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The Caspian tiger was, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the felines that most influenced the imagination of Asia and the Middle East. Unfortunately, this mammal of immense beauty seems extinct, but for this very reason it should not be forgotten in any way

The Caspian tiger

Until its extinction, the Caspian tiger was one of the largest and most spectacular specimens of this species, so much so that it represented strength, grace and royalty in the places where it lived for centuries. Related to the Bengal tiger and, even more so, to the Siberian one, this magnificent feline was not inferior to them for size and appearance, so much so that the male had an average length of 280 cm and an average weight of 210 kg.

The cloak, on the other hand, in the summer season was very similar to the first, while in winter it was closer to the second, while maintaining brighter colors.

The tiger of Persia and Turkey

The range of the Caspian tiger extended from the Caucasus mountains to the Taklamakan desert in Chinese Xinjiang. However, the big cat did not live everywhere in these areas, but rather concentrated near waterways, whether they were rivers, lakes or even swamps. His favorite prey were wild boars, deer and cattle, but he also didn’t disdain birds,large insects and other mammals.

Unfortunately, its extinction is strongly linked to the disappearance of its habitat, radically transformed with the arrival of industry on the territory. To make these places more productive, in fact, the USSR exploited for a long time intensive cultivation for cotton, devastating a large part of Central Asia in an irreparable way; the greatest example of this is the Aral Sea, now reduced to a pale memory of what it was. With these transformations, it was more and more difficult for the big cat to find what to eat, moreover the great development of human activities led our species to come into more contact with tigers, leading to increasingly frequent hunting episodes.

And today?

Although officially no sightings have been made in years, many naturalists continue to hope that, albeit in small numbers, the Caucasian tiger will continue to pay homage to the land with its presence. This is because, at the end of the 1980s, a survey was carried out in the province of Şırnak, in the south-east of Turkey, discovering that 1 to 8 tigers were killed every year.

Unfortunately this question did not have a sequel but it is possible that, even today, this splendid animal peoples the most inaccessible corners of Asia.

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