The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a member of the genus ''
Panthera
''Panthera'' is a genus within the family Felidae that was named and described by Lorenz Oken in 1816 who placed all the spotted cats in this group. Reginald Innes Pocock revised the classification of this genus in 1916 as comprising the tiger ...
'' and the largest living
cat
The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...
species native to
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...
. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is traditionally classified into nine
recent
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene together ...
subspecies, though some recognise only two subspecies, mainland Asian tigers and the island tigers of the
Sunda Islands
The Sunda Islands ( id, Kepulauan Sunda) are a group of islands in the Malay Archipelago.Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sunda Islands" . ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. They consist of the Greater Sun ...
.
Throughout the tiger's range, it inhabits mainly forests, from
conifer
Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ex ...
ous and
temperate broadleaf and mixed forest
Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions.
These f ...
s in the
Russian Far East
The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admin ...
and
Northeast China
Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of ...
to
tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Description
TSMF is generally found in large, disco ...
on the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India ...
and
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
. The tiger is an
apex predator
An apex predator, also known as a top predator, is a predator at the top of a food chain, without natural predators of its own.
Apex predators are usually defined in terms of trophic dynamics, meaning that they occupy the highest trophic le ...
and preys mainly on
ungulate
Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Ungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. These include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraff ...
s, which it takes by ambush. It lives a mostly solitary life and occupies
home range
A home range is the area in which an animal lives and moves on a periodic basis. It is related to the concept of an animal's territory which is the area that is actively defended. The concept of a home range was introduced by W. H. Burt in 1943. H ...
s, defending these from individuals of the same sex. The range of a male tiger overlaps with that of multiple females with whom he mates. Females give birth to usually two or three cubs that stay with their mother for about two years. When becoming independent, they leave their mother's home range and establish their own.
Since the early 20th century, tiger populations have lost at least 93% of their historic range and are
locally extinct
Local extinction, also known as extirpation, refers to a species (or other taxon) of plant or animal that ceases to exist in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinct ...
in
West
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
and
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former ...
, in large areas of
China and on the islands of
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...
and
Bali
Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
. Today, the tiger's range is severely fragmented. It is listed as
Endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...
on the
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, as its range is thought to have declined by 53% to 68% since the late 1990s. Major threats to tigers are
habitat destruction
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...
and
fragmentation
Fragmentation or fragmented may refer to:
Computers
* Fragmentation (computing), a phenomenon of computer storage
* File system fragmentation, the tendency of a file system to lay out the contents of files non-continuously
* Fragmented distributi ...
due to
deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then land conversion, converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban area, urban ...
,
poaching
Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights.
Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set ag ...
for fur and the illegal trade of body parts for medicinal purposes. Tigers are also victims of
human–wildlife conflict
Human–wildlife conflict (HWC) refers to the negative interactions between human and wild animals, with undesirable consequences both for people and their resources, on the one hand, and wildlife and their habitats on the other ( IUCN 2020). HW ...
as they attack and prey on livestock in areas where natural prey is scarce. The tiger is legally protected in all range countries. National conservation measures consist of action plans,
anti-poaching patrols and schemes for monitoring tiger populations. In several range countries,
wildlife corridor
A wildlife corridor, habitat corridor, or green corridor is an area of habitat (ecology), habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities or structures (such as roads, development, or logging). This allows an exchange of i ...
s have been established and tiger reintroduction is planned.
The tiger is among the most popular of the world's
charismatic megafauna
Charismatic megafauna are animal species that are large—in the relevant category that they represent—with symbolic value or widespread popular appeal, and are often used by environmental activists to gain public support for environmentalist g ...
. It has been kept in captivity since ancient times and has been trained to perform in
circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and uni ...
es and other entertainment shows. The tiger featured prominently in the ancient
mythology
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...
and
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, r ...
of cultures throughout its historic range and has continued to
appear in culture worldwide.
Etymology
The
Old English ''tigras'' derives from
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligi ...
''tigre'', from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
''tigris'', which was a borrowing from
Classical Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
'tigris'.
Since ancient times, the word ''tigris'' has been suggested to originate from the
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
or
Persian word for 'arrow', which may also be the origin of the name for the river
Tigris
The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...
.
However, today, the names are thought to be
homonyms, and the connection between the tiger and the river is doubted.
[
]
Taxonomy
In 1758, Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...
described the tiger in his work ''Systema Naturae
' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nom ...
