A Tiger tale
The Tiger has marked its spot at the top of its food chain and made it as one of the animal worlds top models with its iconic striking orange and black colours.
This black and orange beast belongs to the felidae family along with your household cat and carries its own unique name of Panthera Tigris. Belonging to the panthera genus along with Lions, Leopards, jaguars and a few other big cats.
An obvious observation of this genus is that they all have a similar fearsome cat look about them, however the notorious name is gifted to animals with the ability to produce a roar as a result of a free floating hyoid bone at the back of their throat.
During some point in their evolution the ancestors of the tiger emigrated from Africa to Asia for a still unknown reason from here natural selection took place resulting in the animal we know today, the Tiger. There are numerous Tigers that have been known to exist including. There are only six species remaining.
The bengal tiger is the most common representing 50% of the little 4000 tigers estimated to be remaining in the wild.
Amur Tiger – (Distribution Southern Russian Far East and Northeast China)
Bengal Tiger – (Distribution India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh)
Malyan Tiger – (Distribution Malay Peninsula)
South China Tiger – (Native to Southern China, few individuals surviving in captivity)
Sumatran Tiger – (Distribution Indonesian island of Sumatra)
Indo-Chinese Tiger – (Distribution Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Southwest China)
Bali Tiger – Extinct 1937 – (Bali island)
Javan Tiger- Extinct 1970 – (Java island)
Caspian Tiger – Recorded in the wild before the end of 20th century. (Distribution around Caspian Sea, Turkey and Northern Iran)
The earliest Tiger fossils to date where discovered at 2 million years old in south east Asia.
On average Tigers weigh on average 450 pounds, the Siberian tiger however (the largest of the species) can grow up to 660 pounds making them the biggest big cat, outcompeting the African lion for size due to its far denser muscle mass. Tigers have a few anatomical features which make them experts in their field.
For example their webbed toes allow them to thrive in water, having an impressive jaw stricture and muscular capability allowing them to produce 1000 pounds of bite force. This enables them to hunt wild pigs, buffalo, antelope and deer. They will also target smaller prey such as fish, snakes, monkeys and rodents. To sustain themselves the Tiger needs to eat from around 4% to 7% of their body mass in order to survive.
Due to vast deforestation, development and poaching many tigers have been lost with a reduction of one hundred thousand to four thousand since the start of the 20th century. Keep updated on our feed to read more detail on this and some success stories that have began to combat some of these problems.
