Caspian tiger
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
| Caspian Tiger Conservation status: Extinct (1960s) | ||||||||||||||||
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| Panthera tigris virgata (Illiger, 1815) |
The Caspian Tiger (or Persian tiger) (Panthera tigris virgata) was found in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Mongolia, and the Central Asiatic area of Russia. This sub species of tigers, the smallest in size became extinct in the late 1960s. Their extinction was caused by politicians working to eradicate the species. They sought to eliminate the tigers because the Russian government was planning a huge land reclamation program. Soon the tigers were referred to as the "traveling leaporads" or as the "road", due to having to follow the migratory herd of their prey animals. Although thought to be extinct the tiger has supposedly been sighted a few times.
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Characteristics
The Caspian tiger was the second largest tiger. The body of this subspecies was quite stocky and elongated with strong legs, big wide paws and unusually large claws. The ears were short and small and gave the appearance of being without hair on the tips. Around the cheeks the Caspian tiger was generously furred and the rest of the pelage was long and thick. The coloration resembles that of the Bengal tiger. The skin specimen in the British Museum has a yellow-gold colour over the back and flanks, while the sides of the body are lighter that the back and the striping also varies from light to dark brown. The chest and abdomen is white with yellow stripes, while the facial area is yellow with brown stripes on the forehead and obvious white patches around the eyes and cheeks. Outer portions of the legs are yellow and the inner areas white. The tail of this subspecies is yellow and has yellowish white stripes. In winter, the hair is very long, and the tiger has a well-developed belly mane and a short nape mane.
Habits and Mating
Caspian tigers were solitary for the most of their life, they rarely socialised with other tigers outside the mating season. The males tiger was bigger in mass than the females and could live on average anything from ten to fifteen years. Caspian Tigers can breed at any time of year, but they usually mate in winter or spring. The mating period of the tigers lasts twenty to thirty days and should a female does not find a mate at the right time, she may come on heat again later. After a gestation period of approximately 100 days, the tigers give birth to about two to three cubs, these cubs are born blind and don't open their eyes until about ten days after birth. The cubs will drink their mothers milk for about the first eight weeks of their life. The father takes no responsibility in raising the young it is done all by the mother. The curious, playful cubs will first leave the den with their mother after about two weeks. The mother now must hunt for three instead for one, however hunting time is severely restricted by the amount of time needed to spend looking after the cubs. The cubs themselves will begin to hunt after about eleven weeks but until then they are mostly dependent on their mother.
A Caspain tigress will bear cubs only once every three-four years.
History and Extinction
The Russian government have worked heavily to eradicate the Caspian tiger during planning a huge land reclamation programme in the beginning of the 20th century. They considered there was no room for the tiger in their plans and so instructed the Russian army to exterminate all tigers found around the area of the Caspian Sea, a project that was carried out very efficiently sadly enough. Once the extermination of the Caspian tiger was almost complete the farmers followed, clearing forests and planting crops like rice and cotton. Due to intensive hunting and deforestation, the Caspian tiger retreated first from the lush lowlands to the forested ranges, then to the marshes around some of the larger rivers, and finally, deeper into the mountains, until it almost certainly became extinct.
The last stronghold of the Caspian tiger in the former Soviet Union was in the Tigrovaya Balka area. Though the tigers were reported as being found here until the mid-1950s, the reliability of these claims is unknown.
An exact date of extinction is unknown. Some reports state that the last Caspian tiger was shot in Golestan National Park (Iran) or in Northern Iran in 1959. There are even claims of a documented killing of this subspecies at Uludere, Hakkari in Turkey during the 1970. Yes other reports state that the final Caspian tiger was captured and killed in Northeast Afghanistan in 1997. The most frequently quoted date is late 1950s, but has almost no evidence to back it up. It appears this date came to be accepted after being quoted by H. Ziaie in "A Field Guide to the Mammals of Iran". Now the most evidence reflects an even earlier date of extinction. The area of Iran that contained the last Caspian tigers was in fact the eastern region of Mazandaran, Northern Iran. According to E. Firouz in “A Guide to the Fauna of Iran, 1999”, the last tiger was killed in 1947 near Agh-Ghomish Village, 10 km East of Kalaleh, on the way to Minoodasht-Bojnoord. No one knows it really for certain.
