The Caspian Tiger (Panthera tigris virgata)

[TheHyenid76]

(05-12-2024, 09:44 AM)Larch Wrote: Hello guys, I was hoping someone could help me out with this. I keep seeing claims that Caspian tigers reached north of the Caucasus into the southern Russian and Ukrainian plains and the source for this is "Mammals of the Soviet Union". Reading the archived version, I found the section where the claim originates from: 
https://archive.org/details/mammalsofsov...ew=theater

To paraphrase "While tigers were restricted to the southern Caucasus in the 19th century, it's 'probable' that it they were common in the northern Caucasus, and perhaps even the plains of Ukraine and southern Russia."

While the authors make it very clear that the historic northern limit of permanent Amur tiger habitat was roughly the Amur river and that the records from north of there were vagrants, the section on Caspian tigers having any permanent presence north of the trans-Caucasus all sounds pretty suggestive at best. I can see maybe the  Cis-Caucasus(north Caucasus) but none of this really qualifies as proof of them living in eastern Europe proper i.e. Ukraine or southern Russian plains.

What do you think?

Hello my friend! There is already a thread on Caspian tigers on this forum, so if you have any questions or information you would like to share please post them there. MODS take both these posts and take them to the Caspian tiger thread and delete this. As for your question, the tiger (Panthera tigris) never reached mainland Europe. As for Ukraine or southern Russian plains, these requires more research and historical digging. More on the westernmost distribution of the tiger will be posted later. Reply