There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
The Amur tiger may have gone the way of the black footed ferret. Personal story here, but I'm sure you can verify it online. The black footed ferret has been decimated and now we have a very bottlenecked gene pool. In the Smithsonian collections, you can literally see ferrets getting smaller as their numbers shrank, and I am not exaggerating. From a few centuries ago to now, the ferret specimens stored have gotten smaller and smaller, accounting for gender. A drastic change like this just took a few hundred years. The Amur tiger likely followed suit.
I've a tiger example too. The Ngandong tiger is three times the size of the Javan tiger. In about 500 kya, all this change happened. Genetic bottleneck by the islands plus drastic ecosystem change has a way of removing large individuals.