Everywhere I go these days it seems to be the Sumatran Tiger. Now stay calm - I do appreciate that they are at risk in their native land and the conservation breeding program is a great thing. But I do wonder if there is a chance of the Bengal Tiger being forgotten and fading out due to focus elsewhere. I had a look at ZTL and 13 UK collections have Bengals and 12 Sumatran (I know ZTL is usually not 100% accurate and in any case, it will soon be 13/13 when Twycross put their Sumatran on display). One of the collections with Bengals is Heythrop, I saw these recently and it reminded me of what majestic beasts these are. Essentially I am saying act now for Critically Endangered Species (Sumatran), but don't ignore the Endangered Species (Bengal). And I really like the Bengal.
No, all the ones in zoos. The ones in India are 'Indian' tigers. 'Royal Bengal' or 'Bengal' tiger was a name adopted by victorian hunters/shooters that has been continued into modern times as an umbrella term to denote tigers with Indian ancestry- however none of those in zoos outside India are pure anymore. Hence the focus on Siberian/Sumatran tigers in our zoos nowadays.
That's my point really. If there are no "pure" Bengals in the UK and the species is Endangered wouldn't it be a grand idea if an Indian Tiger breeding program were set up outside of India?Panthera Tigris Tigris would be a nice addition to UK zoo population. Why wait until they are critically endangered? Everyone loves a Tiger.
Because space is severely limited and there is hardly space for the more endangered Malayan tigers in Europe. Additionally wild Bengal tiger populations have actually increased in recent years.
I recall recommendations from 2015 that suggested that Tigers should be classed as two subspecies Continental and Sunda (Island). It also reclassified all wild cats. I also remember it classed all Lions including Asian as one single species with no subspecies. Not seen any traction from the report for its classification to be adopted but it was very interesting. A new species of known as fox-cat was in news article yesterday. It seems to me that a hard decision to concentrate on one sub species would be best. I interested to know how many establishments hold Amur Tigers now.
That study has been extensively discussed here, but recent genetic work indicated that the 6 traditional subspecies are still valid.
Excuse me, I was entirely incorrect. Either I found an exceptionally poor article or I simply didn't read beyond a first paragraph. In any case I do think that whilst there is some romance to the name fox-cat it's confusing for anyone new to the animal, perhaps adopting the Corsican 'ghjattu volpe' would be better? (or just inevitably Corsican wildcat)
ZTL have 19 collections in the UK holding Siberian Tiger but I have no idea how hybrid they are. So for locations rather than number of individuals they are the most represented sub species in the UK
There is already a Corsican Wildcat. The "new species" is most likely a few larger animals, such as are found in Australia, but there is really nothing much to go on. Reading the articles just made me think of the Kellas Cats in the UK.
