The tiger (panthera tigris), largest of all cats, is one of the
biggest and most fearsome predators in the world. A typical male Siberian tiger
may weigh 500 pounds and measure more than three yards from nose to tip
of the tail. They can travel large distances and bound up to 30 feet in
one leap.
Powerfully built with fierce retractile claws (they can be pulled into
the paw, like a house cat's), the tiger's distinctive gold coloring with
black stripes allows it to melt unseen into its environment. The
coloring actually ranges from reddish yellow to reddish brown, and both
white and "black" tigers have been known to occur in the wild. Most
white tigers seen today have been bred in captivity for this
characteristic; "black" tigers are examples of a strange color pattern in
which the stripes merge into a few, very broad, strips.
Hunting:
Tigers are at the top of the food chain: they eat just about anything,
but nothing eats the tiger. Hunting primarily by sight and sound, they
have been known to eat crocodiles, fish, birds, reptiles, and even other
predators like leopards and bears. However, the preferred food, without
which tiger populations cannot remain healthy, are ungulates -- hoofed
animals such as deer and wild pigs.
Prey are killed by a bite to the neck or by a strangulating throat hold.
If the tiger's prey is too big to eat at once, it will be covered with
dirt, leaves and grasses until the next meal. The biggest ungulates,
such as gaur (a kind of wild cattle) and water buffalo, provide so much
food that the tiger won't hunt again for a week. More than 80 pounds of
meat may be eaten at one sitting. Hunting can be very difficult,
however, and tigers are only successful in one or two attacks out of
every twenty.
Mating:
Tigers are usually solitary and come together only to mate (although
small groups of probably related adults will associate on occasion).
Mating can occur at any time, but usually happens between November and
April. Gestation lasts about three and a half months. Two or three cubs
are normally born, and sometimes more, inside a den made from thick
vegetation, a cave, or a rocky crevice. They nurse for three to six
months, although they may begin eating meat as early as two month old and
can hunt by about one year of age. Cubs will stay with their mother for
about two years. Life is dangerous for a tiger cub; only about one-half
survive to their third year. The relatively short period between litters
(about two to two and a half years), combined with the relatively large
litter sizes, allows tiger populations to rebound surprisingly quickly
for such large carnivores, given their basic food and habitat requirements.
Territory:
Male tigers have a large territory, the size of which varies depending on
how much vegetation, water, and prey are available. In Russia,
territories may be as large as 385 square miles, while a male tiger in
the Indian subcontinent may occupy 40 square miles or less. Females have
smaller, mutually exclusive ranges contained within a male's range. All
tigers mark their territories with urine, feces, and scratching on tree
trunks.
The tiger (panthera tigris), largest of all cats, is one of the
biggest and most fearsome predators in the world. A typical male Siberian tiger
may weigh 500 pounds and measure more than three yards from nose to tip
of the tail. They can travel large distances and bound up to 30 feet in
one leap.