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

[Greatearth]

This is why I don't view tiger subspecies are 2, neither Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) and Caspian tiger (Panthera tigris virgata) are the same subspecies. It is on The Caspian Tiger #33.

How is it possible that tigers lived in the Korean peninsula (Seoul or Busan) and Russian Far East (Vladivostok) can be the same subspecies as tigers lived in far west of Asia, or few individual tigers reached even far places as western Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine?
Whoever did research on that paper just wasted their grant money and published worthless information. However, I can understand that Caspian tigers lived in the central Asia were genetically very similar to Siberian tigers. It still won't cause any problem to releasing Siberian tigers in Central Asia since Caspian tigers are extinct. The same for releasing Sumatran tigers in Java Island, but situation of Java is even worse than Sumatra Island. Bali is absolutely impossible. Sad reality of Asia continent.

Few posts (and years) ago I discussed this idea about subspecies vs species. Biologists are still arguing how to define "subspecies". Reptiles, amphibians, fishes, and small birds and mammals are easy to define as species/subspecies since their can't move far wide as large mammals. Animals like tigers are different. That's why biologists are arguing how to define tiger subspecies. Bengal tigers living in western Myanmar/India/Bangladesh are suppose to be more similar to Indochinese tigers in eastern Myanmar compared to Bengal tigers in western/southern India, and Indochinese tigers lived in eastern Myanmar are more similar to Bengal tigers in western Myanmar compared to Indochinese tigers in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. Indochinese tigers lived in right above of Malayan Peninsula are definitely more similar to Malayan tigers in northern Malayan Peninsula, while Malayan tigers lived in southern Malayan Peninsula and Singapore Island are probably more closely related to Sumatran tigers. The same for Sumatran tigers, Javan tigers, Bali tigers, South China tiger, and Chinese tigers lived in mainland China. It is very difficult to conclude exact "subspecies" and boundaries in their range map. The same for any other large and medium size animals. That is why some biologists are just view it as 2 subspecies since tigers are endangered.

However, I am absolutely against and disagree with 2 subspecies since people will start mixing tigers if it happens. I personally view any biologists believe tiger subspecies are 2 are highly ignorant and nonsense like Kitchner guy. However, I can understand their point of view on 2 tiger subspecies if you study genomic. It is very difficult to defining subspecies on large animals unless they are living in islands. I hope those people are not go far as doing stupid thing like releasing one tiger into places where other tiger subspecies live. Reply