The Tiger

Tigers need an enormous amount of space when they live in the wild and I believe that they still need that kind of space when in captivity even if they were born in captivity because this need is inherited. I believe that it is hardwired into their DNA. On that basis life in a zoo for a tiger is uncomfortable, sterile and without enjoyment except intermittently. And I am referring to good zoos in the West. What about the crappy zoos in Asia where we see tigers pacing to survive mentally. It is horrible to see. I shake my head when I think of it because I don't know how people can put tigers through that kind of mental torture. Only ignorant people can do it. Tiger in captivity. Photo: Pixabay I do not believe that it makes any difference whether a tiger is born in captivity, in a zoo, or whether they are born in the wild. They need a certain amount of space in order to express their natural behaviour. It is an enormous amount of space. It depends upon where the tiger lives in the w...

I can call upon Mel and Fiona Sunquist again to answer the question in the title (Wild Cats of the World). In relying on the work of JLD Smith and C McDougal (1991 - The Contribution of variance in lifetime reproduction to effective population size in tigers ), they state unequivocally that ' tigers continue to grow and put on muscle until they are about five years old ; this prolonged period of growth is more evident in males than in females '. When do tigers become adults. At about 5. Photo: Pixabay So tigers become adults at around five years old. This reminds me the often quoted statement that the Maine Coon domestic cats becomes a mature adult at aged four. They, too, are relatively slow developers. Male tigers become sexually mature at three to four years of age and they normally take longer than females to acquire breeding territories. At about three years old females become sexually mature. They conceive about six months later. A tigress might have her first litter w...

Briefly, male and female tigers mark territory by cheek rubbing, claw raking, urine spraying, scraping with their hind feet, and through depositing uncovered and scattered faeces. In addition the male tiger also head rubs. Tiger cheek rubbing. Camera trap image in the public domain. In rubbing various parts of their anatomy against objects such as trees and rocks the tiger and tigress are depositing scent from their glands which are located at this areas of the bodies . The scent is picked up by other tigers who can recognise the other tiger by their scent and will know when they were there by the deterioration in the strength of the scent. These marking behaviours are very similar to those of the domestic cat as you will no doubt recognise. Not only are the tiger and cat very similar in their anatomy except for their size they are very similar in their general behaviour. "Scent is deposited as an odorous musky liquid known as 'marking fluid'". It is mixed with uri...

Here are two images which provide us with a tiger count for 2014 and the distribution of the tiger at the same date. It seems to me that the IUCN Red List's data stops at 2014. I have found this with other cat species. What is happening? A lot can change over 7 years. A hell of a lot in fact. The IUCN Red List needs to update its information annually at the very least. Am I missing the point or something? No idea. World tiger count at 2014 is 4,240 according to the guys who should know: IUCN Red List. This is a screenshot from their PDF file. I have taken a liberty in lifting these images from their PDF files but I do so for educational purposes. I was surprised that they came up with the number of 4,240 tigers left in the wild on the planet. That is more than I had thought. How accurate is their information? It is certainly out of date and it is an estimate. Can't trust it I am afraid. This information should be treated as guidelines only. Where was the tiger found in the w...

In answering the question I took a common sense approach. Taking one side of a tiger and counting the stripes on one side of the face, the stripes on one leg, the stripes on the flank, the stripes on the hind legs and the tail (counting half of them) I came up with around 60 stripes which I had to double making a predicted 120 stripes on a tiger!! Amur tiger. Image by TheOtherKev from Pixabay   That is pretty crude I guess. Essentially, I counted the stripes on one side and doubled it. The problem is that the stripes are not nice and neat. They are irregular and broken. This obviously makes counting them imprecise. They are actually stretched out spots. It is a bit like the mackerel tabby domestic cats. Their stripes are joined up dots. But I don't think the person asking the question would mind. I counted the stripes on a Sumatran tiger. I would expect the same result on other species of tiger, plus or minus around 10-20 stripes. It can't be an accurate process. ...

We are all familiar with the tiger's coat; its pattern of sharp dark stripes against a reddish-orange background with a splattering of white here and there. It looks as if it would not be good camouflage in the wild because in a cage it stands out very starkly. Some people ask why the tiger developed such a coat when it makes the animal more conspicuous. Image by Andreas Breitling from Pixabay   But nature finds a way to help with survival and evolution is always correct. There are perhaps three major points to make about the pattern and colour of the tiger's coat which justifies its creation through evolution. Variable habitat The tiger is found in a variety of habitats and sometimes it's a quite orange, warm coloured environment broken up by vegetation. The orange colour of the coat fits nicely into this landscape. Dappled sunlight The tiger is often in a forest setting under dappled sunlight shafting through the canopy of the trees and under these conditions th...

People are interested in the weight of tigers. They are the biggest cat on the planet after all. I have a page on the weight of all the wild cat species ranked in descending order which you can access by clicking here . I also have a page on the average weight of the tiger in pounds. It is a comprehensive page which you can access by clicking here . This page provides some insights. Bengal tiger size and weight. Image: PoC (MikeB). Mel and Fiona Sunquist in their excellent book Wild Cats of the World , published in 2002, make the point that it is difficult to find accurate information about the weights of tigers because the guys who hunted tigers didn't carry scales! They could measure the length of the tiger and the height to the shoulder, all that kind of stuff, but how were they going to weigh the animal? That presents a problem but we do have some data on this. They say that the heaviest Bengal tiger on record with a male that weighed 258.2 kg. They say that the weight is no...

