The Malayan tiger is a smaller-sized subspecies of tiger, found throughout Malaysia and parts of Thailand. The Malayan tiger is today an endangered species and found inhabiting the less-dense forests and jungles where there is a higher supply of food.
The Malayan tiger is the smallest species of tiger along with the Sumatran tiger, with average female Malayan tigers growing to around 2 meters in length. The smaller size of the Malayan tiger helps it to remain unseen in the clearer parts of the Malaysian jungle. It was not considered a subspecies in its own right until a 2004 genetic analysis and it showed that they are distinct in mtDNA and microsatellite sequences from the Indochinese subspecies.
The Malayan tiger is a dominant and carnivorous predator similar like Bengal tigers. Due to the size and power of the Malayan tiger, it has no natural predators in its native environment.
Humans that hunt the Malayan tiger and habitat loss are the only threats to the Malayan tiger. Modern estimates suggest that the current wild Malayan tiger population is between 600 and 800 individuals, making it one of the more numerous tiger species.