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TIGERS Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Felidae Subfamily: Panthernae Genus/Species: Panthera tigris |
Status: Endangered Location: Southeastern Russia (Siberian), Southern China (South China), Southeast Asia (Indochinese), India (Bengal) and Indonesian island of Sumatra (Sumatran tiger). |
There are 5 subspecies in the genus Tigris.Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) Indochinese Tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti) South China Tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) Siberian Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) Three Tiger subspecies have gone extinct in the past 100 years, Bali tiger in 1940's, Caspian tiger (Hyrcanian/Turan) in 1970's, and the Javan tiger in 1980's.  Distinctive CoatThe tiger is the only felid with stripes. The Bengal tiger (Panther tigris tigris) the most common of the subspecies exhibits the classic tiger coat. Its coat varies from dark orange to reddish ocher, and the belly, neck, cheeks, around the eye areas and insides of limbs are white/creamy white. Bengals are also rarely born as white, they are not albinos and they are not a seperate subspecies of tigers. They have blue eyes, a pink nose, and creamy white furr covered with chocolate colored stripes. White tigers are born from tigers that carried the unusual gene needed for white coloring. Wild white tigers are very rare. The Siberian race usally has the palest coat, while the tiger in Indochina is much darker. Tiger stripes can range from jet-black to brown stripes that run vertically across the body. Their stripes can vary in number, width, and tendency to split. No 2 tigers have the same markings. The 5 surviving subspecies of tiger differ markedly from one another. In general, those animals from sotherm areas are smaller and more deeply coloured than their larger and paler northern kin. Tigers that live in cold climated also tend to have thicker fur. The smallest and the darkest of the tiger subspecies is the Sumatran tiger ( Panthera tigiris sumatrae) Only about 600 are thought to exist today. The Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) is the largest subspecies, and the lightest in colours, with the longest coat. Its numbers may be as low as 150-300. Food Hunting mainly at night, it takes mostly deer and wild pigs, and cattle in some regions, but it also eats smaller animals including monkeys, birds, reptiles, and fish, and readily feeds on carrion. Tigers will also attack young rhinoceroses and elephants. They may eat up to 40kg (88lb) of meat at a time and return to a large kill for 3-6 days.  Tigers are one of the most spectacular, silent killing forces in nature. They are able to kill animals as big as themselves and even bigger. Surprise is the vital element in every attack. The dark black stripes on their fur help to break up its outline so that it blends effortlessly into tall grass. Most potential prey, such as deer, see in black and white, which means that a tiger crouching motionless in tall grass is nearly invisible to a deer.
The tiger will hide in the grass and slowly creep up to the prey, all the while keeping downwind so that its scent can't be detected. It then rushes in a fewq explosive bounds and jumps onto the prey, sinking its huge canine teeth into the neck of the victim, suffocating it or snapping its spine. Once a tiger has killed, it will move its prey to a place where it feels that it is safe from scavengers and other predators. A tigres with cubs who have begun to eat meat will either go to the den to bring her cubs to the kill or, if the kill is near the den, she will call out a signal for them to join her. If the cubs aren't yet strong enough to tear the meat from the kill themselves, mum will tear it off for them.  BreedingTigers mate at any time of the year, and have one to five cubs born after a gestation of 104-106 days. Young are nursed for six months and stay with the mother until about two years old. When cubs reach the age of 1 1/2 years, they start to hunt for themselves. Female tigers reach maturity when they are about 3 years old, males take a little longer, about 4-5 years. Habitat They live in Asia in a variety of habitats: from the tropical evergreen and deciduous forests of southern Asia to the coniferous, scrub oak, and birch woodlands of Siberia. Conservation 
Poaching, loss of habitat, and lack of prey because of over-hunting, pose the biggest threats to the world's tigers, which survive only in scattered populations in eastern Russia, China and Sumatra, and from Vietnam to India. The trade in tiger skins is illegal but highly valuable. A single tiger skin can fetch up to hundreds of thousands of dollars on the black market.Over the last 100 years the tiger population has dropped from 100,000 to 5,000. Soon there may be no wild tigers left alive anywhere on the Earth, except for zoo's. Humans are one of the greatest threats to tigers. As the human population grows, it destroys the forests where tigers live and hunt. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that tiger bones have medicinal value. Tigers are still killed for this, even though there are herbal alternatives. The tiger is the most endangered of all the big cats. They need huge areas in which to find enough prey to survive, but humans are claiming this land, and tigers are being driven out. Below are a few tiger pictures for you to enjoy. For a larger picture please click on the thumbnails.
Today, there are only fewer than 7,000-5,000 wild tigers in the world, and their numbers are still falling drastically. Time is running out for these magnificent creatures. Tigers and their habitat need every bit of help to survive to get them off the brink of extinction. EXTINCTION IS FOREVER Below you will find links to sites that can give you more information on how you can help... |
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