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Name: Panthera tigris corbetti named after Jim Corbett, an
Indian hunter and naturalist of British descent.
Description: Indo-Chinese tigers are a bit smaller and darker than
Bengal tigers, with shorter, narrower stripes. Males average 2.7 meters (9
feet) from head to tail and weigh about 180 kilograms (400 pounds).
Females are smaller, measuring about 2.4 meters (8 feet) in length and
weighing approximately 115 kilograms (250 pounds).
Distribution: The distribution of the Indo-Chinese tiger is
centered in Thailand. Indo-Chinese tigers are also found in Myanmar,
southern China, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Within this range, tigers live
in remote forests in hilly to mountainous terrain, much of which lies
along the borders between countries. Access to these areas is often
restricted, and biologists have only recently been granted limited permits
for field surveys. As a result, relatively little is know about the status
of these tigers in the wild.
Biology: The Indo-Chinese tigers eat Muntjac deer, Sambar deer,
pig, hog badger and porcupines. The specific range size of this tiger is
not known, but the population density is thought to be approximately 4 to
5 adult tigers/100 km 2 (39 mile2) in optimal habitat.
Status in the wild: An estimated 736–1,225 Indo-Chinese tigers are
left in the wild according to a 1998 expert assessment compiled by Peter
Jackson in the following countries:
* Cambodia – 150-300
* China – 30-40
* Laos - Present
* Eastern Myanmar – 106-234
* Thailand – 250-501
* Vietnam - 200
Indo-Chinese tigers generally occur in very low densities and have been
poached severely in many parts of their range, and have disappeared from
some reserves in Cambodia and Thailand in the last 10 years.
Captive breeding: In July 1995 the Zoological Parks Organization of
Thailand (ZPO) held a masterplan meeting to develop a captive management
program for Indochinese tigers in Thai zoos. Participants from zoos and
wildlife agencies in Malaysia, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Myanmar, and
Singapore assisted at the meeting in the analysis of the origin of captive
tigers, the role of Thai and other Asian zoos in supporting the
conservation of wild tigers, and the development of a ZPO Indochinese
Tiger Masterplan. However, a genetic analysis of the phylogeny of tigers
in 2004 split the Indo-Chinese subspecies into two distinct subspecies:
the Indo-Chinese tiger and the Malayan tiger and the authors argue that
the captive populations for these two subspecies should be managed in a
similar way to the other recognized subspecies and it is unclear how this
information will be used by the zoo community.
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