TIGER
Scientific name:Panthera tigris
The tiger a member of the Felidae family, is the largest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera.
Range and habitat
The tiger‘s native is eastern and southern Asia.The Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is found through the forests and grasslands of Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India and Nepal. It is the national animal of India.
Physical characteristics
Males in the wild usually weigh 205 to 227 kg (450 to 500 lb), while the average female will weigh about 141 kg. Aside from their great bulk and power, their most recognisable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes that overlays near-white to reddish-orange fur, with lighter underparts.
Tigers have a lifespan of 10–15 years in the wild, but can live longer than 20 years in captivity.
Tigers hunt alone, and their diet consists primarily of medium-sized herbivores such as barking deer, sambar, elk, chital, swamp deer, red deer, rusa deer, wild pigs and buffalo, but they will also take larger prey if the circumstances demand it.The Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is found through the forests and grasslands of Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India and Nepal. It is the national animal of India.
Subspecies
There are nine recent subspecies of tiger, three of which are extinct.
The Bengal tiger is found in India as well as Bangladesh and it is known to live both in the heated areas of desert and the grasslands where it is wet and cool.
The siberian tiger is the largest of all tigers. As its name implies, it inhabits the region of siberia in Russia.
You will find the Sumatran Tiger in the island of Sumatra. The Sumatran Tiger is smaller than other species of tigers.
The Malayan Tiger is only found around the Malayan Pennisula which is where the name comes from
The Indochinese Tiger is found in areas of Vietnam, Thailand, China, and Cambodia.
The South China Tiger features a very vibrant color of orange with black stripes on it.
· The Balinese Tiger became extinct in 1937 and until that time they resided on the Island of Bali. In the 1950’s the Caspian Tiger became extinct.
· The Javan tiger limited to the Indonesian island of Java. It now seems likely that this subspecies became extinct in the 1980s, as a result of hunting and habitat destruction, but the extinction of this subspecies was extremely probable from the 1950s onwards (when it is thought that fewer than 25 tigers remained in the wild). The last confirmed specimen was sighted in 1979, but there were a few reported sightings during the 1990s.
· The Caspian Tiger also known as the Persian tiger or Turanian tiger was the westernmost population of Siberian tiger, found in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, the Caucasus,Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan until it apparently became extinct in the late 1950s.
Colour variations-White tiger
There is a well-known mutation that produces the white tiger, technically known as chinchilla albinistic, an animal which is rare in the wild, but widely bred in zoos due to its popularity. Breeding of white tigers will often lead to inbreeding (as the trait is recessive). Many initiatives have taken place in white and orange tiger mating in an attempt to remedy the issue, often mixing subspecies in the process. Such inbreeding has led to white tigers having a greater likelihood of being born with physical defects, such as cleft palates andscoliosis (curvature of the spine).
Reproduction;
Females reach sexual maturity at 3–4 years, whereas males reach sexual maturity at 4–5 years.Mating can occur all year round,A female is only receptive for a few days and mating is frequent during that time period. The gestation period is 16 weeks. The litter size usually consists of around 3–4 cubs of about 1 kilogram . each, which are born blind and helpless. The females rear them alone, sheltering them in dens such as thickets and rocky crevices.The cubs become independent around 18 months of age, but it is not until they are around 2–2½ years old that they leave their mother.
Life expectancy
Tigers have a lifespan of 10–15 years in the wild, but can live longer than 20 years in captivity.
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