The Turanian (Caspian, Transcaucasian) tiger, listed in the Red Book, belongs to the extinct subspecies of the cat family. The last time this powerful, noble animal was seen was in 1968. However, there is evidence that the last representative was killed in 1970 in eastern Turkey.
In the Talysh Mountains near the Caspian Sea, the last animal was shot in 1932. Man put a lot of effort into the disappearance of a predator that was unique in many respects, but now he is trying to correct the mistake.
Appearance
In life and in the surviving photos, the Turanian tiger was a real beauty. He combined bewitching grace, incredible strength and power. Those who had the opportunity to observe the animal in nature were impressed by the slowness and smoothness of its movements, proud posture, swiftness and purposefulness of the throw during the hunt.
The Transcaucasian subspecies of tigers was quite impressive in size. The beast had a muscular torso, a large head, small ears rounded at the ends, and eyes with round pupils. Lush sideburns and a thick, long white mustache added solidity to the image.
- The length of the body of an adult male reached 2.6 - 2.7 meters, the body of females had a length of 1.6 - 2.5 meters.
- Height at the withers is 1.1 - 1.2 meters.
- Tail length 0.9 -1.1 meters.
- The weight of predators varied from 170 to 240 kg.
- The paws were of medium length, with wide, powerful feet and retractable sharp claws.
- The length and color of the coat depended on the time of year. The main color of summer fur was fiery red; in winter it acquired an ocher tint and became less bright. The pattern consisted of narrow, clearly defined brown or brown stripes on the sides, back and paws. In winter, the fur became thicker and longer, especially on the belly and nape, which made the stripes look much wider. There were no stripes on the front legs.
The protective coloration served as a good camouflage for the predator. It was almost impossible to notice him in the reeds or forest.
Habitat
The living space of the predator stretched from the foothills of the Tien Shan along the river floodplains, captured Turkmenistan, the territory of Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, and occupied Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. The Latin name of the subspecies is Panthera tigris virgata.
The name “Turanian tiger” appeared due to the name of the lowland where the predator lived. Since it was also found off the coast of the Caspian Sea and in the Transcaucasian region, two more names were assigned to the animal - “Caspian tiger” and “Transcaucasian tiger”. According to some reports, in search of prey, the animal could reach the eastern borders of Kazakhstan and Altai.
- Weasel
- Whale shark
- 34 facts about raccoons
- Maned wolf
- Nettle
- Elk
Wherever the predator lived, the main habitat requirements were the presence of dense vegetation, a source of running water, and a sufficient supply of primary prey (pigs, deer). The animals chose juniper and mixed forests, dense tugai thickets along river banks, low foothills and lowlands, and were occasionally found at altitudes from 1.5 to 4 thousand meters.
Within the boundaries of the hunting grounds, the density of reeds was sometimes so high that the animal had to rise on its hind legs to look around. The Turan tiger in Kazakhstan lived near Lake Balkhash.
Lifestyle and behavior
The Turanian tiger is a lonely wanderer. He did not have a permanent lair and showed a penchant for long journeys. Within its habitat it could have up to 15 rookeries. Some of them were located on hills and served as observation posts, others settled in impenetrable thickets, in reeds, under single trees and served as places to rest.
The predator swam well and always tried to stay close to the water. He moved through high snow with great difficulty, but was not afraid of cold winters.
He went hunting at any time of the day. It stalked prey from ambush and overtook it with large leaps (up to six meters in length). If a predator managed to get close to a herd of ungulates, it killed only one large deer or horse and did not pay attention to other individuals. With small game everything was different - having killed the first victim with his paw, he immediately pounced on another animal.
The animals' food included kulans, roe deer, wild boars, rams, and jackals. The additional menu included frogs, fish, poultry, insects, wild berries, and rodents.
What has already been done in two years of work?
The answer to this question was provided to us by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Firstly, in 2022 the Ile-Balkhash reserve was created. The territory is more than 415 thousand hectares. It is located in the Balkhash district of the Almaty region. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 64 people work in the reserve, half of whom are inspectors.
Ile-Balkhash Reserve / Photo from wwf.ru
“In 2022, enclosures for keeping imported animals were built here, registration work on ungulates was carried out, a scientific expedition was carried out to study the territory of the reserve, food was purchased for feeding the Bukhara deer, material and technical equipment for the purpose of protecting the reserve, a number of biotechnical measures were carried out, a cordon was built , billboards were installed, and other administrative and organizational work was carried out,” says the Ministry of Agriculture in response to a request from informburo.kz.
For all this, 84.3 million tenge was allocated from the country’s budget in 2022.
Reasons for disappearance
The population size in the 19th century was 10 thousand individuals, and by the end of the sixties of the 20th century the subspecies was completely exterminated. The main reason for the extinction of the Turanian tiger is a decrease in food resources and treacherous human actions that deprived the animal of the right to life.
Initially, the conflict was provoked by attacks by predators on domestic animals. Kyrgyz livestock farmers suffered heavy losses, and, willy-nilly, they had to fight the tiger. For hunting, a special cage without a bottom was made from durable material. Several hunters entered the ingenious structure and moved towards the lair. When a predator lunged at the cage, it was shot down at close range. Sometimes poison extracted from the roots of plants was added to the remains of the animal's prey, they waited for an opportunity and finished off the animal.
