Tigers

Tigers are orange and white with black stripes. This stripe pattern is different for every tiger. Some tigers can be black with tan stripes or be white with tan stripes. There are also albino tigers that are all white with pink eyes. A tiger's paw has 5 toes with retractable claws. The largest tiger, the Siberian tiger, can reach a lenth of 10 feet, with the smallest, the Sumatran tiger, reaching only 8 feet. The male Siberian tiger can weigh between 400 and 570 pounds and the female can weigh between 220 and 350 pounds. Male Sumatran tigers can weigh between 220 and 310 pounds and the female can weigh between 165 and 240 pounds.

Tigers naturally occupy an area across Aisa, from India to the Russian Far East. They can live anywhere that has enough forest cover, water and prey for them. The size of a tiger's territory depends on the amount of prey that is availble for the tiger. In Nepal females can defend an area as small as 8 square miles because there is plenty of prey to sustain her and her cubs. Female tigers in the Russian Far East can defend an area of 200 square miles due to the lack of prey there. Male territories are usually larger than female territories due to the need for access to female to mate with.

Tigers eat a variety of animals, depending on what is available. They eat wild pigs, wild cattle, and several species of deer.

Tigers are ambush hunters, stalking their prey until they are close enough to charge it. When a tiger catches its prey it will bite the neck or throat, depending on its size. They use the neck bite on small and medium sized prey which severs the spinal cord. They use the throat bite on larger prey and that suffocates the prey. After killing the prey a tiger will drag it to a safe place and come back to it over several days. They can eat up to 40 pounds of meat at one time.

Tigers generally live alone. The exceptions are a mother with her cubs. It is easier for them to hunt in the forest alone than with a group. Tigers also come together to mate. A male tiger can tell when a female tiger enters estrus by the scent marks she leaves in their overlapping territory. Estrus is when a female tiger is receptive to a male tiger for mating, it usually lasts for three days. The male and female will mate many times during these days. Copulation is required for the female to release her eggs to be fertilized. If she does not become pregnant during her estrus, she will enter estrus again in 30 to 60 days. Tigers start mating at 3 years old.

A tiger pregnancy lasts about 100 days with the average litter being 2 to 3 cubs. The cubs are born blind and weigh only 2 to 3 pounds. They will live on their mother's milk for the first 6 to 8 weeks before she starts to bring them to her kills. They continue to nurse until they are 6 months old. The cubs learn how to kill through their play and practice. They will usually make their first kill at about 18 months old. They will also leave their mother between the age of 18 months and 3 years, depending on whether their is another litter or not for her to care for. The female cubs tend to stay closer to their mother than the male cubs. Female tigers can have a new litter about every 2 years and the older litter will leave their mother a few months after she has a new litter.

The U. S. Endangered Species List classifies tigers as endangered. There are only 5,000 to 7,000 wild tigers left in Asia. Their main threat is from humans. Humans are destroying their habitat and poachers kill them. Humans have also caused tiger prey to disappear, by hunting those animals for human consumption. Tigers also suffer from disease, parasites, and injuries (from hunting and fighting).

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