Tiger

Tiger belongs to the 'Big Cat Family' which includes Lion, Leopard etc. They are also the largest of the 'Big Cats'. Wild populations are found only in eastern and southern Asia. One of the distinctive features that is prominent among them is a pattern of dark vertical stripes that overlays near-white to reddish-orange fur, with lighter underparts. They are territorial and generally solitary animals, often requiring large contiguous areas of habitat that support their prey demands. Encroachment on forest land has brought them with conflict with humans. Many times it has resulted in casualties for which the Tiger is blamed though the fault lies with the improper management of the forests. Their historical range once stretched from Mesopotamia  and the Caucasus through most of South  and East Asia. Today they are restricted to certain areas in Asia where they face habitat destruction, fragmentation and hunting. Once there were nine subspecies of modern Tiger, out of which three are extinct and the remaining six are classified as endangered, some critically so. Tigers are considered to be the one of the beautiful animals of the world and therefore are the most recognisable and popular of the world's wildlife. They are featured prominently in ancient mythology  and folklore and are depicted in modern films and literature. Tigers appear on many flags and coats of arms, as mascots for sporting teams, and as the national animal of several Asian nations, including India.

Scientific Classification

1. Phylum - Chordata.
2. Order - Carnivora.
3. Family - Felidae.
4. Genus - Panthera.
5. Species - Panthera Tigris.

Physical Features

Weight - They weigh up to 300 kilograms (660 pounds).

Height - They reaching up to 3.3 metres (11 ft) in total length.

Tigers typically have rusty-reddish to brown-rusty coats, a whitish medial and ventral area, a white "fringe" that surrounds the face, and stripes that vary from brown or gray to pure black. The form and density of stripes differs between subspecies (as well as the ground colouration of the fur; for instance, Siberian tigers are usually paler than other tiger subspecies), but most tigers have over 100 stripes. The pattern of stripes is unique to each animal, and thus could potentially be used to identify individuals, much in the same way that fingerprints  are used to identify people. Their stripes serve as camouflage, helping tigers to conceal themselves amongst the dappled shadows and long grass of their environment as they stalk their prey. The stripe pattern is found on a Tiger's skin and if shaved, its distinctive camouflage pattern would be preserved. Tigers have a white spot on the backs of their ears. These spots, called Ocelli, serve a social function, by communicating the animal's mental state to conspecifics in the gloom of dense forest or in tall grass. They also have powerfully built legs and shoulders which give them the ability to pull down prey substantially heavier than themselves. Their canines are up to 4 inches long.

Geographical Range and Habitat

• Their range extends from India  in the west to China and South east Asia in the east. The northern limit is close to the Amur River in south eastern Siberia. The only large island inhabited by tigers today is Sumatra.

• Tiger Habitats usually include sufficient cover, proximity to water, and an abundance of prey sources. Bengal Tigers live in many types of forests, including wet; evergreen; the semi-evergreen of Assam and eastern Bengal; the mangrove forest of the Ganges Delta; the deciduous forest of Nepal, and the thorn forests of the Western Ghats. Tigers prefer denser vegetation, for which its camouflage colouring is ideally suited, and where a single predator is not at a disadvantage compared with the multiple felines in a pride. Tigers are strong swimmers and are often found bathing in ponds, lakes, and rivers. Unlike other cats, which tend to avoid water, tigers actively seek it out. During the extreme heat of the day, they often cool off in pools. Tigers are excellent swimmers and can swim up to 4 miles. It can also carry their dead prey across lakes.

Behaviour

Tigers are essentially solitary and territorial animals. The size of a tiger's home range mainly depends on prey abundance, and, in the case of male tigers, on access to females. A tigress may have a territory of 20 square kilometres while the territories of males are much larger, covering 60–100 km2. The ranges of males tend to overlap those of several females. The relationships between individuals can be quite complex, and it appears that there is no set "rule" that tigers follow with regards to territorial rights and infringing territories. For instance, although for the most part tigers avoid each other, both male and female tigers have been documented sharing kills.

