210 captive animals live in zoos around the world. The Sumatran tiger is found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra in habitat that ranges from lowland forest to submontain and montain forest with some peat-moss forest. The Sumatran tiger has the darkest coat of all tigers. Its broad, black stripes are closely spaced and often doubled. Unlike the Siberian tiger, it has striped forelegs.
Sumatran tigers are the smallest tiger subspecies.
As elevation increases through submontain and montain forests, the number of tigers in any given area decreases because there is less prey available. The situation for captive management of Sumatran tigers is much better. This captive population is descended from 37 wild-caught founders. The Indonesian Sumatran Tiger Masterplan now has the potential to function as the heart of the Sumatran tiger population worldwide. It is designed to preserve sufficient genetic diversity to reinforce both captive and wild populations, thus fulfilling its goal to ensure that the in situ tiger program comprises verifiable founders permanently identified and registered in the Indonesian Sumatran Tiger Studbook.