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

[peter]

THE AIM OF THIS THREAD

There are two boards on big cats in Wildfact and tigers feature in different threads in both. One could wonder about the purpose of this thread. In order to prevent problems, I decided to write this post.

The aim of this thread is to concentrate anything on evolution, taxonomy, habits, habitat, prey and data on body dimensions and weight. This also is the place where you will find information about the recent past, say a century ago or thereabout. I will post a lot of photographs I found in old books in some time. This thread is about humans and tigers as well. I will post a number of authentic stories written by hunters. If you combine the information in this thread with what you'll find in Apollo's thread (Big Cats news), you'll get an idea about the way both interact now and about a century ago.

For now, the focus is on evolution and taxonomy. The reason is new research in the last fifteen years. Guate (in post 6) wrote a great summary. It will be used to get to another I will post in a few days. This will allow for some insight in tiger evolution at a glance.  

Although information on all subspecies will be posted every now and then, you're adviced to visit specific threads on tiger subspecies in the other board on big cats if you're interested in one subspecies in particular. These threads will have more recent information and photographs. Reply