The Caspian Tiger (Panthera tigris virgata)

[lfelipe86]

(07-06-2023, 01:28 AM)zulfu1903 Wrote: As someone from Azerbaijan who has been in the South (Talysh mountains), it is highly unlikely. There are lots of small villages scattered around that part, potentially the smallest villages in the country, so if tigers existed definitely there would be news. Additionally, what's the source of this "1996 sighting", that's potentially leopard? As the name suggests the main locals in the area are Talysh people and they speak the Iranian language. And we (Azeri Turks) took the names of the tiger and leopard from Persian in the wrong order, so if Talysh/Iranian says they saw "peleng" it is a leopard in their language, but in Azeri means tiger. That's how many so-called "hunted specimens" ended up in the newspapers (even Gerptner included these "sightings" in his book). And actually, the Academy of Sciences in Azerbaijan ordered skins to examine from 1957 on and all turned out to be leopards! So any claim in this part should be considered cautiously. Lastly, the movie shows a tiger but not a Caspian tiger. It just says "There used to be tigers in here" and shows a "stock video" of what I believe is a Bengal tiger. There is only one video of the Caspian tiger (Soraya, a famous tigress from Hamburg)  which i uploaded on Youtube  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjqnM3u_eXg&t=75s

Thank you for clarifying! At least the other sightings seem more promising, like the ones from Turkey where the military personal identified the animal they saw in the night vision equipment as tigers(striped cats) (source: Status, Conservation and Management of Large Carnivores in Turkey) and the ones from Afghanistan and Iran! (source: Biodiversity Reconnaissance Survey In Darwaz Region, Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan and on the trail of the hyrcan tiger documentary) Reply