sixth-extinction:

fatehbaz:

lol in Southeast Asia (sub)species of tiger are like nesting dolls

what do i mean?

not everyone agrees on the amount of subspecies, but i like to recognize the classic 9 subspecies: Caspian (P.t. virigata), Siberian (P.t. altaica), Bengal (P.t. tigris), Chinese or “South China” (P.t. amoyensis), Indochinese (P.t. corbetti), Malayan (P.t. jacksoni), Sumatran (P.t. sumatrae), Javan (P.t. sondaica), and Bali (P.t. balica)

the Caspian, Javan, and Bali subspecies all went extinct in the 20th century; the Chinese (”South China”) subspecies is probably extinct in the wild too

well, here’s the (historic) distribution range of the tigers:

so across most of the Eurasian continent, there are pretty much 4/5 tiger subspecies living from Anatolia and the Black Sea, through Central Asia and India, to the Korean peninsula and eastern Siberia. but in Southeast Asia, you get another unique 4/5 subspecies of tiger all living in a tiny fraction of that space.

but a closer look at how their distribution ranges become smaller and more isolated as the tiger reaches out into the Indonesian islands of Southeast Asia:

generally, the subspecies body sizes seem to get smaller the further they live out into the archipelago, too

like a nesting doll idk

Good example of insular dwarfism!