INDOCHINESE TIGER (Panthera tigris corbetti) DESCRIPTION: Adult males are 8-feet-5 to 9-feet-4-inches long and females are 7-feet-7 to 8-feet-4-inches long. Males weigh 330 to 430 pounds and females weigh 221 to 287 pounds.
STATUS: Endangered. Fewer than 1,500 Indochinese tigers are broadly distributed throughout Thailand (the center of the Indochinese tiger's range), Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, southern China and eastern Myanmar.
"In these countries," writes Ronald Tilson of the Minnesota Zoo, "tigers live in remote forests in hilly to mountainous terrain, most of which is defined as common boundaries of neighboring countries. Access to these areas is often restricted, and biologists have only recently been granted limited permits for field surveys."
About 60 Indochinese tigers live in zoos in Asia and in the United States.
As a developed country, Malaysia seems to have achieved a workable co-existence with its tigers, according to John Seidensticker of the Save the Tiger Fund Council. The national park population seems to be doing fine.
Thailand has good chunks of forest left, adds Seidensticker, with a low density of tigers. Recent surveys taken from the border of Thailand into Myanmar suggest "empty forest syndrome," in which few tigers and other wildlife remain in a potentially rich habitat. Biologists are working with Myanmar's government to protect the country's few remaining tigers, according to the Save the Tiger Fund reports, and the government is considering the possibility of making the first serious efforts at tiger reintroduction in Myanmar's vast forested terrain.
NEXT: Sumatran Tiger » |
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