The Sumatran tiger is found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Sumatran tigers are the
smallest of the tiger subspecies. The Sumatran tiger has the darkest coat of all tigers. Its broad,
black stripes are closely spaced and often doubled. Unlike the Siberian tiger, it has striped forelegs.
The Sumatran male tiger weighs between 220 to 300 while the female weighs between 160 to 240 lbs and
stands 2.5 feet tall at the shoulder. The Sumatran male is 8 to 9 feet long from its nose to tail while
the female is 7 to 8 feet long.
The documentation of the Sumatran tiger has been very poor.
There were an estimated 1,000 tigers in Sumatra in 1978 but, subsequent agricultural development has
decreased the tiger population and habitat. In 1992, the Indonesian Department of Forest Protection and
Nature Conservation estimated that there were as many as 500 wild Sumatran tigers. 400 in the protected
5 national parks (the largest population is in the Gunung Leuser National Park and has 110 Sumatran tigers)
and 2 game reserves and another 100 in unprotected areas.
The captive population of Sumatran
tigers is starting to thrive thanks in part to a conservation program developed by the Indonesian Zoological
Parks Association and the Tiger GCS. There are currently 232 captive Sumatran tigers descended from
37 wild tigers. Of these 246 captive tigers, 68 are in United States and Canadian zoos, 68 in Indonesian
zoos, 108 in Europe, 10 in Australian, and 2 in Japanese zoos.
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