In the world there have been about nine species of tigers , however, of these there are only six today since the remaining three are extinct species of tigers from a few years ago.
Why? And what were the species that ran with such luck? In this article you will know them.
Why were these tiger species extinct?
Among the reasons that explain that the three species that we will see below are considered extinct tiger species today are:
- Poaching for various reasons
- The destruction of their natural habitat motivated by deforestation, urbanization and contamination.
Extinct species of tigers
As we said at the beginning of this article, there are three extinct tiger species to date, these are the Bali tiger, the Java tiger and the Caspian tiger, let's know each of these species.
Bali tiger
Considered the smallest tiger in the world, the Panthera tigris balica by its scientific name or Bali tiger was the first to become extinct in 1937.
It was a native specimen of the island of Bali whose size ranged from 2.20 to 2.31 meters in the case of males and from 1.9 to 2.11 meters in the case of females.
It was also distinguished by its fur, which was short and dense, deep orange on the side, back and tail, with fine black, forked and tight stripes.
For their part, the belly and part of the face were white; and in this the characteristic stripes were also present.
From the beginning this species was not very numerous in part due to the small geographical extension of the island of Bali that could not host a large number of specimens.
At the beginning of the 20th century , the Bali tiger was chased because its appearance inspired fear in humans.
Later, after 1918, hunters who killed them for sport arrived on the island and on September 27, 1937, a female was hunted, which was the last living specimen of this species.
Caspian tiger
Panthera tigris virgata was the scientific name for the Caspian Tiger also known as the Persian tiger, one of the largest species on the planet, to the point that an adult male could weigh up to 240 kgs.
Although it resembled the bengal tiger, it differed from it by having more white areas in its golden yellow fur, and by having brown and not black stripes, it also had a beard.
Its name was assigned to it because it inhabited the northern part of ancient Persia , being found in greater numbers in the forests of central Asia.
So when did the extinction begin? The number of specimens began to drop in 1920 motivated by human action, the plantations of items in its territory and the extermination by hunters and armies.
In 1957, the last specimen on the planet was assassinated , which ended up sealing its extinction.
Java tiger
Its scientific name is Panthera tigris probeica , a tiger was originally found on the Indonesian island of Java .
It had a similar appearance to that of Sumatra, but it was different from this one because it had darker fur and thinner and more abundant stripes, to the point that some specimens could have 100 or more stripes on their body.
Even in the 19th century there were many specimens of this species to the point that it was considered a pest, but with the increase in the human population in Java, the destruction of the natural habitat of this tiger began.
In addition, poaching to traffic in their skin, this, together with the decrease in prey to feed on, were the trigger for its extinction in 1979 .
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