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

[BorneanTiger]

As you might be aware, the Cat Specialist Group revised subspecies of tigers (Pages 66–68) as follows: https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/hand...sAllowed=y

"Panthera tigris tigris (Linnaeus, 1758). Distribution: Mainland Asia, including India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, China, Russia, Indochina and the Malay Peninsula (includes virgata, altaica, amoyensis, corbetti and “jacksoni”). Distingushing characters: Larger size, paler pelage with fewer stripes.

Panthera tigris sondaica (Temminck, 1844). Distribution: Sumatra and formerly Java and Bali (includes balica, sumatrae). Distinguishing characters: Smaller size, darker pelage with more frequent stripes."

And they put this map on Page 67: 
   

If you look closely, there is a relatively narrow body of water separating the ranges of the Mainland Asian (Panthera tigris tigris) and Sunda (Panthera tigris sondaica) subspecies, and that is the Strait of Malacca between the Malayan Peninsula (where the Malayan tiger is based) and the Greater Sunda Island of Sumatra (where the Sumatran tiger (formerly Panthera tigris sumatræ) is based): 

Map of the Strait of Malacca between the Malayan Peninsula and Sumatra: https://maritimecyprus.com/2014/07/07/sa...e-straits/

*This image is copyright of its original author

Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris tigris, formerly Panthera tigris jacksoni or Panthera tigris corbetti), Tigers-World: https://www.tigers-world.com/malayan-tiger/

*This image is copyright of its original author

Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica, formerly Panthera tigris sumatræ), Shutterstock: https://nypost.com/2018/01/06/rare-sumat...lantation/

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

I've calculated the nearest points of the Malayan Peninsula and Sumatra that I know of, and it's about 40 km (25 miles) (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Malacc...99.5450974). I did this was to see if tigers from either Sumatra or Malaya could swim over to each others' territory to establish hybrid populations (Panthera tigris tigris × Panthera tigris sondaica), which is apparently the case for lions in Ethiopia or North-East Africa (Pages 71–73), but the maximum distance ever swum by a tiger appears to be only 29 km (18 miles) (https://books.google.com/books?id=T37sFC...km&f=false).

Aside from that, they noted in Page 68 that the South Chinese tiger (Panthera tigris tigris, formerly Panthera tigris amoyensis) had a unique mtDNA haplotype, and I wonder if this is to do with it being a relict population of the stem or ancestral tiger (https://books.google.com/books?id=YdC-wf...edir_esc=y)?
   

South Chinese tiger, WWF: https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/south-china-tiger

*This image is copyright of its original author

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