Bengal tiger
subspecies of tiger
The Bengal tiger is a population of the Panthera tigris tigris subspecies. It ranks among the largest of wild cats. It is distributed from India, southern Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan to Southwestern China. Its historical range extended to the Indus Basin until the early 19th century, and it is thought to have been present in the Indian subcontinent since the Late Pleistocene about 12,000 to 16,500 years ago. It is threatened by poaching, habitat loss and habitat fragmentation.
As of 2022, the Bengal tiger population was estimated at 3,167–3,682 individuals in India, 316–355 individuals in Nepal, 131 individuals in Bhutan and around 125 individuals in Bangladesh. It is the national animal of India and Bangladesh.
Taxonomy
Felis tigris was the scientific name used by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 for the tiger. It was subordinated to the genus Panthera by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1929. Bengal is the traditional type locality of the species and the nominate subspecies Panthera tigris tigris.
“Bengal tiger” enters the record as subspecies of tiger. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Bengal, tiger and subspecies can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Bengal tiger” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Bengal, tiger and subspecies provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q80952. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2022, 1758 and 1929.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bengal tiger”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bengal tiger primary sources, Bengal tiger archive and Bengal research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bengal tiger”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Bengal tiger” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.