Male tigers are generally more intolerant of other males within their territory than females are of other females. For the most part, however, territorial disputes are usually solved by displays of intimidation, rather than outright aggression. Several such incidents have been observed, in which the subordinate tiger yielded defeat by rolling onto its back, showing its belly in a submissive posture. Once dominance has been established, a male may actually tolerate a subordinate within his range, as long as they do not live in too close quarters. The most violent disputes tend to occur between two males when a female is in oestrus, and may result in the death of one of the males, although this is actually a relatively rare occurrence

To identify his territory, the male marks trees by spraying of urine and anal gland secretions, as well as marking trails with scat. Males show a grimacing face, called the Flehmen response, when identifying a female's reproductive condition by sniffing their urine markings. Like the other Panthera  cats, tigers can roar. Tigers will roar for both aggressive and non-aggressive reasons. Other tiger vocal communications include moans, hisses, growls and chuffs.

Diet

Tigers are carnivores at the top of the food chain. In Siberia the main prey species are manchurian wapiti, wild boar, sika deer, moose, roe deer, and musk deer. In Sumatra - Sambar, Muntjac, Wild Boar, and Malayan Tapir are preyed on. Like many predators, they are opportunistic and will eat much smaller prey, such as Monkeys, Peafowls, Hares, and Fish. Tigers usually hunt at night. They generally hunt alone and ambush their prey as most other cats do, overpowering them from any angle, using their body size and strength to knock large prey off balance.

Prey List of Indian Tiger consists of :

• Spotted Deer.
• Nilgai Antelope.
• Wild Pig.
• Wild Buffalo.
• Indian Bison.
• Langur.
• Elk.
• Python.
• Elephant Calf.
• Sometimes they will eat what ever they can catch like Frogs, Turtles, Fish, or Birds.
• Although tigers do occasionally prey on humans, this is extremely rare. Such Tigers are known as 'Man-Eaters'. They tend to kill human because they are unable to hunt their natural prey because of old age, sickness or injury. Humans are easy to hunt in such a condition. Healthy tigers generally avoid contact with humans.

Reproduction

Mating can occur all year round, but is generally more common between November and April. A female is only receptive for a few days and mating is frequent during that time period. A pair will copulate frequently and noisily, like other cats. The gestation period is 16 weeks. The litter size usually consists of around 3–4 cubs of about 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) each, which are born blind and helpless. The females rear them alone, sheltering them in dens such as thickets and rocky crevices. The father of the cubs generally takes no part in rearing them. Unrelated wandering male tigers may even kill cubs to make the female receptive, since the tigress may give birth to another litter within 5 months if the cubs of the previous litter are lost. The mortality rate of tiger cubs is fairly high - approximately half do not survive to be more than two years old.

Colour Variations

White Tiger - Apart from the distinct difference between subspecies of the Tiger, there exist a mutation among Tigers which produces White coloured Tigers. Their fur is white or almost white. A White Tiger's pale colouration is caused by the presence of a recessive gene. White pelage is most closely associated with the Bengal, or Indian subspecies. White tigers are not albinos  and do not constitute a separate subspecies  of their own and can breed with orange ones, although (approx.) half of the resulting offspring will be heterozygous  for the recessive white gene, and their fur will be orange. The only exception would be if the orange parent was itself already a heterozygous tiger, which would give each cub a 50% chance of being either double-recessive white or heterozygous orange. If two heterozygous tigers, or heterozygotes, breed on average 25% of their offspring will be white, 50% will be heterozygous orange (white gene carriers) and 25% will be homozygous orange, with no white genes. If two white tigers breed, 100% of their cubs will be homozygous white tigers. A tiger which is homozygous for the white gene may also be heterozygous or homozygous for many different genes. The question of whether a tiger is heterozygous (a heterozygote) or homozygous (a homozygote) depends on the context of which gene is being discussed. Inbreeding  promotes homozygosity and has been used as a strategy to produce white tigers.

