Caspian Tiger

Subspecies : Caspian Tiger

Distribution : Caspain Sea region of the former USSR,

Iran and Afganistan

Number in the Wild : Extinct, last one shot in 1959

Number listed in Captivity:0

Scientific :

Phylum Chordata 

Class Mammalia 
Order Carnivora
Family Felidae
Authority (Illiger, 1815)
 
English Name Caspian Tiger, Hyrcanian Tiger, Turan Tiger
Danish Name Kaspisk Tiger
Dutch Name Kaspische Tijger
French Name Tigre de la Caspienne
German Name Kaspische Tiger
Spanish Name Tigre del Caspio

Swedish Name Kaspiska Tigern

Characteristics:

• The Caspian tiger is also known as the Persian tiger and was known to be a beautiful animal, thought it is thought to have become extinct by the late 1950s. There have been several supposed sightings of the tiger since then, but nothing has been proved, which means that the species is truly extinct or just not available in large enough numbers to be spotted.
  

• The third largest tiger in the world, the Caspian tiger was quite long and stocky and also had unusually large paws compared to other species of tigers. The species had very short ears, furry cheeks, and long hair all over the body surface. The coloring of the Caspian tiger was very much like the Bengal tiger.

• There is a specimen available for view at the British Museum that shows that the cats were yellowish gold on the back and the flanks with the sides of the body lighter with stripes that varied in color. Male Caspian tigers were very large weighing in at 169-240 kilograms while the females weighed in at a more modest 85-135 kilograms.
  
  

Range & Habitat:

• The Caspian tiger was known to inhabit Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Caucasus, Turkey, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The species seemed to be able to adapt well to different climates and areas, as long as there were available food sources.

• While the species was known to be in all of these areas they were solitary animals and only socialized with one another during mating season and the Caspian tiger lived for ten to fifteen years.

• 
  It is thought that the Caspian tiger would breed during any time of the year but it was most common in the winter or spring. The mating period of the species lasted 20 to 30 days and if the female did not become pregnant this time she would go into heat again during the same year. When a Caspian Tiger became pregnant she would remain so for about 100 days and then she would give birth to two or three cubs.

• The cubs were born blind and their eyes did not open for ten days. The tigress was responsible for feeding her cubs for the first eight weeks with her milk and wouldn’t leave the den for at least two weeks, and when they did so it was under the watchful eye of their mother.

• The cubs would start to hunt on their own by 11 weeks, but up until this point the mother was responsible for feeding herself and the cubs, which was a lot of work because the female raised the cubs on her own. Caspian Tigers gave birth every three to four years.
  
  

Food:

• The Caspian tiger is known to have followed the migratory herds of their preferred prey animals, such as the boar. In recognition of this, the Kazakh people referred to this tiger as the “road” or “travelling leopard”.

Historic range for the Caspian tiger:

• This tiger once ranged throughout the humid forests, mangroves and grasslands of Afghanistan, Turkey, Mongolia, Iran, Northern Iraq, Azerbaizhan, Turkmenistan (Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, Termez, Kunya-Urgench, Merv), Uzbekistan and the Central Asiatic areas of Russia. In these isolated regions ungulates were numerous.

• There have been no attempts to preserve the Caspian tiger as fare as I know. Captive breeding was maybe an option, because there is evidence that a Caspian tiger was kept in Berlin Zoo (Germany) see the picture shown above this page. Other evidence of captive Caspian tigers is that the Afghani Prince, Ayoub Khan, has had a Caspian tiger cub.

• This cub was given to him as a gift from the Persian Ghajar Prince, Gheisar Massoud, grandson of Nasser-edin Shah. This cub can be seen on a photograph that was taken at Prince Ayoub Khan’s residence in Tehran, Iran. He was later crowned King of Afghanistan. But sadly enough no conservation attempts have been made in captivity. There are no Caspian tigers left in captivity (Nowell 2003).

Museum Specimens:

• There are some skins from the Caspian tiger in museums around the world, and a limited number of photographs showing live and dead Caspian tigers are available. Specimens can be found in the British Museum, Nature & Wildlife Museum of Iran, Siberian Zoological Museum, and the Medical College in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Relatives:

• The Bali tiger was the first subspecies of the tiger to become extinct. Unfortunately, since then, further two subspecies, namely the Caspian Tiger and the Javan Tiger, have become extinct.

• The five remaining tiger subspecies are the Bengal tiger Panthera tigris tigris (Linnaeus, 1758), Siberian (Amur) tiger Panthera tigris altaica (Temminck, 1844), Sumatran tiger Panthera tigris sumatrae Pocock, 1829, Indo-Chinese tiger Panthera tigris corbetti Mazak, 1968, and the South China tiger Panthera tigris amoyensis (Hilzheimer, 1905). These 5 subspecies are critically endangered en may follow them soon, if nothing more will be done to protect them!

References:

• Can, O.E. 2004. Status, Conservation and Management of Large Carnivores in Turkey. Council of Europe. 29 pages. Strasbourg, France.
  Heptner, V.H. and Sludskii, A.A. 1972. [Mammals of the Soviet Union. Vol III: Carnivores (Feloidea).] Vyssha Shkola, Moscow (in Russian). Engl. transl. edited by R.S. Hoffmann, Smithsonian Inst. and the Natl. Science Fndn., Washington DC, 1992.
  
  Kock, D. 1990. Historical record of a tiger, Panthera tigris (Linnaeus, 1758) in Iraq. Zoology in the Middle East 4: 11-15.
  
  Mazák, V. 1981. Panthera tigris. Mammal. Species 152: 1-8.
  
  Nowell, K. 2003. Panthera tigris ssp. virgata. In: IUCN 2006. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 09 December 2006.
  
  Nowell, K. and Jackson, P. (compilers and editors) 1996. Wild Cats. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. (online version)
  
  Ognev, S.I. 1935. Mammals of the U.S.S.R. and adjacent countries. Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem ( 1962).
  
  Üstay, A.H. 1990. Hunting in Turkey. BBA, Istanbul.
  
  Vuosalo, E. 1976. Once there was a tiger. Wildlife Mar: 126- 130 (Teheran).
  
  

Links:

5 TIGERS - The Tiger Information Center.
Tiger Territory. The Internet's most massive information and tiger photograph resource.
National Museum of Natural History - Naturalis. (Leiden, The Netherlands)
Hungarian Natural History Museum. (Budapest, Hungary)
300 Pearls - Museum highlights of natural diversity.
Green Party of Iran - News - The Caspian Tiger.
World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF).
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
CITES.