According to abbreviationfinder.org, the tiger is the largest and strongest living cat species in the world. The tiger is incredibly breathtaking to watch, where its beautiful stripes and yellow fur can seem fascinating to anyone. The tiger must be seen with your own eyes, and it is a very special experience to see the tiger in its proper nature and surroundings. If you travel to Borneo , China and India with Kipling Travel, you can experience the fabulous animal.
Facts about the tiger
| Location: | Asia (Indochina, China, parts of Southeast Russia) |
| Life expectancy: | 15 years |
| Weight: | 300 kilos |
| Size: | 105 to 120 centimeters high |
| Food: | Predators, eating meat |
| Quantity: | 5,000 to 7,500 wild tigers in Asia |
| Fun fact: | Ordinary tigers have yellow eyes, while white tigers have blue eyes. |
Characteristics
What characterizes a tiger best is the incredibly beautiful fur. The tiger’s fur is beautiful variations of black stripes and white drawings on an otherwise yellow fur. There are different species of tigers, so the appearance can vary a lot accordingly. It is both in terms of color, pattern, and the size of the tiger. The tiger as we know it has a yellow coat with black stripes and yellow eyes, but opposite it is the white tiger with blue eyes. The color of the tiger’s fur and eyes are therefore related. The tiger signals strength, grandeur and power with its muscular forelegs and strong legs. The tiger has long whiskers, large, sharp claws and a longer neck just like other large cats in the cat family.
Food
The tiger is a predator, that is, they mainly eat other animals. These include animals such as ibex, oxen, wild boar, porcupines, moose and other deer. But it is not only medium-sized prey the tiger hunts as food. The tiger can also eat monkeys, birds and small reptiles. The way the tiger hunts is by hiding in the bushes so that it almost appears invisible to its prey. With this, it prepares for an ambush. The tiger kills the prey by biting it in the neck or throat. The tiger must arm himself with patience, as it is only 1/10 time that the hunts succeed for it. Sometimes the tiger is lucky to lay down a prey of 300 kg. If this happens, the tiger will have enough food for several days. A tiger eats about 15 to 19 kilos every day. The food left over from a prey is stored under branches and leaves until the next day.
Pregnancy
The gestation of a tiger is very similar to other cats such as lions, leopards and cheetahs, namely that the gestation lasts about 3.5 months. Here the tiger gives birth to a small litter of about 2 to 4 cubs. A pup weighs 800 to 1500 grams at birth and is born blind and helpless. It is therefore heavily dependent on its mother for the first few weeks of its life. A young breastfeeds for the first 8 weeks. After 6 months, the pups can start following the mother on the hunt. After 2 to 3 years, they can stand on their own two feet, and from there they are old enough to chase their prey themselves. When the females reach the age of 3-4 years, they become sexually mature. The female goes into heat a few days at a time, and these days is ready to mate. The male can smell that the female is in heat from a long distance, and therefore the male seeks her out during that period. In the female’s heat, she can be mated up to 100 times.
Herds
The tiger is not a herd animal. The tigers are only with others when the female is in heat or has young. Otherwise, it lives life alone. The tiger prefers to live a life of peace and quiet, and preferably very far from humans. The male tiger has a large breeding territory where several females can be found. The tiger roars loudly to warn other males about where he and his territory are. The bigger and louder the roar, the stronger and bigger the male, which is why it would be wise to stay away.
The hunter marks his territory by leaving scent marks from urine and feces as well as leaving scratch marks on tree trunks. All animals entering the male’s territory will be hunted and attempted killed if the male discovers it. This also applies to humans. The handyman usually has a large territory. This territory is typically over 1600 hectares, ie an area comparable to 4000 football pitches.
Family
The tiger is a member of the cat family. In addition, the tiger is the largest living cat in the world. The cat family consists of a total of 37 species. From them there are 6 living subspecies of tigers in the world. These are species such as Amur tiger, South Chinese tiger, Indochinese tiger, Sumatran tiger, Bengal tiger and Malaysian tiger. The largest of the tigers is the Amur tiger, also called the Siberian tiger. The Siberian tiger is thus also the world’s largest living cat. It exudes a great deal of elegance and pride, overshadowing its reputation for being a true killer.
Travelers’ questions about the tiger
Can the tiger swim?
Yes, tigers are crazy about water.
Unlike other cats in the tiger’s family, tigers love water and swimming. On a hunt for prey, they can cross several rivers and swim from one island to another. They are therefore incredibly good swimmers, and can easily do in the water. But it is not just to chase its prey that the tiger is in the water. It also happens that the tiger needs to cool his body down on overheated days. Furthermore, it may also need to clean its fur from, for example, parasites by taking a long ‘bath’ in the Asian lakes. The tiger is not the only feline that likes water. It has something in common with the jaguar, which is also quite crazy about water.
Can the tiger mate with the lion?
Yes, it can. There are two different mixtures between a lion and a tiger. Mixtures between cats are called hybrid cats.
The one mixture, is a liger. A liger is a mixture between a huntiger and a male lion. A liger actually becomes so large that it is considered even larger than the Siberian tiger. In addition, a liger is very similar to a large lion, which has misplaced stripes on the side. Liger likes to swim, like a tiger and vice versa a lion. – The picture shows, for example, a liger.
The second mixture is a tigon. A tigon is a mix between a male tiger and a female lion. A tigon is often confused with a liger because it is not as prevalent as a liger is. However, recent years have shown that there are more and more cases where tigers are born.
Is the tiger an endangered species?
Yes, it’s the tiger unfortunately. This means that there are not very many tigers in the world today, and they are thus an endangered species. In addition, most tigers live in captivity – including zoos. It is not easy to find out exactly how many tigers are left in the world, but the latest assumptions are that there are less than 7000 tigers in the world. 7000 tigers immediately sounds like a lot, but that is not the case at all. This is equivalent to the world’s 7,000 tigers being able to gather on the area equivalent to the area of three football pitches.
The tiger has great interest in the Chinese market, which makes it especially sought after by poachers to lay down tigers. In the Chinese market, a tiger’s paw, fur and claws bring in the same as an annual salary for an average Chinese. It thus poses a major threat to the tiger, which has long been hunted for its fur. Parts of the tiger are also used to make natural medicine. Several tiger species are extinct due to the threat from poachers.
