Ricky's TIGER FACTS

    Panthera tigris is the scientific name for TIGER.  It is also Latin.  The common names for TIGER in other languages are: Hindi: Bagh, Sher; Nepali: Bagh; Indonesian: Harimau, Macan; Malay: Harimu; Chinese: Wu, Lao Hu; Lao: Seua; Vietnamese: Cop; Thai: Seua; Korean: Ho Lang-ee.   

    Panthera is Latin for "roaring" cats, (therefore, I am not a Panthera).  These cats are specialised predators of large mammals.  They prey on hoofed prey, such as deer and antelope.  This would also make these cats carnivores in that they eat vertebrates, and to be more specific, they are hypercarnivores because their diet consists almost entirely of other vertebrates.  Cats, both like me and tigers, cannot be omnivory (eating a mixed diet of fruits, nuts, and insects) because our digestive systems is only adaptive to eating meat.  Tigers have strong jaws.  Their jaws are so strong they can drag prey which would take more than twelve men to carry. 

    A female tiger has a gestation period of 100-106 days, whereas humans have a gestation period of about 270 days.  A tiger cub is considered a mature tiger when s/he is 20-24 months old.  Mature means they are of full size, and ready to live on there own.  Kitties, like I, are considered full grown after 12 months, and are actually able to leave our mothers, if we were feral, at about 6 months of age.   Most adult tiger females give birth about every 2 to 2.5 years. Periodically, the interval between births is every three to four years.  If a litter of newborns dies, a female can produce another litter within five months. Two to four cubs are normally born per litter, but litter size can vary from one to six cubs.  

    Longetivity for a tiger is about 15, or more, years in the wild and about 20, or more, years in captivity (in parks).

   Tigers like water, unlike most kitties like I!  I sleep in the bathroom sink sometimes and don't mind a little drop of water sometimes, but I certainley would not do anything rash, like swim or anything.  But, tigers use the swamps and lakes on their territory to cool off during the day. 

   Tigers weigh quite a bit.  I am a big kitty, but a male tiger can weigh  at least TEN times more than I.  Here are some example weights from two different sub-species of the Panthera tigris (the Sumatran tiger represent the smaller tigers, while the Bengal tiger represent the larger tigers):

    Tigers are pretty lengthy as well.  Again, using the same two sub-species, here are their lengths:

    A tiger's stripes are like a human's fingerprints.  They are used as a way of identification and each are unique to each individual tiger.  Though each tiger has her/his own unique pattern, tigers that belong in the same sub-species look similar.  It is a lot like how all tabby cats, like I, have markings shaped as an "M" on our forehead or how Asian humans have eyes that are more squinted than humans from other parts of the World.  Here are some examples, using again, the same sub-species above:

    Some people often wonder how the white tiger has come to be.  This is just basic genetics: a basic genetic code for a orange tiger is either 1 orange gene (dominant) and 1 white gene (recessive), or, 2 orange genes.  So, depending on which genetic code each parent holds, there may be a white tiger coming from two orange parents.  It is much harder and a more complicated genetic formula for an orange cub to come from two white parents, but it is possible. 

    There are FIVE sub-species of the tiger.  Sadly, there use to be eight.  The five still in existance are:

            1.  The Amur tiger (Siberian tiger): Panthera tigris altaica

            2.  The Bengal tiger: Panthera tigris tigris

            3.  The Indochinese tiger: Panthera tigris corbetti

            4.  The South China tiger: Panthera tigris amoyensis

            5.  The Sumatran tiger: Panthera tigris sumatrae

   The three sub-species that are now extinct are:

            1.  The Bali tiger: Panthera tigris balica

            2.  The Javan tiger: Panthera tigris sondaica

            3.  The Caspian tiger: Panthera tigris virgata

    These three sub-species will be sadly missed for the beauty they once provided for the world.  The two main reasons why these tigers (and other endangered animals) come to be extinct will be further explained by Daemon and Serenity, but I can tell that they are illegal poaching and habitat destruction.  The ways the public, like you, can help in saving these beautiful animals (and others in their difficult position) will be explained by Wynter. 

    Here are some sobering numbers (taken in 1998) to take into account when thinking about how close the tiger is to extinction:

As you can see there are less tigers in the WORLD than most working, adult humans have in money in their bank accounts or in the form of luxeries.  This is a very scary reality. 

    The Amur tiger, Panthera tigris altaica, is found primarily in the Russian Far East; nearly extinct populations remain in northeast China and possibly North Korea. The Sumatran tiger, Panthera tigris sumatrae, is found only on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. The Indian or Bengal tiger, Panthera tigris tigris, is the most common subspecies of tiger and is found scattered in forests throughout India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar (Burma). The Indochinese tiger, Panthera tigris corbetti, is found in Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and South China. The South China tiger, Panthera tigris amoyensis, is found only in south-central China.

* map from Wild Cats: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan, compiled and edited by Kristin Nowell and Peter Jackson, (IUCN, 1996)

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