Facts about this Animal
- Tigers are the largest members of the cat family and are renowned for their power and strength.
- The tiger is capable of killing animals over twice its size; it is one of nature’s most feared predators.
- Like its ancestor, the saber-tooth cat, 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.
- Tigers live alone and aggressively scent-mark large territories (up to 100sq km in size) to keep their rivals away.
- They are powerful nocturnal hunters that travel many miles to find buffalo, deer, wild pigs, and other large mammals. A Bengal tiger can eat 21 kg of meat in a night and can kill the equivalent of 30 buffaloes a year.
- The roar of a Bengal tiger can carry for over 2 km at night.
- Although tigers are powerful and fast over short distances, the Bengal tiger cannot outrun fleet footed prey such as deer. Instead it uses stealth to catch its victims; attacking from the side or the rear.
- Tigers use their distinctive coats as camouflage (no two have exactly the same stripes).
- 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.
- As well as game animals, it preys on wild boar, monkeys, lizards and occasionally porcupines.
- Females give birth to litters of two to six cubs, which they raise with little or no help from the male. Cubs cannot hunt until they are 18 months old and remain with their mothers for two to three years, when they disperse to find their own territory.
- Like domestic cats, all tigers can purr. Unlike their tame relatives, however, which can purr as they breathe both in and out, tigers purr only as they breathe out.
- Unlike other cats, tigers are good swimmers and often cool off in lakes and streams during the heat of the day.
- Although tigers belong in the wild they are still used by travelling circuses in the UK
- Tigers can reach a length of up to 3.3 meters (11 feet) and weigh as much as 300 kilograms (660 pounds).
- Subspecies of the tiger include the Sumatran Tiger, Siberian Tiger, Bengal Tiger, South China Tiger, Malayan Tiger and Indochinese Tiger.
- Many subspecies of the tiger are either endangered or already extinct. Humans are the primary cause of this through hunting and the destruction of habitats.
- Around half of tiger cubs don’t live beyond two years of age.
- Tiger cubs leave their mother when they are around 2 years of age.
- A group of tigers is known as an ‘ambush’ or ‘streak’.
- Tigers are good swimmers and can swim up to 6 kilometers.
- Rare white tigers carry a gene that is only present in around 1 in every 10000 tigers.
- Tigers usually hunt alone at night time.
- Tigers have been known to reach speeds up to 65 kph (40 mph).
- Less than 10% of hunts end successfully for tigers
- Tigers can easily jump over 5 meters in length.
- Various tiger subspecies are the national animals of Bangladesh, India, North Korea, South Korea and Malaysia.
- There are more tigers held privately as pets than there are in the wild.