What is the natural or ideal habitat of the tiger?

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Tigers want and need access to large terrestrial animals as prey. Therefore what is good for these prey animals is good for the tiger. You'll find the highest density of tigers and the largest home range size where there is an abundance of large terrestrial prey. 

What is the natural or ideal habitat of the tiger?
 What is the natural or ideal habitat of the tiger? A habitat that supports its ideal prey
animal: large ungulates.

This is related to habitat diversity and primary productivity. 'Primary productivity' refers to the rate at which energy from sunlight is converted to organic substances by photosynthesis. 

This is a reference to the tiger food chain. Where the habitat is able to convert sunlight into an abundance of plants which feeds the herbivore prey animals of the tiger there will be an ideal and natural habitat for the tiger.

In practical terms this is where 'grassland and forest form a mosaic; a mix of vegetation types supports a rich ungulate community'. Ungulates are hoofed mammals.

Note: tigers are very adaptable and live in a wide range of habitats from landscapes of winter snow and -40 degrees celsius to hot mangrove swamps in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh.

Source: Wild Cats of the World page 346.

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