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Information
About Tigers
Appearance:
No one knows exactly why
tigers are striped, but scientists think that the stripes act as
camouflage, and help tigers hide from their prey while they hunt.
Tiger stripes are like human fingerprints; no two tigers have the
same pattern of stripes. Most tigers have an orange coat with dark
brown or black stripes accented with white. Tigers that live in cold
climates (Siberian tigers) have thicker fur than tigers that live in
warm climates. A tiger's tail is 3 to 4 feet long, about half as
long as its body. Tigers use their tails for balance when they run
through fast turns. They also use their tails to communicate with
other tigers. A tiger's paw prints are called pug marks.
The tiger's head often
carries the Chinese mark of wang or king on the forehead.
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Chinese wang mark
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Tiger with wang mark
on forehead |
Tigers have round pupils
and yellow irises (except for the blue eyes of white tigers). Due to
a retinal adaptation that reflects light back to the retina, the
night vision of tigers is six times better than that of humans.
A tiger's forefeet have
five toes and the hind feet have four toes. All toes have claws. The
claws are 80 to 100 mm in length. Like domestic cats, tiger claws
are retractable. Tiger scratches on trees serve as territorial
markers.
Adult tigers have 30 large teeth! The length of the canine teeth can
be between 2.5 to 3 inches (74.5 to 90 mm.). Siberian tigers are the
heaviest subspecies at 500 or more pounds (225 kg), with males
heavier than females. The lightest subspecies is the Sumatran; males
weigh about 250 pounds (110 kg) and females around 200 pounds (90
kg). Depending on the subspecies, the head-body length of a tiger is
about 41/2 to 9 feet (1.4-2.8 m). The length of the tail is 3 to 4
feet (90-120 cm). The height at shoulder: 95-110 cm (depending on
the subspecies).
Food:
Wild tigers can eat as
much as 40 pounds of meat at one time. After eating a lot, they
often do not eat again for several days. Over much of the tiger's
broad geographic range, wild pig, wild cattle and several species of
deer are its major prey. Unlike wild tigers which kill their prey
and then gorge, tigers that live in zoos eat a prepared diet of
horse meat and vitamins daily. They may eat as much as 10 pounds of
meat per day.
Tigers
are ambush hunters, stalking their prey, approaching as closely as
possible, and then charging the animal from behind. They usually
bite the neck or throat of their prey. The neck-bite, which severs
the spinal cord, is typically used on small or medium sized prey,
while the throat bite, which causes suffocation, is used on larger
animals.
After
killing their prey, tigers drag the animal to a safe place,
consuming it over the course of several days. Typically, wild tigers
gorge themselves on fresh kills, and can eat as much as 40 pounds
(18 kg) of meat at one time. The tiger will not eat again for
several days.
Social:
Unlike some big cats like
lions, adult tigers like to live alone (except for mother tigers
with cubs). This is partly because in the forest, a single tiger can
sneak up and surprise its prey better than a group of tigers can.
The size of a tiger's territory depends on the amount of food
available. Siberian tigers sometimes have really big territories.
Although tigers usually live alone, tiger territories can overlap. A
male tiger's territory usually overlaps those of several female
tigers. Tigers mark their territories by spraying bushes and trees
with a special mixture of urine and scent gland secretions. They
also leave scratch marks on trees.
The average litter size
of tigers is 2 or 3 cubs (the largest is 5). One usually dies at
birth. Tiger cubs are born blind and weigh only about 2 to 3 pounds
(1 kg), depending on the subspecies. They live on their mother's
milk for 6-8 weeks before the female begins taking them to kills to
feed. They begin making their own kills at about 18 months of age.
Young tigers leave their mother's range at anywhere from a year and
a half to three years of age, depending on whether the mother has
another litter. Females tend to stay closer to the mother's range
than males.
Habitat:
All wild tigers live in
Asia. They don't like open grasslands. Most kinds of tigers live
where it is warm but Amur (Siberian) tigers live where it gets very
cold. The tiger is found in a variety of habitats: from the tropical
evergreen and deciduous forests of southern Asia to the coniferous,
scrub oak, and birch woodlands of Siberia. It also thrives in the
mangrove swamps, dry thorn forests, and tall grass jungles. Tigers
need vegetation cover, a water source, and good sources of prey.
Movement: Tigers
can run 35 miles/hour but only for a few seconds. They normally
stalk their prey slowly, then pounce. Tigers are able to swim,
climb, run, leap, crawl and walk.
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running and leaping
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climbing |
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grooming
swimming |
grooming |
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chasing |
sleeping |
walking |
scratching |
Status:
The life span of tigers
in the wild is thought to be about 10 to 15 years. Tigers in zoos
live to be between 16 and 20 years old.
Today only about
5,000–7,000 wild tigers live across Asia.
The past and present ranges of the remaining five tiger subspecies
are illustrated. The northernmost living tiger, the Amur or
Siberian tiger, lives primarily in
southeastern Russia. The
South China tiger occurs only in southern
China. The range of the
Indochinese tiger extends across most of
Southeast Asia. The
Bengal tiger is found primarily in India,
while the
Sumatran tiger is restricted to the
Indonesian island of Sumatra. The Bali, Caspian, and Javan tigers
have become
extinct in the past 70 years.
Occasionally, tigers have
eaten humans. Sometimes farmers or loggers move into a place where
tigers live. A sick tiger might find it easier to
attack a person than to hunt for its usual prey. And once a tiger
kills one person, it will probably kill more.
But
people have found ways to
protect themselves. |
