Desciption:

Largest of the extant cats and comparable to the largest fossil felids (Mazák 1981), the tiger is also one of the best known large mammals. The reddish-orange to yellow-ochre coat with black stripes and white belly is immediately recognizable. The tiger is generally divided into subspecies (Mazák 1981):

Panthera tigris tigris (Linnaeus,1758) - Bengal Tiger.

Panthera tigris virgata (Illiger,1815) - Caspian Tiger.

Panthera tigris altaica (Temminck,1844) - Amur Tiger, Siberian Tiger.

Panthera tigris  sondaica (Temminck,1844) - Javan Taiger.

Panthera tigris  amoyensis (Hilzheimer,1905) - South China Tiger.

Panthera tigris  balica (Schwarz,1912) - Bali Tiger.

Panthera tigris  sumatrae (Pocock,1929) - Sumatran Tiger.

Panthera tigris  corbetti (Mazák,1968,) - Bali Tiger.

Three races - the Caspian, Bali and Javan tigers - have become extinct since the 1950s.

Tigers originated in east Asia, from where two major dispersals took place, tiger migrated through the woodlands and along the river systems into southeast Asia, some crossing to the Indonesian islands, and others finally reaching India.