Tigers are the world’s largest cats. They are recognizable for their orange and black striped coats which cover their body. This coloration gives them camouflage when hunting at night.

To assist with hunting at night they have night vision which is six times better than that of humans.

A small spot of white fur is present on the back of the ears. The purpose of this is much debated. Some believe its represents eyes to discourage other animals from attacking them while others believe they help cubs to follow mom through the tall grass.

These animals are solitary outside of the breeding season. Males have an exclusive home range which takes in the range of between 1 and 3 females. The females do not have any overlap in their ranges. Their range is marked by scent marking and scratching trees.

In captivity tigers have been bred with lions to create a hybrid known as a liger or tigon.

The size of their range is determined by the availability of prey. When hunting they seize the prey around the neck and wait for it to suffocate.

Across all of the subspecies males are larger than females.

Tigers are one of the few cats which enjoy swimming and will bathe in rivers or lakes on days of warm weather.

A female tiger will give birth to multiple cubs at a time. An average litter includes two to four cubs. As many as half of the cubs born will not make it to two years old.

Tigers are threatened by the illegal wildlife trade. They are subjecting to heavy hunting to obtain their skin, bones and meats which are used in traditional medicines.

Significant human population growth across their range has led to increasing amounts of habitat destruction to provide room for housing, agriculture and as part of commercial logging operations. These have also brought humans and tigers in to contact more often which can lead to retaliatory killings if they attack livestock.

Less than 4,000 tigers are currently thought to remain in the wild. It is thought that around half of these live in India and are considered Bengal tigers.

In parts of the United States tigers are kept as pets. More tigers are thought to live in captivity in America than survive in the wild.

An Amur Tiger and it’s Cub (Panthera tigris altaica)

Public Domain

Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris)

Under License

Tiger Sub-Species – A full list of the 9 Sub-species

A Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae)

Copyright. The Animal Facts.

Species Profiles – A detailed fact file on some of the world’s Tiger species