Biology Faculty Articles
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-2012
Publication Title
Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
Keywords
Panthera tigris coreensis, Phylogenetic relationship, Mitochondrial DNA, Korean tiger, Panthera tigris altaica, Amur tiger
ISSN
2234-6953
Volume
28
Issue/No.
1
First Page
48
Last Page
53
Abstract
The tiger population that once inhabited the Korean peninsula was initially considered a unique subspecies (Panthera tigris coreensis), distinct from the Amur tiger of the Russian Far East (P. t. altaica). However, in the following decades, the population of P. t. coreensis was classified as P. t. altaica and hence forth the two populations have been considered the same subspecies. From an ecological point of view, the classification of the Korean tiger population as P. t. altaica is a plausible conclusion. Historically, there were no major dispersal barriers between the Korean peninsula and the habitat of Amur tigers in Far Eastern Russia and northeastern China that might prevent gene flow, especially for a large carnivore with long-distance dispersal abilities. However, there has yet to be a genetic study to confirm the subspecific status of the Korean tiger. Bone samples from four tigers originally caught in the Korean peninsula were collected from two museums in Japan and the United States. Eight mitochondrial gene fragments were sequenced and compared to previously published tiger subspecies' mtDNA sequences to assess the phylogenetic relationship of the Korean tiger. Three individuals shared an identical haplotype with the Amur tigers. One specimen grouped with Malayan tigers, perhaps due to misidentification or mislabeling of the sample. Our results support the conclusion that the Korean tiger should be classified as P. t. altaica, which has important implications for the conservation and reintroduction of Korean tigers.
NSUWorks Citation
Lee, Mu-Yeong; Jee Yun Hyun; Seo-Jin Lee; Junghwa An; Eunok Lee; Mi-Sook Min; Junpei Kimura; Shin-ichirio Kawada; Nozomi Kurihara; Shu-Jin Luo; Stephen J. O'Brien; Warren E. Johnson; and Hang Lee. 2012. "Subspecific Status of the Korean Tiger Inferred by Ancient DNA Analysis." Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity 28, (1): 48-53. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cnso_bio_facarticles/754
ORCID ID
0000-0001-7353-8301
ResearcherID
N-1726-2015
Comments
©The Korean Society of Systematic Zoology;
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.