Green Heart At Work: Tiger facts

Source: Tribune International

· Their scientific name is Panthera tigris.

· Their status is Endangered.

· They are renowned for their power and strength.

· The tiger it is one of nature’s most feared predators as they are capable of killing animals over twice their size.

· Tigers have been known to reach the age of 26 years in the wild.

· They are very good swimmers and have been known to kill prey while swimming. They often cool off in lakes and streams during the heat of the day.

· The roar of a Bengal tiger can carry for over 2km at night.

· Tigers are powerful and fast over short distances.

· They rely primarily on sight and sound rather than smell.

· All tigers can purr, but only as they breathe out, unlike their tame, domestic relatives which purr as they breathe both in and out.

Description

Source: Dailymail

· Tigers are the largest members of the cat family.

· They sport long, thick reddish coats with white bellies and white and black tails.

· Their heads, bodies, tails, and limbs have narrow black, brown, or grey stripes.

· Within each subspecies, males are heavier than females.

· Tigers use their distinctive coats as camouflage (no two have the same stripes).

Range

Source: Wikipedia

· Tigers used to roam across most of Asia. Historic tiger range ran from Turkey through South and Southeast Asia to the far eastern shores of the continent.

· They are now restricted to just 7% of their original range, in isolated forests across 13 countries, and are only found in South and Southeast Asia, China and the Russian Far East.

Habitat

· Tigers occupy a variety of habitats from tropical forests, evergreen forests, woodlands, and mangrove swamps to grasslands, savannah, and rocky country.

Population

· In the early 1900s, there were around 100,000 tigers throughout their range.

· Today, an estimated total of around 3,000 exist in the wild.

Behaviour

· Tigers live alone and aggressively scent-mark large territories to keep their rivals away. The size of the territory is determined mostly by the availability of prey.

· Although individuals do not patrol their territories, they visit them over a period of days or weeks and mark their domain with urine.

· Tigers mostly live solitary lives, except during mating season and when females bear young.

Diet

· They typically hunt alone and stalk prey.

· A Bengal tiger can eat 21kg of meat in a night and can kill the equivalent of 30 buffaloes a year.

· One tiger nearly requires to eat an average magnitude deer each week to sustain itself.

· The tiger relies heavily on its powerful teeth for survival. If it loses its canines (tearing teeth) through injury or old age, it can no longer kill and is likely to starve to death.

· They are ambush predators that rely on the camouflage their stripes provide.

· They are powerful nocturnal (more active at night) hunters that travel far to find buffalo, deer, wild pigs, and other large mammals. It also preys on monkeys, lizards, and occasionally porcupines.

· If the kill is large, the tiger may drag the remains to a thicket and loosely bury it with leaves, then return to it later.

Reproduction

Source: NBC Washington

· In tropical climates the mating season is mostly from around November to April; during the winter months in temperate regions.

· Tigers attain sexual maturity at age three or four for females and at four or five years for males.

· Gestation: 103 days.

· On average, tigers give birth to two or three cubs every two years.

· Females raise cubs with little or no help from the male.

· Cubs follow their mother out of the den at around 8 weeks and become independent at around 18 months of age.

· They leave their mothers at about 2 ½ years and disperse to find their own territory.

· Mothers guard their young from wandering males that may kill the cubs to make the female receptive to mating.

· If all the cubs in one litter die, a second litter may be produced within five months.

· Juvenile mortality is high —about half of all cubs do not survive more than two years.

Species

· Bengal tiger: Less than 2,000

Source: Tigers world

· Indochinese tiger: 750-1,300

Source: Arkive

· Siberian tiger: Around 450

Source: Tigers in Crisis

· Sumatran tiger: 400-500

Source: WWF

· Malayan tiger: 600-800

Source: A-Z Animals

· South Chinese tiger: Extinct in the wild

· Caspian tiger: Extinct

· Javan tiger: Extinct

· Bali tiger: Extinct

REFERENCES

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Friday, 29 July 2016

Tiger facts