'' and gave it the scientific name ''Felis tigris'', as the genus ''Felis'' was being used for all cats at the time. His scientific description
A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have b ...
was based on descriptions by earlier naturalists such as Conrad Gessner
Conrad Gessner (; la, Conradus Gesnerus 26 March 1516 – 13 December 1565) was a Swiss physician, naturalist, bibliographer, and philologist. Born into a poor family in Zürich, Switzerland, his father and teachers quickly realised his ta ...
and Ulisse Aldrovandi
Ulisse Aldrovandi (11 September 1522 – 4 May 1605) was an Italian naturalist, the moving force behind Bologna's botanical garden, one of the first in Europe. Carl Linnaeus and the comte de Buffon reckoned him the father of natural history s ...
. In 1929, Reginald Innes Pocock
Reginald Innes Pocock F.R.S. (4 March 1863 – 9 August 1947) was a British zoologist.
Pocock was born in Clifton, Bristol, the fourth son of Rev. Nicholas Pocock and Edith Prichard. He began showing interest in natural history at St. Edwar ...
placed the species in the genus ''Panthera
''Panthera'' is a genus within the family Felidae that was named and described by Lorenz Oken in 1816 who placed all the spotted cats in this group. Reginald Innes Pocock revised the classification of this genus in 1916 as comprising the tiger ...
'' using the scientific name ''Panthera tigris''.
Subspecies
Nine recent
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene together ...
tiger subspecies have been proposed between the early 19th and early 21st centuries, namely the Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
, Malayan, Indochinese, South China, Siberian
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
, Caspian Caspian can refer to:
*The Caspian Sea
*The Caspian Depression, surrounding the northern part of the Caspian Sea
*The Caspians, the ancient people living near the Caspian Sea
* Caspian languages, collection of languages and dialects of Caspian p ...
, Javan
Javan () was the fourth son of Noah's son Japheth according to the " Generations of Noah" (Book of Genesis, chapter 10) in the Hebrew Bible. Josephus states the traditional belief that this individual was the ancestor of the Greeks.
Also servi ...
, Bali
Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
and Sumatran tiger
The Sumatran tiger is a population of '' Panthera tigris sondaica'' on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It is the only surviving tiger population in the Sunda Islands, where the Bali and Javan tigers are extinct.
Sequences from complete mit ...
s.[ The ]validity
Validity or Valid may refer to:
Science/mathematics/statistics:
* Validity (logic), a property of a logical argument
* Scientific:
** Internal validity, the validity of causal inferences within scientific studies, usually based on experiments
...
of several tiger subspecies was questioned in 1999 as most putative subspecies were distinguished on the basis of fur length and colouration, striping patterns and body size of specimens in natural history museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more ...
collections that are not necessarily representative for the entire population. It was proposed to recognise only two tiger subspecies as valid, namely ''P. t. tigris'' in mainland Asia and the smaller ''P. t. sondaica'' in the Greater Sunda Islands
The Greater Sunda Islands (Indonesian and Malay: ''Kepulauan Sunda Besar'') are four tropical islands situated within Indonesian Archipelago, in the Pacific Ocean. The islands, Borneo, Java, Sulawesi and Sumatra, are internationally recognise ...
.[Kitchener, A. (1999). "Tiger distribution, phenotypic variation and conservation issues" in ]
This two-subspecies proposal was reaffirmed in 2015 through a comprehensive analysis of morphological, ecological and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) traits of all putative tiger subspecies.
In 2017, the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group revised felid
Felidae () is the family of mammals in the order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a felid (). The term "cat" refers both to felids in general and specifically to the ...
taxonomy in accordance with the 2015 two-subspecies proposal and recognised only ''P. t. tigris'' and ''P. t. sondaica''. Results of a 2018 whole-genome sequencing
Whole genome sequencing (WGS), also known as full genome sequencing, complete genome sequencing, or entire genome sequencing, is the process of determining the entirety, or nearly the entirety, of the DNA sequence of an organism's genome at a ...
study of 32 samples from the six living putative subspecies—the Bengal, Malayan, Indochinese, South China, Siberian and Sumatran tiger—found them to be distinct and separate clades. These results were corroborated in 2021 and 2023. The Cat Specialist Group states that "Given the varied interpretations of data, the ubspecifictaxonomy of this species is currently under review by the IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group."
The following tables are based on the classification Classification is a process related to categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood.
Classification is the grouping of related facts into classes.
It may also refer to:
Business, organizat ...
of the tiger as of 2005,[ and also reflect the classification recognised by the Cat Classification Task Force in 2017.][
]
Evolution
The tiger shares the genus ''Panthera'' with the lion
The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...