The extermination of Turanian tigers was encouraged in every possible way by the authorities, even when there was no particular need for it. Large bonuses were awarded for the killed animals, which only provoked the hunters. The Cossacks and soldiers from the border units on the Amu Darya and Syr Darya were pursuing tigers, as evidenced by numerous interesting facts.
There was an opinion among the officers that in this way they could raise the spirit of the garrison, make their subordinates fearless, and teach them to withstand dangers. Bayonet attacks on the beast were practiced, which in conditions of impenetrable reed thickets was a very dangerous activity and gave the predator many advantages. Often fights with him ended in severe injuries and death of the hunters.
Lair of the Turanian Tiger
One of the zoologists managed to find and explore the lair of the Turanian tiger. To get to it, the scientist had to crawl along the predator’s path for almost two hundred meters. This road was a natural tunnel of dense vegetation. The tiger's lair, covered with trampled grass, was always in the shade of trees. The habitat was always adjacent to an area of up to forty square meters. It was littered with animal bones. The smell in this place was very pungent and foul.
Relationships with people
According to local hunters, the predator was not afraid of humans, but did not show aggression towards him. He could watch people from afar, sometimes walking past hunting lodges.
Almost all attacks of the beast on humans were due to persecution, injury or protection of offspring.
There were no real man-eaters among the Turanian tigers. It is reliably known about two attacks by a predator on humans for no apparent reason, dating back to 1880. The victims of the tiger were an unarmed officer and a woman, the scene of the tragedy was the floodplain of the Syrdarya.
Gladiator tigers
Currently, the Turanian tiger is an endangered species. But before, its numbers were much larger. These animals were even used in gladiator fights. Tigers were caught in Armenia and Persia. Then, bringing them to Rome, the predators were trained for bloody fights. Turanian tigers fought not only with their relatives, but also with lions.
In Rome they tried to organize fights between predators and gladiator slaves. The first Turanian tiger was killed in a cage. The gladiator slaves flatly refused to fight this predator, he caused such fear in them.
Reproduction and care of offspring
Mating games took place at any time of the year, but more often in winter. Fights and disputes between males were symbolic in nature. Competitors rarely used their claws and fangs, and only growled at each other. Several females always lived in the territory of one male; he mated with them in turn and did not experience a lack of female attention. Females signaled their readiness for mating to males by roaring and urinary marks.
Caring for the offspring rested entirely with the female. Even before the kittens were born, she set up a den in remote areas of her property. The inside was lined with dry grass and leaves. The pregnancy lasted about three months. The litter consisted of two to three tiger cubs.
For the first months, the mother fed the cubs milk. From the age of two months she began to accustom her to meat. From the age of six months, young Turanian tigers already accompanied their mother during the hunt, at the age of 1 year they could independently hunt ungulate cubs, and by the age of two they could cope independently with larger game.
Hybrid individuals
In captivity, striped predators are often crossed with lions to create hybrids called Ligers and Tigons or Tiglions.
Mestizos usually inherit the qualities of both parent species, both in physical characteristics and behavioral reactions. Although the breeding of ligers and tiglions today is not welcomed by experts, since scientists place emphasis on the preservation of natural species.
A liger is a cross between a lion and a tigress. Its body length usually ranges from three to four meters, and its weight ranges from 360 to 450 kg or more. Because the lion father passes on a growth-promoting gene to the cub, but the female tiger lacks the corresponding oversize-inhibiting allele, ligers grow much larger than either parent species.
Photo gallery of ligers (lion + tigress):
A less common hybrid is Tigon (tiglon) - a cross between a lioness and a male Tiger. Because the male Tiger does not pass on the growth-promoting gene and the lioness passes on the growth-inhibiting allele, tigons are about the same size as their parents. Some females are fertile and sometimes give birth to litigons when they mate with a male Asiatic lion.
Interesting to know
- Scientists consider the animal to be a close relative of the Amur tiger . In their opinion, predators descended from one ancestor and in past times had a continuous habitat. Therefore, it is impossible to say exactly how many Turanian tigers remain in Russia. Some Amur tigers may well be descendants of Caspian individuals.
- Because of its love of wandering, the animal was called Julbars, which translated from Turkic languages means “stray leopard.” In search of food or adventure, he often made long journeys of many kilometers, easily covering up to 100 km in a day. He could travel a thousand kilometers or more from his hunting grounds.
- An image of this predator is painted on the facade of a mosque in Samarkand (Uzbekistan), and its image is found on Central Asian textiles and carpets.
- Until the middle of the last century, a stuffed animal of the last tiger killed in Turkestan was kept in the Tashkent Museum. The beast was killed by a well-aimed shot from Prince Golitsyn in 1906 in the vicinity of Tashkent. The exhibit was irretrievably destroyed during a fire.
- Central Asian hunters considered tiger claws to be a talisman that warded off evil spirits from children, and sewed them onto the child’s clothes.
