Bengal Tigress with cub (Pilibhit Tiger Reserve)
Just in time for the Year of the Tiger*, the BBC News reports on a new comprehensive genetic analysis of tigers and other related big cats. The conclusion of the study is that tigers are both more ancient and more distinctive than previously recognized.
Lions, leopards and jaguars are more closely related to each other than to tigers, whose closest relative is the equally endangered snow leopard. (Fewer than 3500 tigers of all varieties are thought to survive in the wild; many variants are already extinct).
Embedded in the BBC article is a brief 45-second video of three rare Sumatran tigers, captured by a remote camera in the jungles of that immense island.
* See our earlier post on the impending Chinese New Year.
Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae)
