Why are they called Asian tigers?

Asian tigers are so-called because all sub-species of modern tiger live within the continent of Asia, explains Defenders.org. Two of the most famous sub-species of tiger, the Siberian tiger and the Bengal tiger, are named after provinces within Russia and India respectively.

Tigers once ranged throughout all of Asia, from China to Turkey, but industrialization, hunting and land development fragmented their range, confining them to only the most remote parts of the continent. The sabre-tooth tiger, an extinct species of cat which once roamed North and South America during the Ice Age, was actually not closely related to today's modern Asian species, according to A-Z-animals.com.