The Tiger

We are not sure whether tigers can recognise each other but it seems likely that they can because the stripes and marks on a tiger's face and body are unique to each individual. Scientists have identified tigers through their stripes when carrying out studies. And tigers can recognise other tigers it is believed both through these facial markings and because of their scent (body odour). Tigers can recognise each other from their facial markings and body scent. Image: vadaka1986 (I have changed the background to make it a little more interesting.  Perhaps it is not unreasonable to suggest that confirmation of the identity of a tiger by another might be achieved through their vocalisations. Tigers have several close-range vocalisations for reassurances, appeasement and greeting including where needed, aggression. Both the friendly and threatening vocalisations are conducted with accompanying body language and facial expressions. For instance, the prusten and grunts are friendly sound...

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...

How many stripes do tigers have? Well it depends on the subspecies. I don't have figures for the whole of the cat but for the flank area. Here they are: The source material is: Riding the tiger: tiger conservation in human-dominated landscapes By John Seidensticker and the authors obtained the information from the National History Museum and from photographs in Mazák (1996). Great Cats by edited by Seidensticker and Lumpkin says that the Chinese tiger has the fewest stripes. Next fewest are on the Amur tiger then the Bengal tiger, then the Indochinese tiger. The island subspecies have the most stripes.