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

[Greatearth]

About tiger subspecies


1.
I have seen some people are in wildfact often saying the Siberian tiger and the Caspian tiger are the same subspecies by mentioning a story of their range maps were connected for a 10000 years or something. However, we don’t really know if this was true after human civilization. It is just a hypothesis after studying some genetic and bones. Unlike other Asian cultures, tiger is not even appearing in culture of Mongolia and native people in Central Asia. Where is absolute evidence of the Siberian/Caspian tiger actually lived together in Central Asia or Siberia after the Quaternary extinction event by just studying their genetic. It might have been a few tigers did across the range map of the Siberian tiger and Caspian tiger. However, It is impossible to know it unless there was a time machine.
 
Even if their range map was connected from each other. There was no way that the Siberian tiger in Southern Korea/Russian Far east and the Caspian tiger in Caucasian mountain area had the same gene to view them as a single subspecies. The Korean tiger and Caspian tiger in Caucasian mountain and Iran had a different gene pool. Distance of Korea and Sikhote-Alinto to Caspian Sea are even further distance than Manchuria to Bengal tiger in India or Malaysian tiger in Malaysia/Singapore. There is no way that the Caspian tiger in westernmost area and the Siberian tiger in southern Korea and Russian Far East could had the same gene to distinguish as the same subspecies.
The Siberian tiger in Great Khingan mountains or Lake Baikal areas were probably genetically closer to the Caspian tiger lived in Lake Balkhash and northwards into the southern Altai Mountains, and to southeastern Transbaikal or Western Siberia in the east.
 
So how to define “subspecies”? 
I do not know the answer. This is what biologists are still debating on "how to define subspecies." I remember my professors were mentioning this story when I was studying genomics and biogeography. 

 

2.
About Mainland Asian tiger and Sunda Island tiger subspecies.
The Snow leopard is discovered as a 3 subspecies this year. Their range map is smaller than mainland Asian tiger and mainland Asian tiger is single subspecies? There must have been a huge error while analyzing DNA.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28498961
 
 

3.
The only reason I am so against with this was because of what happened in Korean zoo.
 
South Korea had a pure breed Korean tigers from North Korea. They were captured alive in North Korea in 1991 (I don't remember what year it was and they are already dead now). Today, Korea also have another a pure breed Siberian tiger pair from Russia. Russian president Vladimir Putin gave them as a gift for celebrating Russia–South Korea relations anniversary in 2011. I actually seen their photo before. Yes, the Siberian tigers from North Korea and the Siberian tigers from Russia were a lot different from each other. Korean tiger was not even fluffy or furry compared to the Siberian tigers came from Russia.
However, there was a huge problem. The Siberian tigers in the Seoul zoo during 1980s were came from Minnesota zoo or Minnesota Saint Paul Zoo. This stupid zoo in Minnesota actually sent a hybrid of Siberian-Bengal tiger and they lied that these were a pure breed Siberian tiger. This is why one of their offspring was a white tiger. They crossbreed with pure Korean tiger from North Korea. Another problem was that this white tiger was actually sent it to the North Korea. It was probably cross breed with other pure breed Siberin tiger in zoo in North Korean. And some of the Siberian tiger descents in Seoul zoo were sent it to Japan. I don't know if Japanese zoo prevented hybridization. So there is no more distinct Korean tiger which was different from Siberian tiger from Russian Far East. This is why I am strongly against with defining tiger subspecies as 2. And I don’t know why zoo in Minnesota is still involving to researching tiger in Asia. This zoo should not involve to work with wild tiger for their crime. They should just donate money to researching and conserving tiger for ruining the last remaining Korean tiger.
 
I am 100% sure that zoo would crossbreed mainland Asian tiger subspecies and reintroducing them into wild if tiger subspecies are 2. Thus, I believe it is better to distinguish tiger subspecies as 9 unless there was a law to never crossbreed different mainland Asian tiger subspecies in zoo.  Reply