Australasian Founders Project: Sumatran Tiger
Introduction
Welcome to the Australasian Founders Project: Sumatran Tiger.
Through research, I have discovered that Australasia’s Sumatran tiger population descends from a total of 20 wild born founders:
1.0 Sunny (1937-1952) COLO SPRG
0.1 Sis (1939-1952) COLO SPRG
1.0 Maximus (UNK-UNK) ROTTERDAM
0.1 Deli (1948-UNK) ROTTERDAM
1.0 Caesar (1951-1962) BERLIN TP
0.1 Lissy (1953-1971) BERLIN TP
0.1 Geunia (1961-1978) ROTTERDAM
1.0 Raduz (UNK-1966) PRAHA/BERLIN TP
0.1 Slimme (UNK-1971) ROTTERDAM
0.1 Medana (1965-1980) BERLIN TP
0.1 Cora (1970-1987) ROTTERDAM/FONTAINE
1.0 Suka (1972-1987) FRANKFURT/LEIPZIG
1.0 Imam (1973-1985) JAKARTA
0.1 Rini (1973-1992) JAKARTA
0.1 None Solok (1977-1994) JAKARTA/BANDUNG
1.0 Si Budi (1978-1984) JAKARTA
0.1 Kerinci (1985-2004) JAKARTA/NZP-WASH
1.0 Hendra (1988-UNK) BOGOR
0.1 Minas (1990-UNK) BOGOR
0.1 Desi (2002-UNK) BOGOR
This project will profile each of the 22 Sumatran tigers imported into the Australasian region between 1976-2022, including:
- Life history
- Four generations of ancestry (if known)
- List of all wild born founder ancestors
- Summary including number of living descendants in the region
The 22 Sumatran tigers imported into Australasia are as follows:
0.1 Meta (25/04/1975) Imported 1979
1.0 Djambi (26/11/1975) Imported 1976
1.0 Nico (12/04/1976) Imported 1979
0.1 Poetry (25/05/1978) Imported 1979
1.0 Frank (20/03/1980) Imported 1981
1.0 Tiger Boy (29/04/1990) Imported 2000
0.1 Toba (11/05/1990) Imported 1992
0.1 Cantic (15/08/1992) Imported 1994
1.0 Hari (04/01/1996) Imported 2003
1.0 Tuan (12/03/1998) Imported 2006
0.1 Assiqua (18/04/1999) Imported 2001
0.1 Soraya (09/06/2002) Imported 2003
0.1 Binjai (30/08/2002) Imported 2004
1.0 Dumai (04/04/2003) Imported 2004
1.0 Raja (25/12/2003) Imported 2005
1.0 Oz (22/11/2004) Imported 2006
1.0 Satu (15/05/2005) Imported 2006
1.0 Bashi (04/12/2007) Imported 2008
0.1 Kaitlyn (04/12/2007) Imported 2008
0.1 Maneki (04/12/2007) Imported 2008
1.0 Ramah (09/07/2017) Imported 2022
0.1 Zayana (15/10/2018) Imported 2022
These 22 tigers will be referred to as ‘imports’ throughout this project (rather than founders, as we more commonly call them) to differentiate them from the wild born founders; and also to acknowledge that not all imports have descendants in the current population.
Additional Notes/Acknowledgments
Through research, I have previously made the discovery that Sumatran tigers were imported into the region prior to the 1970’s. I’m currently aware of a male named Sultan (imported by Taronga Zoo in 1941); and a breeding pair named Max and Cija (imported by Taronga Zoo in 1951, producing a litter of non-surviving cubs the following year). These tigers were all wild born/captured in Sumatra, but are not recorded in the studbook (possibly due to insufficient record keeping during this era). Taronga established themselves as a prolific breeder of generic tigers throughout the 20th century and it’s believed any descendants they did produce were quickly hybridised with either other tiger subspecies or generics. This thread will therefore give no further discussion to them.
Hybrid descendants of the 22 imports (living or deceased) are of no interest to this research project; nor are descendants living overseas (irregardless of purebred status) though reference may be made to exports from this line in summaries. Otherwise, this project will focus solely on purebred Sumatran tigers imported into Australasia from 1976 and their living descendants in the region.
Australasian zoos currently hold 19.23 living Sumatran tigers, of which 2.1 are scheduled to be exported to the US this year (Pemanah and Mawar from Taronga Zoo; and Ketambe from Adelaide Zoo). Since they have not been exported yet, they will be included in the number of living descendants of each tiger profiled in the region (if applicable). For consistency, no adjustments will be made should an announcement of their export be made during the process of publishing this project (which is expected to take approximately a week).
I will acknowledge that the genetic value of an individual within a managed population is a complex construct. This project will not delve into inbreeding coefficients for example or other metrics which would be time consuming to calculate. Rough conclusions can be drawn nonetheless with regards to the representation of a wild founder within the existing Australasian population via their descendants.
