If tigers are your favorite of the big cats, why not check out these thirty most interesting facts about tigers and learn something new!
- Latin name of the Tiger '
Panthera tigris
- '. The first word indicates the belonging to the panther genus. They can live up to 26 years both in captivity and in the wild. Tigers prefer to settle in forests, meadows, and mangrove swamps. There are six different species of tigers: Bengal, Indochinese, Malayan, Amur, South China, and Sumatran. There are white tigers. Their color is caused by recessive genes and inbreeding. The frequency of appearance of white tigers is 1 individual to 10,000 with normal color. Most tigers have yellow eyes, but white tigers have blue eyes, because the same gene is responsible for the eye and coat color in tigers.
There are only 30 golden tigers in captivity.
There are three extinct breeds: Balinese, Caspian, and Javanese. They can grow up to 3 meters 35 centimeters in length, including the tail. They can weigh up to 300 kilograms. Unlike domestic cats, tigers have round, not slit, pupils. This is because domestic cats are naturally nocturnal animals, while tigers are crepuscular: they hunt at dawn and dusk.
The stripes on a tiger are as unique as a human's fingerprints. Tigers are usually solitary creatures, but they are considered to have high social abilities. They love water and are very good swimmers. Tigers feed on many animals, depending on their habitat. These include antelope, wild boar, buffalo, camel, fish, and horse. Interestingly, a tiger can survive for two weeks without food.
They can eat up to 35 kilograms of meat in one sitting. Human behavior can make a tiger feel threatened and attack people. Such tigers are known as "man-eaters". They can jump up to 10 meters in length. When several tigers claim one prey after a hunt, males will let females and cubs go ahead, in contrast to lions who do the opposite. Male tigers will not fight for food, they will just wait their turn. On average, an adult tiger needs to eat 7 - 9 kg of meat per day, about 2.5 - 3 tons per year, twice as much as a lion needs. Only 1 hunt out of 10 is successful, so the tiger tries to eat as much as possible when given the opportunity.
Usually, there are up to three cubs in a litter, but up to six can be born. The cubs open their eyes fourteen days after birth. A cub may need up to two and a half years to separate from its mother. Tigers are unable to purr. They show a state of bliss by squinting or closing their eyes. Since the loss of vision for even a second means vulnerability to attack, a tiger can only afford to close its eyes when feeling absolutely safe. Tigers are endangered species. The Bengal tiger is the national animal of Bangladesh and India.
They are one of the Chinese zodiac animals, representing wood. In Asian folklore, the tiger-wolf is considered a terrible and frightening creature, replacing the wolf-wolf. Shere Khan was a deadly tiger in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894). Tigers adapt well to hunting conditions. For example, when encountering a crocodile, a tiger will not try to kill it in its favorite way - by biting its neck, as it knows that the crocodile's neck is covered with a thick layer of tough skin. Instead, the tiger will try to blind the reptile by hitting its eyes with its paw, and then flip it over and bite into its soft vulnerable belly.
