The Tiger

A point worth noting is that tigers in the south are quite different in appearance to those in the north of planet. So, I am comparing the very rare and endangered Sumatran and Indonesian tigers with the Amur tiger and even the Bengal tiger which not only lives throughout India in reserves but also on the foothills of Bhutan 4,000 meters above sea level.  Map showing approximate location of northern and southern tiger subspecies. There is a gradual increase in size as you go north. The larger size helps tigers to conserve body heat in cold climates while the opposite is true in hotter climates. Image: MikeB The difference between the 'southern tigers' and those in the north are as follows. The differences are due to evolution. They are considerably smaller. For example, in tropical areas adult male tigers average about 2.2-2.5 metres in length which is about half a metre shorter than males from northern areas. They weigh only 100-140 kg. Adult females in tropical areas weigh be...

It may baffle some people as to how the tiger's coat can possibly be good camouflage to help it stalk prey. The bright orange background colour and the dense black stripes just look too stark to be good camouflage. And the tiger lives in the jungle doesn't it, and the jungle is green? How can orange be camouflage when the landscape is green? When it can for two reasons. To prey animals the colour is not orange Fairly recently, in 2019, it has been decided that some prey animals - particularly deer a classic prey animal of the tiger - suffer from what humans would regard as colour blindness because they can only detect blue and green light and not red light. Because of this, the bright orange tiger coat looks grey or a green/grey. The images below give us an impression as to how a tiger might look in a jungle environment. How a prey animal might see a tiger as they are colour blind to red. Image: MikeB How a prey animal might see a tiger as they are colour blind to red. Image: D...

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...