What are tigers?

Tigers are large cats. They are one of the most threatened species of animal on earth.

Habitats:

The different tiger subspecies live in a variety of habitats. Some live in forests in southern Asia, some in the woodlands of Siberia. Others are found in mangrove swamps and in tall grass jungles. Some are found in the mountains where it is snowy.

Appearance and Behaviours:

Most tigers are orange-brown or dark yellow with dark brown, grey or black stripes. There are patches of white fur on their faces and ears. There is a white mark on the back of each ear so that from behind it looks like the tiger is watching, particularly in a shadowy forest habitat. This is a defence marking. Tigers have white fur on their stomachs. A tiger's stripes helps it to get close to prey when it is hunting. The stripes camouflage the tiger, helping it to blend into the grasses and edges of forests where it lives. Each tiger's pattern is different, like human fingerprints.Tigers are large cats. The largest is the male Amur or Siberian tiger which can grow to be 3.3 metres long and weigh up to 300 kilograms. The smallest is the female Sumatran tiger which grows to be about 230 centimetres long and weighs up to 110 kilograms.
A tiger's tail, which helps it keep its balance when running fast, is about a metre long.
Most tigers live and hunt alone and mark their territory by spraying the ground and plants with urine (pee) and by leaving scratch marks on trees.Tigers are excellent swimmers, and can swim across wide rivers. They keep cool by spending time in water, the only cats to deliberately doing so.

DietTigers are carnivores:

or meat eaters.How do tigers catch their prey?They hunt mainly between sunset and dawn. They stalk their prey, get as close as possible and then race at the animal from behind, pouncing on it and biting the neck or throat. When the prey is dead, the tiger drags it to a safe place and eats it. If the prey is a large animal the tiger can feed on it for a few days. Not every hunt is successful, so tigers don't eat every day. They hunt and eat many different kinds of animal such as deer, wild pigs, birds, monkeys, leopards, bears and wild cattle. Tigers eat up to 18 kilograms of meat at one time.

Life Cycle:

About 103 days after mating with a male tiger the female gives birth to a litter of 2 or 3 cubs, but sometimes up to 7. She looks after the cubs, feeding them milk for about 8 weeks. Later she teaches them to hunt. The cubs stay with their mother for up to three years.

Conservation Status and threats:

Tigers are facing extinction. The South China tiger may already be extinct. Numbers of other subspecies are very low. One major threat is that in some countries medicines made of tiger body parts are considered to be almost magical in their effect. Tigers are killed for body parts, fur and meat. Although there is an international ban on killing tigers, the illegal medicines sell for large sums of money, so poachers continue to kill tigers. Loss of habitat is also a big threat, and there is less and less space in the wild for tigers to live. What is left of wild habitat is often small patches, like islands, which makes it hard for tigers to move about and meet each other for breeding.