Sumatran Tiger

Lore & Background

Felis tigris sondaicus was the scientific name proposed by Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1844 for a tiger specimen from Java. Panthera tigris sumatrae was proposed by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1929, who described a skin and a skull of a tiger zoological specimen from Sumatra. The skull and pelage pattern of tiger specimens from Java and Sumatra do not differ significantly. P. t. sondaica is therefore considered the valid name for the living and extinct tiger populations in Indonesia. Analysis of DNA is consistent with the hypothesis that Sumatran tigers became isolated from other tiger populations after a rise in sea level that occurred at the Pleistocene to Holocene transition about 12,000–6,000 years ago. The Sumatran tiger is genetically isolated from all living mainland tigers, which form a distinct group closely related to each other.

In Their Own Story

The snow lay deep in the Sikhote-Alin range, muffling the forest into a cathedral of silence. A male Siberian tiger, his coat a thick, pale rust against the white, padded along a frozen streambed. His breath plumed in the -30°C air. He was one of the estimated 562 wild Siberian tigers in Russia, a survivor of a population that had been stable for more than a decade due to intensive conservation efforts. He paused, ears swiveling, catching the faint crack of a twig. A wild boar, rooting for acorns under the snow. The tiger crouched, his massive frame compressing into the undergrowth. In a burst of power, he launched, covering the distance in three bounds. The boar never saw him coming. This was the life of the northernmost tiger, a creature of the taiga, where every meal was a battle against the cold and the shrinking wild.

Reader's Guide

The Sumatran tiger is one of the smallest tigers. Males measure between the pegs 2.2 to 2.55 m in head-to-body length, with the greatest skull length of 295 to 335 mm and weigh 100 to 140 kg. Females weigh 75 to 110 kg and measure 2.15 to 2.30 m in length between the pegs with a greatest length of skull of 263 to 294 mm. It is darker in fur colour and has broader stripes than the Javan tiger. Stripes tend to dissolve into spots near their ends, and on the back, flanks and hind legs are lines of small, dark spots between the regular stripes. The frequency of stripes is higher than in other subspecies. Males have a prominent ruff, which is especially marked in the Sumatran tiger. The Sumatran tiger persists in small and fragmented populations across Sumatra, from sea level in the coastal lowland forest of Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park to 3,200 m in mountain forests of Gunung Leuser National Park. It is present in 27 habitat patches larger than 250 km², which cover 140,226 km². Sumatran tigers prefer lowland and hill forests, where up to three tigers live in an area of 100 km². Major threats include habitat loss due to expansion of palm oil plantations and planting of acacia plantations, prey-base depletion, and illegal trade primarily for the domestic market. Conflicts with humans are another major threat.

Did You Know?

• A near telomere-to-telomere chromosome-level genome assembly of the Sumatran tiger was published in 2026; the genome is approximately 2.46 Gb in size, spans 19 chromosomes, has a BUSCO completeness of 95.3%, and 23,737 p
• Sumatra's total tiger population was estimated at 618 ± 290 individuals in 2017.
• From 1987 to 1997, Sumatran tigers reportedly killed 146 people and at least 870 livestock.