Bengal tiger
| Bengal tiger | |
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| A Bengal tiger in the Ranthambhore National Park, India. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Genus: | Panthera |
| Species: | P. tigris |
| Subspecies: | P. t. tigris |
| Trinomial name | |
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Panthera tigris tigris (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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The Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is the most numerous tiger subspecies. By 2011, the total population was estimated at fewer than 2,500 individuals with a decreasing trend. None of the 'Tiger Conservation Landscapes' within the Bengal tiger's range is considered large enough to support an effective population size of 250 adult individuals. Since 2010, it is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
As of 2010, Bengal tiger populations in India have been estimated at 1,706–1,909. As of 2014, they had reputedly increased to an estimated 2,226 individuals, but the method used in the census may not be accurate.
Bengal tigers number around 440 in Bangladesh and 163–253 in Nepal. Prior censuses placed the population of tigers in Bhutan at around 65-75 individuals, however, the latest census estimated that 103 wild Bengal tigers are living in the country.
Bengal is traditionally fixed as the typical locality for the binomen Panthera tigris, to which the British taxonomist Reginald Innes Pocock subordinated the Bengal tiger in 1929 under the trinomen Panthera tigris tigris. The Bengal, Caspian and Siberian tigers, and lion rank among the biggest cats.
It is the national animal of both India and Bangladesh.
The Bengal tiger's coat is yellow to light orange, with stripes ranging from dark brown to black; the belly and the interior parts of the limbs are white, and the tail is orange with black rings. The white tiger is a recessive mutant of the Bengal tiger, which is reported in the wild from time to time in Assam, Bengal, Bihar and especially from the former State of Rewa. However, it is not to be mistaken as an occurrence of albinism. In fact, there is only one fully authenticated case of a true albino tiger, and none of black tigers, with the possible exception of one dead specimen examined in Chittagong in 1846.
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Wikipedia