The Caspian Tiger (Panthera tigris virgata)

[BorneanTiger]

(12-17-2018, 01:25 AM)peter Wrote:

(12-16-2018, 11:12 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote: This book has a rare photo of a Caspian tiger's skin in Page 66: https://books.google.com/books?id=t2EZCScFXloC&lpg=PA66&pg=PA66&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

In case you didn't know, the tiger from the Berlin Zoo in the 19th century was from the Caucasus: https://web.archive.org/web/200708240914...ger-13.htm

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Collection of Kaveh Farrokh: 

A stuffed Persian tiger that invaded Georgia: http://kavehfarrokh.com/heritage/the-las...n-georgia/

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Central Asian tigers: http://kavehfarrokh.com/iran-and-central...the-1930s/

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*This image is copyright of its original author

Wikimedia Commons: 

Samarqand, Uzbekistan: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:...drassa.JPG

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Iranian tiger skin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Babremazandaran.jpg

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Statues in the area of Mount Akhun in the North Caucasus (in European Russia): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:...untain.JPG

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Azerbaijani stamps: http://www.azermarka.az/en/1997.php?suba...cat=13&

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*This image is copyright of its original author

Roman Syrian mosaic of an elephant attacking a tiger: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1740...ine-turkey

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Also, Heptner and Sludskiy had photos of skins of both Amur (Pages 132–134: https://archive.org/stream/mammalsofsov2...2/mode/2up) and Central Asian tigers (Page 142: https://archive.org/stream/mammalsofsov2...2/mode/2up): 

Amur tigers: 

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Tails of the Central Asian and Amur tigers, Page 134: 

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Central Asian tigers: 

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First time I see photographs of Caspian tigers shot by Sovjet soldiers. Excellent find and many thanks!

I modified the post to give a more accurate URL for the Iranian tiger's skin in the book by Eskandar Firouz, and to give photos of Amur tiger skins that were displayed by Heptner and Sludskiy, and I can see something interesting here. Apparently, Central Asian tigers generally had a darker fur and more compact stripe pattern than their Amur relatives.

Jackpot, this file by the Cat Specialist Group gives more photos, pictures and information about tigers of Iran, including Soraya the Persian tigress in Hagenback Zoo: http://www.catsg.org/fileadmin/fileshari...n_Iran.pdf 

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

And that's not all. Though eastern Anatolia (the Asian part of Turkey) is treated as probably the westernmost range of the tiger, according to Şekercioğlu et al. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar...via%3Dihub), stone traps that were used to capture both leopards and tigers were found in the Taurus Mountains of southern Anatolia, and according to Johnson et al. (https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream...sAllowed=y), one of the last pairs of tigers was recorded as having being killed on Selçuk Plain, but also accepted that unconfirmed sightings still occurred in eastern Turkey, Afghanistan and Central Asia. When I search for more information about tigers in Afghanistan and Central Asia, I come across the work of Jungius et al. (https://web.archive.org/web/201610220651..._study.pdf), who said "It is quite probable that tigers still inhabited these areas till 1970th. Afterwards, during the Soviet intrusion into Afghanistan, tigers were recorded several times along the
Afghan-Russian border from 1982 to 1991 (personal communications, former boarder guards). The latest information from border guards dates to 1998, from the southern part of the Babatag mountain ridge. There is some information that tiger footprints were seen in the Surkhandaria region in 2008 by Uzbek border-guards (personal communication)."

In addition, Marco Massetti photographed an Eastern Anatolian kilim (rug) that features, amongst others, two tigers in Page 608: http://www.museoscienzebergamo.it/web/im...ssetti.pdf Reply