DNA from an extinct sub-species of tiger has revealed that the ancestors of modern tigers migrated through the heart of China – along what would later become known as ‘the Silk Road’ – a team of scientists from Oxford University and the NCI Laboratory of Genomic Diversity in the USA report.
In a study recently published in PLoS One the team show that the Caspian tiger from Central Asia, which became extinct in 1970, was almost identical to the living Siberian, or Amur, tigers found in the Russian Far East today.
The discovery not only sheds new light on how the animals reached Central Asia and Russia but also opens up the intriguing possibility that conservationists might repopulate tiger-less Central Asia with Siberian tigers from Russia or China.
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I wonder if the tigers were following migrating humans, who may have been a source of food? Or could humans have been following migrating tigers for some other reason? Perhaps both tigers and humans traveled in the same direction to pursue migrating prey animals? But I'm just thinking out loud... this article doesn't focus much on the whys and wherefores of the tigers' migratory patterns.
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