ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[Greatearth]

Roflcopters 

Where did you find that photo?  

That tiger was not the last wild tiger in Korea and not the last male tiger to have been photographed. The numbers of 141 tigers were slaughtered in Joseon is also wrong information. You probably searched in Google and read from English website. This is why it is good to know languages in Asia continent where the tiger was existed if you want to study tiger. 

About that male tiger, he also attacked man (guy was a woodcutter) before he was killed just like other Korean tiger. Jap destroyed tons of habitat, over hunted animals, and killed tremendous livestock in Korea and Manchuria during the jap occupation (There are several unknown native dog breeds and cow were also extinct in Korea and southern Manchuria because of these evil jap). He was probably roamed around and attacked woodcutter since forest was gone and prey animals were disappeared. As for a woodcutter, this poor guy was unable to work due to his injuries by a tiger. He lost his mom and family since he couldn't work. It was not just in Korea, this was definitely common in entire Asia when western europe and japan was colonized in Asia. This is why tiger became critical endangered animal today.

It is impossible to know his size. One zoologist wrote 273 cm long and other zoologist wrote 258 cm long and 154 kg. I personally think 273 cm is the right measurement. Prey depletion was a big problem in Korea during early 1990 s for large mammal predators because of uncivilized japanese. The number of prey animal was probably even lower than Russian Far East in 1970 ~ 1990 s and that is why even animal like red fox was also extinct in Korea. Korea was the first country to lost the Siberian tiger. 

The biggest male Korean tiger (from I can find right now) ever recorded was one male tiger caught in Bulgap mountain area. He was something like 360 ~ 365 cm long, but skin doesn't look enormous as 360 cm length. Just long and slender, and skin was also folded in photo. One funny story is that one japanese guy ate that tiger's tongue and he was sick badly for a several months.



Peter 

I will answer previous post later. I don't have a time these days. However, I believe tiger, other Felidae, and other animals should be separated its subspecies after I discovered zoo in USA is mix breeding the Asian elephant. The Snow leopard is recently discovered as 3 subspecies even though their range map is smaller than tiger. I believe it is better to distinguish tiger subspecies as 9 subspecies. Even if it is 2 subspecies, they should be only crossbreed with neighborhood subspecies. 

I don't really know which boar is the largest. I often heard the Manchurian boar is the biggest of all boar. The Korean boar (South Korea) looks also smaller than their families in north. I never heard the Belarusian boar was huge. The top predator of the South Korea today is a boar, but I never heard huge male boar caught in Korea. Reply