The history of the animal is somewhat unclear, but there are a few things we do know. Like many other carnivores, tigers descended from a small animal known as the miacid, which lived many millions of years ago and eventually evolved into such diverse animal lines as the bears and the dogs as well as the three dozen or so species of cat.

Then, approximately two or three million years ago in central or eastern Asia, a specific early group of cats began to manifest the characteristics that survive to this day in the animals we call the tiger - including the tawny red fur and a pattern black stripes. From this central heartland, these cats dispersed north into Russia, south and eastward into the Indonesian chain of islands (eventually reaching as far as Bali), south and westward throughout India, and west as far as the Caspian Sea.

The answer is zero! And there never have been any wild tigers in Africa. That fact comes as a surprise to most people. Lions, leopards, and cheetah are the big cats in Africa, along with a few less familiar feline cousins. Tigers are strictly Asian cats.

As recently as the turn of the last century, wild tigers could be found from the very eastern edge of Europe all the way across Asia, up as far as Siberia and as far down as Indonesia. Today, the tiger's territory is significantly more limited due to its endangerment. From this page you can link to the Tiger Subspecies page, which has specific information about the eight individual subspecies, or, if you wish to first learn some generic information about the animal we call "tiger," you may click on Tiger Ecology, below.