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Did you know  Tigers are the biggest cats in the world. They live in steamy hot jungles as well as icy cold forests. There are five different kinds or subspecies of tiger alive in the world today. These tigers are called Amur (Siberian), South China, Indochinese, Bengal, and Sumatran. Their Latin name is Panthera tigris. Tigers are an endangered species; only about 5,000 to 7,400 tigers are left in the wild. Three tiger subspecies, the Bali, Javan, and Caspian tigers have become extinct in the past 70 years.
The tiger hunts alone, primarily between dusk and dawn, traveling six to 20 miles in a night in search of prey. A typical predatory sequence includes a slow, silent stalk until the tiger is 30 to 35 feet from the selected prey animal followed by a lightening fast rush to close the gap. The tiger grabs the animal in its forepaws, brings it to the ground, and finally kills the animal with a bite to the neck or throat. After dragging the carcass to a secluded spot, the tiger eats. A tiger eats 33 to 40 pounds of meat in an average night, and must kill about once per week. Catching a meal is not easy; a tiger is successful only once in ten to 20 hunts.
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A powerful hunter with sharp teeth, strong jaws, and an agile body, the tiger is the largest member of the cat family (Felidae). It is also the largest land-living mammal whose diet consists entirely of meat. The tiger’s closest relative is the lion. Without the fur, it is difficult to distinguish a tiger from a lion but the tiger is the only cat with striped fur.
Physical charastics
No one knows exactly why tigers are striped, but scientists think that the stripes act as camouflage, and help tigers hide from their prey. The Sumatran tiger has the most stripes of all the tiger subspecies, and the Siberian tiger has the fewest stripes. Tiger stripes are like human fingerprints; no two tigers have the same pattern of stripes.
The tiger’s head often carries the Chinese mark of wang or king on the forehead.
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.
Habitat
The size of a tiger’s territory depends on how much prey there is to eat. For example, in some parts of India where there is plenty of prey, a male tiger only needs eight to sixty square miles . In Sumatra, where there is less prey, a male tiger may need as much as 150 square miles. And in Siberia, where there is little prey to be found, male tiger territories are as large as 400 square miles.
Behavior
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, and usually ranges from about 10 to 30 square miles (26-78 sq. km). Siberian tigers sometimes have really big territories (as large as 120 square miles). 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.
According to the book ’An Exhaultation of Larks," the word for a group of tigers is a streak. It is not clear if this is a word that the author made up, or if it is historically acurate. In general, adult tigers (unlike lions) do not hang around in groups.
Diet
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.
Caring for the young
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.
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