Stripeless White Tigers - An additional genetic condition can remove most of the striping of a white tiger, making the animal almost pure white. The modern strain of snow white tigers came from repeated brother–sister matings of Bhim and Sumita at Cincinnati Zoo. The gene involved may have come from a Siberian tiger, via their part-Siberian ancestor Tony. Continued inbreeding appears to have caused a recessive gene for stripelessness to show up. About one fourth of Bhim and Sumita's offspring were stripeless. Their striped white offspring, which have been sold to zoos around the world, may also carry the stripeless gene. Because Tony's genome is present in many white tiger pedigrees, the gene may also be present in other captive white tigers. As a result, stripeless white tigers have appeared in zoos as far afield as the Czech Republic, Spain and Mexico.

Golden Tabby Tigers - In addition, another recessive gene may create a very unusual "Golden Tabby" colour variation, sometimes known as "Strawberry." Golden tabby Tigers have light gold fur, pale legs and faint orange stripes. Their fur tends to be much thicker than normal. There are extremely few golden tabby tigers in captivity, around 30 in all. Like White tigers, Strawberry Tigers are invariably at least part Bengal. Some Golden Tabby Tigers, called Heterozygous Tigers, carry the White Tiger gene, and when two such Tigers are mated, can produce some stripeless white offspring. Both White and Golden Tabby Tigers tend to be larger than average Bengal tigers.

Extinct Species

So far this century, three Tiger subspecies have been driven to extinction.

These include:

• The Bali Tiger (Panthera tigris balica) - It was limited to the island of Bali. They were the smallest of all tiger subspecies, with a weight of 90–100 kg in males and 65–80 kg in females. These tigers were hunted to extinction—the last Balinese tiger is thought to have been killed at Sumbar Kima, West Bali on 27 September 1937; this was an adult female. No Balinese tiger was ever held in captivity.

• The Javan Tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) - It was limited to the Indonesian island of Java. It is considered that this subspecies became extinct in the 1980s, as a result of hunting and habitat destruction. The last confirmed specimen was sighted in 1979, but there were a few reported sightings during the 1990s. They weighed about 100–141 kg for males and 75–115 kg for females.

• Caspian Tiger (formerly Panthera tigris virgata) - It found in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, the Caucasus, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan  until it apparently became extinct  in the late 1950s. They are also known as the Persian Tiger or Turanian Tiger. They were the westernmost population of Siberian Tiger. Though originally thought to have been a distinct subspecies, genetic research in 2009 suggest that the animal was largely identical to the Siberian tiger.

In Folklore and Culture

The Tiger is one of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals. Also in various Chinese art and martial art, the Tiger is depicted as an earth symbol and equal rival of the Chinese dragon- the two representing matter and spirit respectively. In fact, the Southern Chinese martial art Hung Ga is based on the movements of the Tiger and the Crane.

The widely worshipped Hindu goddess Durga, an aspect of Devi-Parvati, is a ten-armed warrior who rides the Tigress (or lioness) Damon into battle.

The Tiger continues to be a subject in literature; both Rudyard Kipling, in The Jungle Book, and William Blake, in Songs of Experience, depict the tiger as a menacing and fearful animal. In The Jungle Book, the Tiger, Shere Khan, is the wicked mortal enemy of the protagonist, Mowgli.

However, other depictions are more benign: Tigger, the tiger from A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories, is cuddly and likable. In the Man Booker Prize winning novel "Life of Pi," the protagonist, Pi Patel, sole human survivor of a ship wreck in the Pacific Ocean, befriends another survivor: a large Bengal Tiger.

The famous comic strip Calvin and Hobbes features Calvin and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes. A tiger is also featured on the cover of the popular cereal Frosted Flakes (also marketed as "Frosties") bearing the name "Tony the Tiger".

The Tiger is the national animal of Bangladesh, Nepal, India (Bengal Tiger), Malaysia (Malayan Tiger), North Korea and South Korea (Siberian Tiger).