Introduction
Welcome to the Australasian Founders Project: Sumatran Tiger.
Through research, I have discovered that Australasia’s Sumatran tiger population descends from a total of 20 wild born founders:
1.0 Sunny (1937-1952) COLO SPRG
0.1 Sis (1939-1952) COLO SPRG
1.0 Maximus (UNK-UNK) ROTTERDAM
0.1 Deli (1948-UNK) ROTTERDAM
1.0 Caesar (1951-1962) BERLIN TP
0.1 Lissy (1953-1971) BERLIN TP
0.1 Geunia (1961-1978) ROTTERDAM
1.0 Raduz (UNK-1966) PRAHA/BERLIN TP
0.1 Slimme (UNK-1971) ROTTERDAM
0.1 Medana (1965-1980) BERLIN TP
0.1 Cora (1970-1987) ROTTERDAM/FONTAINE
1.0 Suka (1972-1987) FRANKFURT/LEIPZIG
1.0 Imam (1973-1985) JAKARTA
0.1 Rini (1973-1992) JAKARTA
0.1 None Solok (1977-1994) JAKARTA/BANDUNG
1.0 Si Budi (1978-1984) JAKARTA
0.1 Kerinci (1985-2004) JAKARTA/NZP-WASH
1.0 Hendra (1988-UNK) BOGOR
0.1 Minas (1990-UNK) BOGOR
0.1 Desi (2002-UNK) BOGOR
This project will profile each of the 22 Sumatran tigers imported into the Australasian region between 1976-2022, including:
- Life history
- Four generations of ancestry (if known)
- List of all wild born founder ancestors
- Summary including number of living descendants in the region
The 22 Sumatran tigers imported into Australasia are as follows:
0.1 Meta (25/04/1975) Imported 1979
1.0 Djambi (26/11/1975) Imported 1976
1.0 Nico (12/04/1976) Imported 1979
0.1 Poetry (25/05/1978) Imported 1979
1.0 Frank (20/03/1980) Imported 1981
1.0 Tiger Boy (29/04/1990) Imported 2000
0.1 Toba (11/05/1990) Imported 1992
0.1 Cantic (15/08/1992) Imported 1994
1.0 Hari (04/01/1996) Imported 2003
1.0 Tuan (12/03/1998) Imported 2006
0.1 Assiqua (18/04/1999) Imported 2001
0.1 Soraya (09/06/2002) Imported 2003
0.1 Binjai (30/08/2002) Imported 2004
1.0 Dumai (04/04/2003) Imported 2004
1.0 Raja (25/12/2003) Imported 2005
1.0 Oz (22/11/2004) Imported 2006
1.0 Satu (15/05/2005) Imported 2006
1.0 Bashi (04/12/2007) Imported 2008
0.1 Kaitlyn (04/12/2007) Imported 2008
0.1 Maneki (04/12/2007) Imported 2008
1.0 Ramah (09/07/2017) Imported 2022
0.1 Zayana (15/10/2018) Imported 2022
These 22 tigers will be referred to as ‘imports’ throughout this project (rather than founders, as we more commonly call them) to differentiate them from the wild born founders; and also to acknowledge that not all imports have descendants in the current population.
Additional Notes/Acknowledgments
Through research, I have previously made the discovery that Sumatran tigers were imported into the region prior to the 1970’s. I’m currently aware of a male named Sultan (imported by Taronga Zoo in 1941); and a breeding pair named Max and Cija (imported by Taronga Zoo in 1951, producing a litter of non-surviving cubs the following year). These tigers were all wild born/captured in Sumatra, but are not recorded in the studbook (possibly due to insufficient record keeping during this era). Taronga established themselves as a prolific breeder of generic tigers throughout the 20th century and it’s believed any descendants they did produce were quickly hybridised with either other tiger subspecies or generics. This thread will therefore give no further discussion to them.
Hybrid descendants of the 22 imports (living or deceased) are of no interest to this research project; nor are descendants living overseas (irregardless of purebred status) though reference may be made to exports from this line in summaries. Otherwise, this project will focus solely on purebred Sumatran tigers imported into Australasia from 1976 and their living descendants in the region.
Australasian zoos currently hold 19.23 living Sumatran tigers, of which 2.1 are scheduled to be exported to the US this year (Pemanah and Mawar from Taronga Zoo; and Ketambe from Adelaide Zoo). Since they have not been exported yet, they will be included in the number of living descendants of each tiger profiled in the region (if applicable). For consistency, no adjustments will be made should an announcement of their export be made during the process of publishing this project (which is expected to take approximately a week).
I will acknowledge that the genetic value of an individual within a managed population is a complex construct. This project will not delve into inbreeding coefficients for example or other metrics which would be time consuming to calculate. Rough conclusions can be drawn nonetheless with regards to the representation of a wild founder within the existing Australasian population via their descendants.