The Tiger

Yes, the tiger is the largest hunter of any kind to stalk the earth today . And of all the tiger species, the largest is the Siberian because they have evolved in the cold Far East of Russia where size matters in order to maintain body temperature. The tiger is the largest member of the cat family, and its immense power enables it to kill almost any kind of hooved animal up to large wild cattle. The difference in size between the tiger and the leopard and the subservience of the leopard to the tiger is dramatically shown in this excellent photograph. And note that the tiger regards the common leopard as a prey animal. There is no 'cat agreement' to leave each alone. When hunting the final dash has to be relatively short because of the tiger's immense weight. The tiger can maintain top speed for around 30 metres.  It delivers a massive blow with its front paw to knock the animal down except for the very large prey animals. Once down the tiger grabs the animal in its front cl...

This one is an easy question to answer. It is to do with evolution. So, you have to believe in Darwin's theory of evolution to believe the answer. Siberian tigers live in colder climates than Bengal and Sumatran tigers. They live in the far north, in fact, the far east of Russia near Vladivostok. They live in the snow and birch tree forests.  Siberian tiger. Image: MikeB They need to be able to protect themselves against the extreme cold which is why through natural selection they have evolved to be bigger because this gives them a smaller surface area-to-volume ratio which helps to reduce heat loss from the body of the animal. As more body heat is conserved, they are warmer which helps them to survive. Evolution is an act of survival. It is known as Bergmann's Rule. So, animals living in the North of the planet where temperatures are considerably lower will generally be larger. Conversely, animals living near the equator will be smaller and this applies to the Sumatran tiger w...

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...