Tigers

Tigers are a presentation of bravery and intelligence in many

cultures.

Tigers vary in colour, size, and markings according to their

subspecies. Bengal tigers, which inhabit the forests of India, have
the quintessential tiger appearance, with a dark orange coat, black
stripes, and a white underbelly. The largest of all the tiger
subspecies, Siberian tigers are lighter in colour and have a thicker
coat that enables them to brave the harsh, cold temperatures of
the Russian taiga.
HABITAT
Tigers are native to South and Southeast Asia, China, India, and the
Russian Far East. Tigers inhabit a wide range of habitats such as
lowland evergreen forests, taiga, grasslands, tropical forests, and
mangrove swamps. They require habitat with covers such as forests
or grasslands, water resources, and enough territory to support their
prey.
BEHAVIOUR
Tigers are solitary and territorial. Within their territory, a tiger may
have several dens in caves, hollow trees, and dense vegetation. This
is an instinctive behaviour that allows them to protect themselves
from danger. They can hide easily from harm. To show
happiness, tigers squint or close their eyes. This is because losing
vision lowers defence, so tigers (and many other cats) only
purposefully do so when they feel comfortable and safe. Tigers are
solitary creatures, and it is rare to see the group in the wild.
Diet & Hunting
Tigers mostly feed on larger and medium-sized animals. They
can also prey on leopards, pythons, sloth bears, and
crocodiles. Like many predators, they are opportunistic and will
eat much smaller prey, such as monkeys, peafowl, hares, and
fish. Tigers eat a variety of prey ranging in size from termites to
elephant calves. However, an integral component of their diet is
large-bodied prey weighing about 20 kg (45 lbs.) or larger such
as moose, deer species, pigs, cows, horses, buffalos, and
goats.
Tigers usually hunt at night. They ambush their prey overpowering
them from any angle, using their body size and strength to knock
large prey off balance. A learned behaviour through habituation that
allows tigers to be more successful in hunting their prey.
When hunting large prey, tigers prefer to bite the throat and use their
forelimbs to hold onto the prey, bringing it to the ground. Tigers are
capable of leaping 26 to 32 feet in a single jump. The tiger remains
 latched onto the neck until its prey dies of strangulation. With small
prey, the tiger bites the nape, often breaking the spinal cord, piercing
the windpipe, or severing the jugular vein or common carotid artery.
Their hunting behaviours allow them to survive against their prey.

Reproduction & Youthful age

The females rear the cubs, sheltering them in dens such as thickets
and rocky crevices protect the cubs, the female tigers shelter them.
The females also provide for the needs of her litter. Mating is an
instinctive behaviour for tigers to maintain their species. Male tigers
are known to feed the young, raise them, protect them, and even
play with subadult cubs. Each litter may have up to seven cubs,
but the average is three. Tigresses wait between 18 to 24 months
between births. They will start hunting on their own within their first
year, however, they do not leave their mother and establish their
territories until they reach three to five years old. About three and a
half months after mating with a male tiger, the female tiger gives
birth to her litter of cubs. She will usually choose a secluded spot
and covered to have her babies. Typically, the birth of a litter of cubs
takes about an hour, with cubs being born every 15 to 20 minutes.
 Anatomy and Body
The Scientific name for tigers is Panthera Tigris.
Tigers are the largest cats in the world. However, the size of each
subspecies depends on several factors like habitat, climate, food,
prey, and so on.
Tigers have a body design that allows them to move along
gracefully. They are also incredibly fast when it comes to hunting
their prey or getting themselves out of the way of danger. A full-
grown tiger can be up to eleven feet in length and weigh as much as
670 pounds. They have a very muscular build too which helps them
to take down prey that is many types heavier than they are. The
females are smaller than the males for all the varied species of
tigers.
 Hearing
The ear is the sharpest and best-developed sense of Tigers and
plays an important part during their hunting activities. In general, cats
have better capabilities than humans to perceive acute sounds, up to
60 kHz. Tigers have a maximum sensitivity of 300-500 Hz and can
hear infrasound’s that a person cannot listen to.
Sight
Another significant advantage of Tigers is their eyesight. They can
see just as well as humans during the day. However, at night their
capacity is six times better than ours making it much easier for to
them sneak up on their prey.
Their vision is binocular because of the position of the eyes on each
side of the head. This feature facilitates the calculation of distances
to their prey. They have more rod cells than cone cells; This means
that their vision in the dark is excellent and useful for detecting
movements. Like other animals, it has behind the retina a structure
called tapetum lucidum that amplifies light signals and consequently
improves night vision.
 Smell
In contrast to the ear, their sense of smell is not very sharp, so it
does not play a significant role in hunting. However, it is useful for
detecting odorous signs from other tigers. They have a modest
number of olfactory cells in the nose and an olfactory bulb in the
brain.
Taste
Within their oral cavity, they have only a few hundred taste buds that
are few compared to the thousands present in the tongue of a
human, but some think that they can perceive salty, acid, and bitter
flavours. It is not sure that they can taste sweet flavours.
Touch
Regarding their sense of touch, the skin, or the vibrissae, commonly
called whiskers, are the ways to perceive it. All Tigers have five
vibrissae with sensory nerves to orient themselves and detect
dangers and attacks. Also, the face has sensitive neurons that detect
changes in air pressure when an object pass.
Muscles in a Tiger

Skeleton of a Tiger