The last of the three extinct species is the Caspian tiger. It was also referred to as the Hyrcanian or Turanian tiger. This species is believed to have gone extinct in the 1970s. It was last spotted in 1968 near the Aral River. Interestingly, it was believed to have been a subspecies of the Siberian tiger. And actually, recent genetic research conducted in Oxford University suggests that the Caspian tiger may be the same subspecies as the Siberian tiger. The Caspian tiger inhabited west and south of the Caspian Sea in Turkey and Iran and Central Asia, including parts of the Takla Makan desert in Xinjiang, China.
This tiger was the third largest tiger species and had a stocky build with wide paws and unusually long claws. It had thick fur around its face and closely resembled the Bengal tiger in colour. It had a short ear, furry cheeks and long hair all over its body. Male tigers were believed to weigh between 169-240 kgs while females weighed between 85-135 kgs. The extinction of this species is believed to have been due to direct hunting, habitat loss and conversion to agriculture, increased vulnerability of small populations and loss of wild prey. The loss of this species was a huge loss to the people of Asia due to the huge connection that their culture has to the Caspian tiger and this can still be found in their literature and artwork. Today, no Caspian tiger lives in captivity. It was thus declared extinct by IUCN in 2003.
In order to understand how this beautiful creature came to be completely terminated, we'll need to show a few disturbing facts. Now, in the early 20th century, the Russian government began an effort to eradicate the Caspian tiger in conjunction with an extensive land reclamation project. The Russian army was instructed to kill all tigers found in Caspian Sea and sure enough, this extermination effort was effective. Luckily, in 1947, before they were completely wiped out, tigers were declared a protected species in the USSR. In Iran, these tigers have been protected since 1957 but biologists having surveyed the Caspian remote forests found no trace of the tigers.
A ray of hope for us though is that Kazakhstan is now working on a plan to reintroduce the Siberian tiger into their former range. We may not be able to bring back this creature to life, but we, like Kazakhstan can ensure that the remaining tiger species have a place they can call home once again, don't you think?
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