger (Panthera tigris virgata)

[zulfu1903]

It's been a while since I am comparing the stripe pattern of various Caspian tiger photos and illustrations available. Indeed, there is a huge variation, especially between westernmost (Turkey, Cauacusus) and Central Asian tigers. Western ones have rather narrow stripes. This is also noted by some zoologists like Ognev in 1935. Interestingly enough I was reading Schwarz's paper from 1936 where he described 2 new ssp. for the Caspian tigers. The "Ili tiger" is based on a specimen that lived in Berlin Zoo in the 1898-1910 period. Interestingly, Mastiche already describes 2 Caspian tigers in Berlin Zoo in 1897, so it seems there were at least 3 specimens in the zoo. And this colorized photo from 1899 is I assume the exact skin Schwarz described the Ili tiger (F.t.trabata) after it died  - where he notes it has quite wide stripes! Thus in conclusion the stripe pattern is not a reliable method to describe between ssp due to huge variation. For Caspians based on what I learned the most reliable features are tail rings and the color of the stripes having the tendency to be brownish instead of black.


Schwarz's paper - https://archive.org/details/zoologischer...ew=theater
Berlin tiger with wide stipes:

*This image is copyright of its original author

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