Tiger Tigers were large predatory cat s . They died out on Earth in 2148 . ( PROSE : " St Anthony ' s Fire " ) Earth tigers . The Tribe of Gum had to defend themselves from tigers , amongst other animals . ( TV : " An Unearthly Child " ) In 120 AD , the Tenth Doctor found himself opposing lion s , tigers and bear s in the Flavian Amphitheatre . At one point , a tiger ran towards him , but he neatly jumped over it , and the tiger went on to maul its trainers , who had badly mistreated it . ( PROSE : " The Stone Rose " ) Among the prizes that the First Doctor obtained during a game of backgammon against Kublai Khan in 1289 were twenty - five tigers . ( TV : " Assassin at Peking " ) In England in the 1920s , Nyssa and Tegan Jovanka were cornered by a tiger in a fairground menagerie but managed to escape unharmed . ( AUDIO : " Smoke and Mirrors " ) In New York City in the 1960s , tigers were among the zoo animals released by a mad scientist . ( COMIC : " The Monsters from the Past " ) In 1970s London , a tiger was kept in a cramped cage in a zoo which was visited by the Third Doctor and the Brigadier ' s godson Albert . The young boy used the TARDIS dematerialisation circuit to transport himself into the tiger ' s cage , but the animal caught his hand in its mouth . The Doctor instructed Albert how to use the circuit to free himself , then later donated his UNIT expenses to pay for a larger enclosure for the tiger . However , the tiger merely continued pacing the perimeter of its old cage , its mind having broken under the stress of captivity . ( AUDIO : " Walls of Confinement " ) In November 1988 , when the Seventh Doctor and Ace visited Windsor Castle , there was a stuffed tiger head in the basement . ( TV : " Silver Nemesis " ) The zoo that Martha Jones visited when she was young had a tiger that always slept . ( PROSE : " The Last Dodo " ) A tiger escaped from London Zoo in the early 21st century after a global forest grew overnight . It came across Clara Oswald and Maebh Arden while roaming this new habitat but was scared away by Danny Pink ' s use of a torch - flickering the light across the tiger ' s eyes . ( TV : " In the Forest of the Night " ) Tigers went extinct before 2148 , though their bones were sometimes preserved and saved . ( PROSE : " St Anthony ' s Fire " ) A tiger was one of the animals on board the Ark in circa 10 , 000 , 000 . The First Doctor , Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet encountered it , and were surprised to find that it was not aggressive . ( PROSE : " The Ark " ) Breeds . Amongst the known breeds of tiger on Earth were sabre - toothed tiger s ( which became extinct in circa 9000 BC ) , Siberian tiger s , Malayan tiger s , and Bengal tiger s . ( PROSE : " The Eight Doctors " , PROSE : " The Last Dodo " , PROSE : " Pack Animals " ) Extra - terrestrial tigers . Despite similar appearances , the tigers of Earth were unrelated to the Hitchemus Tiger s . ( PROSE : " The Year of Intelligent Tigers " ) There were at least two species of shapeshifting tiger - like species : a species represented by Lady Huntingdon and her granddaughter ( PROSE : " Old Flames " ) and the Tyger s . ( PROSE : " The Eye of the Tyger " ) The Khamirae Gideon changed into a tiger - like humanoid . ( COMIC : " Universal Monsters " )