IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Kitchener, A.C.; Yamaguchi, N. | |
| What is a tiger? Biogeography, morphology, and taxonomy | |
| 2010 Book Chapter | |
The tiger is certainly one of the most easily recognizable cats, with its distinctive and unique striped coat. It is also commonly believed to be the biggest cat species alive today, although this claim is questionable. The tiger shows considerable variation in its size, coloration and markings, reflecting the variety of habitats it occupies throughout its very wide geographical distribution from the temperate oak forests of the north to the humid tropical forests on the Equator. Understanding this variation is a key to its successful current and future conservation, but we are still uncertain of its significance. By going back through the tiger's two-million-year fossil history, we hope to provide a better overview of how and why today's variable tiger has evolved. The tiger has always had a considerable impact on human cultures, especially where people and tigers have lived together and still do co-exist. Its large size and consequent need for large prey have brought it into conflict with people by preying on them and their livestock, but it has also earned our respect and admiration for its power and prowess as a killer. The desire to wear its coat, or to create medicine from its bones and other body parts, continues today, with increasing detrimental impact even on supposedly protected populations; and the power of the tiger as a brand to help sell products throughout the world has never been stronger. With increasing human pressure on the remaining fragmented tiger populations, there has never been a better time to answer the question 'What is a tiger?' However, research on understanding geographical variation in tigers, including how many subspecies or even species survive, has produced conflicting results, which potentially undermine conservation efforts in the wild and in captivity. By knowing the tiger better, we may be able to be more certain what conservation efforts should be directed where, in order to save it and the landscapes it inhabits for future generations to respect and admire. |
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