According to Linnaeus’ first description of this species, several tiger samples have been described and proposed as subspecies. The validity of several tiger subspecies was questioned in 1999. Most hypothetical subspecies described in the 19th and 20th centuries were distinguished based on coat length and color, stripe pattern and size. Body size, so the characteristics are different in the population. Morphologically, tigers from regions differ very little and the genetic flow between populations in those regions is considered to have occurred during the Pleistocene period. Therefore, it is proposed to recognize only two tiger subspecies as valid, namely P. t. tigris in mainland Asia and P. t. sondaica in the Sunda Islands.
The results of skull analysis of 111 tiger skulls from Southeast Asian countries showed that the Sumatran tiger skull was different from the Indochinese tiger and Java tiger skull, while the Balinese tiger was the same size as the Javan tiger. The authors proposed to classify the Sumatran tiger and the Javan tiger as different species, P. sumatrae and P. sondaica with the Balinese tiger as the P. sondaica balica subspecies.
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