Tigers could soon roam Central Asia again.
The Caspian tiger, one of the largest cats to ever live, used to prowl through Turkey and large swaths of Central Asia to include Iran, Iraq and northwestern China before going extinct. Now researchers believe they can bring back a subspecies that is nearly identical to the giant cats.
Scientists have discussed the possibility of reintroducing a cousin to the cat for the past decade. But a recent study, published in Biological Conservation by a team of researchers from the State University of New York (SUNY) and the World Wide Fund for Nature, actually lays out a plan for the first time.
Older studies have already shown the near identical genetic structure between Caspian tigers and Amur tigers, also known as the Siberian tiger. The latest study points to two areas in Kazakstan where the tigers could potentially flourish: a zone near the Ili River and a coast of Balkhash Lake.
A number of hurdles — including water regulation by both Kazakhstan and China, a restoration of the tiger’s prey and safety concerns from local populations — need to be addressed before the experiment can begin. But researchers estimate that, once they get the green light, they can increase the tiger’s population from 40 to roughly 100 in 50 years.
Questions still surround the demise of the Caspian tiger. The IUCN officially declared the species extinct in 2003, although some reports say one hasn’t been spotted in decades as far back as 1950s. Their extinction was a combination of Soviet Union-backed bounty hunters who poisoned and trapped the species, as well as Soviet-era irrigation projects that destroyed their habitat.
“The territory of the Caspian tiger was vast,” James Gibbs, a member of the research team and director of the Roosevelt Wild Life Station at SUNY ESF, told ESF.edu. “When they disappeared, the number of nations that hosted tiger populations was reduced by more than half.”
There is somewhere between 520 and 540 Amur tigers in the world, and they’re the only subspecies that has increased in the last 65 years, according to ESF.
Kazakhstan is all for the tigers living in its backyard and hopes it will create jobs at the Ili-Balkhash Nature Reserve and increase wildlife tourism.