I wouldn’t put much stock in there being two tiger subspecies. There have been recent developments using whole genome sequencing that would suggest that the original six stand. Lions are a little less hotly debated, whole genome data appears to concur with previous findings.

It’s a real pain that we don’t have standardised criteria across the field for what constitutes a subspecies.

Different subspecies, rather than species. Unfortunately, there’s still enough distinction that this whole reintroduction may well be less than ideal for the cheetahs and the ecosystem. Time will tell.