When you use Google to search for the answer to the question, "Who shot the most tigers?" you are presented with the answer to a question about which tiger killed the most people. So much for Google search. I have told Google about this error. Picture in the public domain. My reference book, Wild Cats Of The World , might not tell me who shot the most tigers but it does tell me who shot a hell of a lot of tigers and it may be the answer I am seeking. There was a time when tigers were regarded as pests in India. I am referring to the Bengal tiger because that is the species of tiger which resides in India. And when they became pests because they interfered with people and the commercialisation of the landscape in India they were open to being shot as a popular pastime with army officers. Don't forget this was the time of the British Raj, the British Empire, which is in fact back in the news today because a lot of people consider the British Empire as a bad project where...

About 6,500 years ago the Chinese divided the sky into four parts in Chinese astrology. They are north, east, west, and south. Each section contains seven stars which look like images of four mythical creatures and Bai Hu is a white tiger in charge of the west of the sky. The white tiger is a symbol of loyalty, power, justice and bravery. It was used by the military in Chinese history such as on a flag and seal. It probably still is. Bai Hu mythical white tiger from Chinese mythology. Image: Pinterest. Bai Hu represents autumn and it was believed to be a reincarnation of the tiger star, Alpha, in the Milky Way. According to I Ching, the tiger symbolises Yin or evil and the dragon symbolises Yang or good.  It roughly corresponds with the prominent constellation of Orion that dominates the autumn and winter night sky. Fiona Sunquist in her book (with her husband Mel), Wild Cats of the World , writes that "the breath of the Tiger creates the wind and the breath of the dragon c...

Bottle of tiger bone wine. Photo: PoC. Hundreds of different, almost always, medicinal uses are made of various parts of the tiger's body. Here are some examples. The fat is thought to be a tonic for rheumatism; The fat is prized as an aphrodisiac; The flesh gives courage and strength to those who eat it; The floating collarbone or clavicle is believed to be a powerful charm against evil; The heart is eaten to give strength, courage and cunning; The brain is mixed with oil and rubbed on the body to cure laziness and acne; The penis is meant to be a sexual tonic; The skin is valued as a trophy and can be worn as clothing as a symbol of wealth; The bones are a treatment of ulcers, malaria, typhoid, dysentery, burns, arthritis and rheumatism; The bones are also a treatment for impotence and a lowered libido; The humerus bone i.e. the upper front leg bone has the most potent of all healing powers. The bones are ground down to a powder. Then, used in pills, plasters and as a part of rem...

How much do tigers sleep? I think the question is a weak one because the response is dependent upon so many factors. It depends, for example, on how successful a tiger has been in finding food and that in turn depends upon the amount of prey in the area in which it resides. It also depends upon the age of the tiger. The internet quite boldly states that tigers sleep for about 18-20 hours a day but I'm not sure about that answer. Sleeping or snoozing tiger in captivity. Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay   For instance, the best reference work that I have on the tiger states (and I will quote verbatim if I may): "The usual daily round of a tiger is to commence questing for food shortly before sunset and to continue doing so all night. In this questing, they go at a slow walk often following the beds of nalas and jungle roads, especially so in cold weather when cover is dense and the grass is wet and cold". The quote is from Dunbar Brander in his work Wild Anima...

Cool Cat is one of the very rare tiger cartoon characters. There certainly aren't many of them. Jeff Rovin in The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Cartoon Animals tells us that Cool Cat was a "Late entry into the Warner Brothers theatrical cartoon stable". Cool Cat a hip, bipedal Bengal tiger cartoon character. Image: MikeB from Wikipedia commons. He was a bipedal hep (hip) Bengal tiger. He wears a collar and necktie. He first appeared in Cool Cat in 1967 in which he is hunted by the "ineffectual Colonel Rimfire". The colonel travels through the jungle on a four-wheel drive robotic elephant named Ella! Col Rimfire tries again in Big Game Haunt in which he pursues the tiger into a haunted house were both of them were terrified by Spooky the ghost. Rimfire always comes out the loser in subsequent cartoons featuring a circus and a Grand Prix. Cool Cat also has adventures at college in Bugged by a Bee . In that cartoon he impresses the girls with his athletic prow...

Tigers will kill any animal that puts itself in a vulnerable position and there are few animals which the tiger avoids and does not try and kill. Elephants and rhinoceroses are rarely killed. But tigers have a tendency to attack and kill animals which are considerably larger than themselves. In fact they need large prey items in order to consume enough flesh to survive in relative comfort. Massive Indian bison can kill a tiger and you can see why. Photo in public domain. However, large prey animal such as water buffalo and Indian bison (gaur) can be very formidable, dangerous and there are records of tigers being killed by these animals often after a gruesome and deadly struggle. Scientists have recorded these events and I can repeat a couple of their accounts here. A scientist called Anderson reported a long battle in which an Indian bison repeatedly gored and trampled to death a tiger. The undergrowth where the battle happened was trodden down and flattened. "The undergrowth ...

Yes, tigers mark their territory like any other cat species including the domestic cat. One way they mark territory is to desposit scent from glands on their cheeks as you can see in the video. They reach up to a tree or a rock and rub their cheeks against the object.  This is Boris, a Siberian tiger released into the wild by Putin. Boris has hundreds of square miles in which to roam with very little if no competition due to the scarcity of Siberian tigers. Land tenure is part of the social system of the tiger. Both male and females communicate with a combination of scent marks, visual signals and vocalisations. Scent marks are probably the most important. "Marking fluid" is deposited. It is a musky liquid. It is often mixed with urine and sprayed backward onto upright objects. We see domestic cats doing the same thing. Scent may be deposited on faeces from the anal glands. The liquid secreted by these lands is similar to that in their urine. And, as you can see in...