The Indigenous Range of the Tiger ( Panthera tigris )

作者：Eric W. Sanderson, Dale G. Miquelle, Abishek Harihar, Urs Breitenmoser, Christine Breitenmoser‐Würsten, David M. Cooper, Kaveh Faziolahi, Kim Fisher, J. Marc Goodrich, Thomas N. E. Gray, Aili Kang, Andrew C. Kitchener, Douglas C. MacMillan, Stéphane Ostrowski, Lucinda Royte, Kanchan Thapa, Nobuyuki Yamaguchi · 发表于：Diversity and Distributions · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1111/ddi.13947 · 被引用次数：6 · 研究领域：Wildlife Ecology and Conservation、Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology、Species Distribution and Climate Change

ABSTRACT Aim Indigenous range maps are fundamental documents in biogeography, phylogeny and conservation. We define the indigenous range of a species as ecoregions (or parts of ecoregions) where the species was likely found before humans became a major factor shaping the species' distribution, beginning at a time when the geographical alignment of the continents and the prevailing climate are (or at least were) roughly consistent with current conditions. We developed a structured, generally applicable method to map a species' indigenous range and applied this process to the tiger ( Panthera tigris ). Location Terrestrial Asia. Methods To guide our mapping, we synthesised a database of over 70,000 tiger observations with dates and locations. We developed a structured Delphi process to assign categories of indigenous range to ecoregions aided by a climate niche model. We analysed tiger habitat change at the ecoregional scale using the anthropogenically modified biomes (‘Anthrome 12K’) dataset to suggest dates of first significant human impact. Finally, we estimated extirpation dates for ecoregions where tigers have been extirpated. Results We found the tiger once occupied a likely indigenous resident range of approximately 11.5 million km 2 , crossing 116 ecoregions. We also mapped an additional c. 11.7 million km 2 of exploratory range and 1.2 million km 2 of possible resident range. Collectively these areas overlap with 36 modern countries. Significant human disruption of the...