Sightings and Doubts About Extinction
Caspian Tiger rediscovered in Turkey?
The following excerpts are taken from "Can, O.E. 2004. Status, Conservation and Management of Large Carnivores in Turkey. Council of Europe. 29 pages. Strasbourg, France".
"Earlier in the 20th century, the presence of the Caspian tiger had been known by Turkish (Turkish Republic Official Gazette, 1937). Yet, when the Caspian tiger was declared Extinct in the world, international zoologists did not accept the idea that the Caspian tiger distribution range extended as far as eastern Turkey (Dr. George Schaller, Ankara, Turkey, personal communication, 2003). In fact, the species was officially a pest species until 11th July 2004 in Turkey. In the 1970s, surveys conducted by Paul Joslin in Iran turned up no signs of the Caspian tiger and the conclusion was made that the Caspian tiger had been extirpated. International cat experts only became aware of the presence of the Caspian tiger in Turkey after a tiger was killed in Uludere, Ţőrnak 1970 (Uludere was a sub-province of Hakkari in 1970). Three years later, a botanist visiting the area saw and photographed the tiger pelt and published the story (Baytop, 1974)."
Turkish scientists, during a study on the field, reached some information on the presence of the Caspian Tiger. "Within the framework of Southeastern Anatolia Biodiversity Research Project of WWF-Turkey, a survey was conducted to reveal the large mammal presence and distribution in the region (Can & Lise, 2004). Within the framework of the first attempt to collect systematically the large mammal data in Southeastern Turkey. First, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to 450 military posts in the region. The questionnaire included questions about the presence of large mammal species and each questionnaire were accompanied with Turkey's Mammal Poster of Turkish Society for the Conservation of Nature (which became WWF-Turkey later). The questionnaires were filled out by military personnel in cooperation with the local people and 428 questionnaires were returned to WWF-Turkey. The questionnaires also included questions related with the historical tiger presence in the region. Later, the questionnaire results were used to identify the areas that the field survey will focus.
In the questionnaire results, some military personal had presented rumours about the presence of large cats in the region. Moreover, during the interviews with local people, the mammal team collected rumours about big cat sightings and met local people that claimed to hear roaring from different sites. In addition, it was reported that there was a local tiger pelt trade in the region and three to five tigers were killed in each year and the pelts were sold to rich land lords in Iraq until mid-1980s. This also confirms Turan (1984) who has obtained his information from local hunters in the region. Baytop (1974) similarly reported that 1-8 tigers were killed each year in Ţőrnak region.
Considering that, one to eight tigers were killed each year in Eastern Turkey until the mid 1980s, the tiger that was killed in Uludere was a young individual according to the stripe patterns, the Caspian tiger is likely to have existed in the region at least until the early 1990s. Nevertheless, due to mainly lack of interest in addition to security and safety reasons trained biologists had not attempted to survey in Eastern Turkey before."
It does not prove that the Caspian Tiger survived, but the researchers think they should investigate it seriously. They will give the start for such an investigation probably in 2005.
Reported Sightings
There are still occasional claims of the Caspian tiger being sighted, with some occurring in Afghanistan, (pug marks have occasionally been reported here), and others coming from the more remote forested areas of Turkmenistan. Alas, experts have been unable to find any solid evidence to substantiate these claims and the last reliable sighting was probably at least 30 years ago. It has also been suggested that the 'tiger' sightings may actually be Persian leopards. Any hope of Caspian tigers in Afghanistan could be further dashed as war continues to rage across areas of the country.
Without photographic evidence, expert assessment of pug marks (tiger paw prints), attacks on animals or people, or a sighting by an expert authority, there is presently no good reason to believe that the Caspian still lives.
