Bali tiger
| Bali tiger | |
|---|---|
| |
| A Bali Tiger in 1914 | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Suborder: | Feliformia |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Subfamily: | Pantherinae |
| Genus: | Panthera |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: | †P. t. sondaica
|
| Trinomial name | |
| †Panthera tigris sondaica (Temminck, 1844)
| |
| |
| Former range of the Bali tiger | |
| Synonyms | |
|
formerly P. t. balica (Schwarz, 1912) | |
The Bali tiger, or Balinese tiger (Panthera tigris balica) is one of the three extinct subspecies of the tiger. They became extinct in 1937. They lived on Bali. This was the first subspecies of tiger to become extinct.
The Bali was also the smallest tiger subspecies. There is no record of a Balinese tiger ever being held in a zoo collection. The Balinese tiger's close sub-species were the Javan tiger and the Caspian tiger, which are now also extinct. The Balinese and Javan tigers were once the same, but during the Ice Age, Bali became isolated from Java by the Bali Strait. This split the tigers into two groups which then went onto develop alone.
The killing of the very last wild Balinese tiger is usually thought to have been at Sumbar Kima, West Bali on 27 September, 1937. It was an adult tigress. So the government of Bali made a strict law on killing tigers, but by then it was too late, because the Bali tiger had already become extinct.
References
