White Tigers in theSingapore Zoological GardensVideo of a Tiger
Thetiger (Panthera tigris) is the largest living member of the catfamily, theFelidae. It feeds by hunting, and it lives inAsia.[4] Tigers aresolitary animals.
There are tigers with distinct colors. Most tigers have orangefur with black stripes, and a whitebelly. The black stripes usually extend to the white underside. The stripes are vertical on the tiger's body, but the stripes are horizontal on the forehead, and the legs. Thetail has rings, and the tail tip is black. The stripes are used to keep themcamouflaged whilehunting. No two tigers have the samepattern of stripes.[5] Most Bengal tigers have orange fur, but some Bengal tigers have white fur with black stripes, or that even have pure white fur. Thesewhite tigers are notalbino, but they areleucistic instead. The white coat only appears once in every 100births. The Bengal tiger is the national animal of Bangladesh andIndia.
Tigers vary in size depending on their subspecies.Siberian tigers are the largest. Males can grow to at least9ft (2.7m) long (body length) andweigh about900lb (410kg). Females are a bit smaller. Record weight for males is claimed as890lb (400kg), but this cannot be confirmed.
Tigers can live in a variety ofhabitats. Mostly they need to hide, to be near a water jungle source, and have enough prey to eat. Tigers are solitary and they all control large amounts of territory, the size of which depends on the availability of various food for tigers and prey.[6] According to Tigers-World, a male tiger may live and hunt in an area of 60 to 100 square kilometers (23 to 39 square miles). A female tiger may have 20 square kilometers (8 square miles).[7] According to theUnited States Fish and Wildlife Service, a single tiger can live in a territory as small as 21 square kilometers (8 square miles) to as large as 995 square kilometers (385 square miles).[8]
As previously thought, the tiger had five livingsubspecies. In this context, 'recently' means in the last two centuries. Three tiger subspecies areextinct (†).
However, in 2017, the Cat Classification Task Force of theIUCN Cat Specialist Group revised felid taxonomy and recognized the tiger populations in continental Asia asP. t. tigris, and those in the Sunda Islands asP. t. sondaica.[9]
Tigers are becoming rare, becausepeoplehunt them for theircoat (skin) and destroy the habitats they live in. The Bengal tiger has the largest population with 3,500 left in the wild. To help keep the tiger population, tigers are often placed inzoos. In order for tigers to survive into the next century,governments throughout the tigers’ range must show greater determination and commitment to conserve tigers and their habitats.[10]
Tigers also kill and eat peoples'livestock, which are easier to hunt than their typicalprey, because they are often infenced or closed areas and livestock may not be able toflee. Sometimes tigers hunt people as prey and eat them, because they are either too old,injured, orill to hunt their typicalanimal prey which are muchfaster than people. These too are a reason why tigers are killed by people.
↑Linnaeus, C. (1758)."Felis tigris".Caroli Linnæi Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Vol.Tomus I (decima, reformataed.). Holmiae: Laurentius Salvius. p.41.(in Latin)
