Animal Unique | Tiger | Tiger is the largest cat in the world and the world's largest tiger sub-species is the Siberian tiger. It is estimated weight of the male is 500 pounds and the female is 300 pounds. The average length of the male tiger is 10 meters and the female 8 feet. The average height of a tiger is 3 feet. The appearance of the tiger depends largely on where the animal lives. Tigers once ranged widely across Asia, from Turkey in the west to the east coast of Russia.Today, they range from the Siberian taiga and grasslands to tropical mangrove swamps to open.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Panthera
Species: P. tigris
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Panthera
Species: P. tigris
Tigers have muscular bodies with a very powerful front legs and big heads. The coat color varies from shades of orange or brown with white belly areas and distinctive black stripes. The face has long whiskers, which are especially long in males. The pupils are round and yellow irises. The pattern of stripes is unique to each animal, these unique markers are used by researchers to identify individuals, much the same way that fingerprints are used to identify people. It seems likely that the function of stripes is camouflage, serve to help tigers to hide under the dappled shadows and long grass of their environment as they stalk their prey.
Tigers that live in cold regions are paler in color and larger in size, their coat is long and thick. The tiger is the most variable in size of all big cats, even more than the leopard and much more so than lions. In warmer climates, tigers are smaller and more colorful, they have shorter, thinner fur. The fur on the back of the tiger is very thick and pale stripes. The color of the Siberian tiger is yellow-brown, while the Indian tiger is brown. The stripes on a tiger are very dark. Like all cats, tigers have sharp claws and teeth.
Tigers usually stalk their prey alone and at night. To kill, the tiger leaps on the animal, biting his neck. It takes the slain animal is a hidden place. If a large animal, the tiger feeds on it for many days. During this time, the tiger is not dead. Tigers hunt deer, elk, rabbits, birds, fish, bears, moose, lynx, hares, pigs, cattle, goats, and several smaller animals. The main food of tigers are buffalos, antelopes and rodents. Tigers can work quickly and silently. Jump with ease, tigers can cover 15 feet (4.5 meters) in a jump, they can jump great distances over obstacles and land. The tiger rarely climbs trees, but swims well.
Young tigers or cubs are born 100 to 112 days after the parents have covered. Usually tiger cubs are born between February and May after a gestation of three and a half months. The cub weighs less than three pounds at birth and are striped. The cubs' eyes open in 15 to 16 days. a nest consists of 1 to 4 young, sometimes up to 6, but only 2 to 3 survive. The mother is responsible for defending her cubs, while the father hunts for food. Tiger cubs are weaned after 4 to 6 months, but dependent on their mother for food and protection for another 2 years the new males entering a female tiger territories can kill her her cubs. Cubs learn how to kill at 16 months, and they are on their own in 2 to 3 years. The white ear spots help the mother tigers and cubs to keep track of each other in dark woods at night. Life spans of tigers is 15 to 16 years. In zoos, tigers can live from 20 years old, but they rarely meet this old to be in the wild.
Tigers may kill such formidable predators as leopards, pythons and even crocodiles occasionally, but most predators avoid each other. The tiger has few enemies, except humans, they are large buffaloes, elephants and bears. The defense against other animals that may attack the large claws and powerful teeth. Tigers are excellent swimmers and climbers, who will save them from floods and other disasters, but also protect them against their enemies. The tiger is a very cautious animal, does not like to hunt elephants or larger animals than itself, unless very hungry, or if the boy or itself were attacked.
The main enemy of the tiger is humankind. They are trapped, poisoned and hunted heavily by humans not only to eliminate cattle, but also for sport, trophies, skins, and sources of traditional medical products. Superstition has surrounded tigers for centuries; their body parts are used in Asian medicines. Neck of the Latvian tiger claws are thought to protect a child against the "evil eye", tiger whiskers are considered either a dreadful poison, a powerful aphrodisiac, or an aid to childbirth, bones, fat, liver and penis of a tiger are valued as medicines.
Tiger is one of the Big Five game of Asia. Tiger hunting took place on a large scale in the beginning of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, who have recognized and admired sport by the British in colonial India and the maharajas and aristocratic class of the former princely states of pre-independence India. The Bengal tiger is the national animal of India and Bangladesh. The Malayan tiger is the national animal of Malaysia. The Siberian tiger is the national animal of South Korea. The tiger replaces the lion as king of the beasts in cultures of East Asia royalty, fearlessness and wrath.
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