Information

Adult Tigers are l.8-2.8 metres long and weigh up to 272kg. Tigers are the largest living cats. The black stripes on the tawny coat provide effective camouflage in the tiger's forest habitat. Background colour ranges from pale in Siberia to deep fawn in Bengal. White Tigers are not a separate species or sub-species, but originated from a wild caught white Indian Tiger.

Tigers are an endangered species; only about 4,870 to 7,300 tigers are left in the wild. Three tiger subspecies, which are now extinct are: the Bali, Javan, and Caspian tigers. 

 They have become so over the last 70 years.

People admire the tiger for its strength and beauty, but they fear it because they are known to kill human beings, yet almost all-wild tigers avoid people.

Probably only 3 or 4 out of every 1000 tigers eat people and most of these are sick or wounded animals, that can no longer hunt large prey. Wild tigers are found mostly in India. Until the 1800’s many lived throughout most of the southern half of the continent. Tigers still live in some of these areas, but only a few are left. People have greatly reduced their number by hunting them and by clearing the forest in which they lived. Today wild life experts consider the tiger an endangered species. 

 

Tigers can live in almost any climate. They need only shade, water and prey. They are found in the hot rain forest of Malaya, the dark thorny woods of India, and the cold, snowy, spruce forest of Manchuria. They also live in oak woods, tall grassland, swamps, and marshes. Tiger prefers to be in shadows and seldom go into open country as Lions do.