Reclassification of the Tiger: What would a recent effort to reclassify the cat’s subspecies mean for conservation?
Originally thought to be of nine separate subspecies, Tigers have been reclassified just into two, Continental and Sunda, by a paper published in the journal Science Advances.
The study, conducted by a team of researchers from Germany, Denmark, and the UK, looked at tiger bone structure, fur patterns, & genetic makeup and noted that despite some genetic differences, there wasn’t enough evidence to classify the species into the presently accepted nine subcategories — Bengal, Siberian, Malayan, Indochinese, South China, Bali, Javan, Sumatran, & Caspian. Instead, they rather proposed that the ones living on the Asian Continent be counted under Continental, and the ones on Islands be counted under Sunda.
That being said, the researchers suggested that if their results were accepted, recovery plans to help conserve some diminishing tiger subspecies could be initiated with ease, without having to worry about genetic dilution. This could particularly help subspecies, like the South China, which are next to being extinct.
