One of the 5 tigers on WAnimals
Mammals · Carnivora · Felidae
Sumatran Tiger
Panthera tigris sumatrae
It faces an extremely high risk of imminent extinction in the wild. See full glossary
The Sumatran tiger is a carnivorous mammal of the cat family. It is a subspecies of tiger found only on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. The wild population is estimated at between 400 and 500 animals, most of them concentrated in the island's five national parks. The latest DNA analyses reveal certain unique genetic features, indicating that the Sumatran tiger is on the boundary between being a subspecies and separating as a new species distinct from the other tigers, if it does not go extinct first. Because of this, it has been suggested that even more effort should go into conserving Sumatran tigers than the other subspecies. The greatest threat hanging over them is habitat destruction; in addition, 66 tigers were shot dead between 1998 and 2000, roughly 20% of the total population. In 2017 a team of researchers from the IUCN published a new taxonomic classification of the family Felidae recognising only two tiger subspecies, namely: the mainland Asian tiger, which groups together the Bengal, Siberian, Indochinese, South China and Malayan tigers as well as the extinct Caspian tiger, and the Sunda tigers, which group the Sumatran tiger together with the already vanished Javan and Balinese tigers. That assessment is based on an extensive review of recent publications on tiger morphology and phylogeography.
Weight
75 kg – 140 kg
Size
2.2 m – 2.6 m
Lifespan
15 years
Diet
Carnivore
Feeds mainly on other animals.
Activity
Nocturnal
Active mainly at night.
Social structure
Solitary
Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.
Sighting difficulty
Very hard
Estimated population
Fewer than 400 mature individuals
Fun facts
- GeneralThe smallest tiger subspecies and the only one left in the Indonesian islands.
- It is the only island tiger left in the world: the Balinese and Javan tigers disappeared in the 1940s and 1970s respectively.
- It has partial webbing between its toes and swims easily, which it uses to chase prey through the island's rivers and peat swamps.
Life cycle & biology
- Skeleton type
- Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)
- Habitat & environment
- Lowland tropical rainforest, peat swamp and montane forest of Sumatra
- Sexual maturity
- 4 years
- Gestation / incubation
- 3.5 months
- Litter / clutch size
- 2
Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panthera_tigris_sumatrae
Where to watch it
Parks and dive sites where this species has been documented.
Related species
Other species in the catalogue with the most in common with Sumatran Tiger — same habitat, park, country, tags or family.
Asian Golden Cat
Catopuma temminckii
VulnerableClouded Leopard
Neofelis nebulosa
Marbled Cat
Pardofelis marmorata
EndangeredTiger
Panthera tigris
Sumatran Orangutan
Pongo abelii
How to help
The sumatran tiger is classified as critically endangered. Organizations such as UICN, WWF y Wildlife Conservation Society work specifically on its conservation and that of its habitat; looking into their programs is a good starting point if you want to get involved.
It's documented in 4 real protected areas — part of why protecting these places matters for its conservation.
Keep exploring
Based on what we already know about sumatran tiger.
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