Taxon name
Panthera tigris
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Uploaded by
National Red List Database
Taxonomic information
Scientific name
Panthera tigris
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Common name(s)
Tiger, Bagh, Baghro Mama, Dora Bagh, Bara-shial, Gobagha, Goira Goma, Loha Faitta, Machak (Garo), Khaiagri (Marma), Pri (Mro)
Assessed taxon level
Species
Higher level taxonomic groupings
Vertebrates
Mammals
Species authority
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Taxonomic notes and synonyms listed
Bangladesh population of tigers belongs to P. t. tigris (Linnaeus, 1758) subspecies referred to as the Bengal Tiger, is a valid subspecies from the time it was founded by Linnaeus and it has recently been well established by the DNA analysis (Luo et al. 2
Felis tigris Linnaeus, 1758
Location and scope
Specific locality or subnational name or regional name
Bangladesh
Scope (of the Assessment)
National
Countries included within the scope of the assessment
Does the assessment cover a marine EEZ area(s)?
Not_assigned
Conservation Status
Assessed as
Critically Endangered
Criteria system used
IUCN
(see Assessment details)
Assessment rationale/justification
Tiger used to occur in and around all the forested areas of Bangladesh until the 1950s and in many villages up to the beginning of 20th century (Mitra 1957, Khan 1985, 1987a, 1987b, 1996, Khan and Chowdhury 2003, Khan 2011). Village-grove-dwelling tigers completely disappeared when the last tiger was shot in Banglabandha, Panchagarh, in 1962 (Khan 1987ab).The Sal forest population decimated by 1980s when those in the forests of the hill districts by the same period too. In these two forest ecosystems the decline is nearly 100 percent. Thankfully, the population in the Sundarbans appears to have stabilized since 1990s. Various estimates indicated the Tiger numbers between 106 and 500 (Ahmad et al. 2009, Khan 2011, 2014, Bangladesh Forest Department 2015 in litt.). In view of the disappearance of all populations from the village groves, mixed evergreen and Sal forests and being down to a single population restricted only to the Bangladesh and India parts of the Sundarbans, its unabated poaching and habitat destructions Bengal Tiger in Bangladesh has been categorized as Critically Endangered.
Assessment details
Assessors/contributors/reviewers listed
Mohammad Ali Reza Khan, M. Monirul H. Khan
Criteria system used
IUCN
Reference for methods given
IUCN (2012) IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria: Version 3.1. Second edition. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK: IUCN. iv + 32pp; IUCN (2012) Guidelines for Application of IUCN Red List Criteria at Regional and National Levels: Version 4.0. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK: IUCN. iii + 41pp.
URL (link) of redlist assessment or publication
http://iucnredlistbd.org/
Further information
Endemism (according to assessment)
Taxon distribution as listed in assessment
It is native to Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russian Federation, Thailand and Vietnam. It is possibly extinct in Korea (DPR) and extinct in Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Singapore, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan (Tilson and Seal 1987). Only viable population is in the Sundarbans in the southwest of Bangladesh, but tigers are rarely sighted in the bordering areas of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (particularly in Kassalong Reserved Forest and Sangu Wildlife Sanctuary) and very rarely in the bordering areas of Greater Sylhet (particularly Patharia Hill Reserved Forest) straying from the neighbouring forests in India.
Is there a map available in assessment?
Yes, in the publication/on website
Habitat and systems
Ecological system type
Habitat
Habitat details as listed in assessment
Tigers are found mainly in and around the forests of tropical Asia, although they historically occurred more widely in drier and colder climes. One subspecies, the Amur Tiger P. t. altaica, persists in the temperate forests of Russian Far East. The Sundarbans is the only mangrove habitat for Tigers in Bangladesh. Availability of a sufficient prey based on large ungulates (particularly deer and wild boar) is the key requirement of the Tiger. Tigers need to kill 50 large prey animals per year (Karanth et al. 2004). Tigers are opportunistic predators and their diet includes primates, porcupines, birds, fish, rodents, insects, amphibians, reptiles, etc. Tigers are generally solitary, with adults maintaining exclusive territories, or home ranges. Adult female home ranges seldom overlap, whereas male ranges typically overlap from 1-3 females. Tiger home range and density depend on the prey abundance: densities range from 11.65 adult Tigers per 100 km² where prey is abundant to as low as 0.13-0.45 per 100 km² where prey is more thinly distributed (Nowell and Jackson 1996).
History
Critically Endangered in Bangladesh (IUCN Bangladesh 2000).
Publication
IUCN Bangladesh. 2015. Red List of Bangladesh Volume 2: Mammals. IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Bangladesh Country Office, Dhaka, Bangladesh, pp. xvi+232