, leopard
The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia ...
, jaguar
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the thi ...
and snow leopard
The snow leopard (''Panthera uncia''), also known as the ounce, is a felid in the genus '' Panthera'' native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because the global population is es ...
. Results of genetic analyses indicate that the tiger and snow leopard are sister species
In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree.
Definition
The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram:
Taxon A and ...
whose lineages split from each other between 2.70 and 3.70 million years ago. The tiger's whole genome sequencing shows repeated sequences that parallel those in other cat genomes.
The fossil species '' Panthera palaeosinensis'' of early Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed ...
northern China was described as a possible tiger ancestor when it was discovered in 1924, but modern cladistics places it as basal
Basal or basilar is a term meaning ''base'', ''bottom'', or ''minimum''.
Science
* Basal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features associated with the base of an organism or structure
* Basal (medicine), a minimal level that is nec ...
to modern ''Panthera''. '' Panthera zdanskyi'' lived around the same time and place, and was suggested to be a sister species of the modern tiger when it was examined in 2014.[ However, as of 2023, at least two subsequent studies considered ''P. zdanskyi'' likely to be a ]synonym
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are al ...
of ''P. palaeosinensis'', noting that its proposed differences from that species fell within the range of individual variation. The earliest appearance of the modern tiger species in the fossil record are jaw fragments from Lantion in China that are dated to the early Pleistocene.[
Middle- to late-Pleistocene tiger fossils have been found throughout China, Sumatra and Java. Prehistoric subspecies include '']Panthera tigris trinilensis
''Panthera tigris trinilensis'', known as the Trinil tiger, is an extinct tiger subspecies dating from about 1.2 million years ago that was found at the locality of Trinil, Java, Indonesia. The fossil remains are now stored in the Dubois Colle ...
'' and '' P. t. soloensis'' of Java and Sumatra and '' P. t. acutidens'' of China; late Pleistocene and early Holocene
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...
fossils of tigers have also been found in Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java Isl ...
and Palawan, Philippines.[Kitchener, A. & Yamaguchi, N. (2009). "What is a Tiger? Biogeography, Morphology, and Taxonomy" in ] Fossil specimens of tigers have also been reported from the Middle-Late Pleistocene of Japan. Results of a phylogeographic study indicate that all living tigers have a common ancestor that lived between 108,000 and 72,000 years ago.[ Genetic studies suggest that the tiger population contracted around 115,000 years ago due to glaciation. Modern tiger populations originated from a refugium in Indochina and spread across Asia after the ]Last Glacial Maximum
The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent.
Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eu ...
. As they colonised northeastern China, the ancestors of the South China tiger intermixed with a relict tiger population.
Hybrids
Tigers can interbreed with other ''Panthera'' cats and have done so in captivity. The liger
The liger is a hybrid offspring of a male lion (''Panthera leo'') and a female tiger (''Panthera tigris''). The liger has parents in the same genus but of different species. The liger is distinct from the similar hybrid called the tigon, and ...
is the offspring of a female tiger and a male lion and the tigon
A tigon (), tiglon () (portmanteau of ''tiger'' and ''lion''), or tion () is the hybrid offspring of a male tiger (''Panthera tigris'') and a female lion (''Panthera leo''). the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion. The lion sire passes on a growth-promoting gene, but the corresponding growth-inhibiting gene from the female tiger is absent, so that ligers grow far larger than either parent species. By contrast, the male tiger does not pass on a growth-promoting gene while the lioness passes on a growth inhibiting gene; hence, tigons are around the same size as their parents. Since they often develop life threatening birth defects and can easily become obese, breeding these hybrids is regarded as unethical.[
]
Characteristics
The tiger has a typical felid morphology, with a muscular body, shortened legs, strong forelimbs with wide front paws, a large head and a tail that is about half the length of the rest of its body.[ It has five digits, including a ]dewclaw
A dewclaw is a digit – vestigial in some animals – on the foot of many mammals, birds, and reptiles (including some extinct orders, like certain theropods). It commonly grows higher on the leg than the rest of the foot, such that in d ...
, on the front feet and four on the back, all of which have retractile claws that are compact and curved, and can reach long.[ The ears are rounded and the eyes have a round pupil.][ The snout ends in a triangular, pink tip with small black dots, the number of which increase with age. The tiger's skull is robust, with a constricted front region, proportionally small, elliptical ]orbits
In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as a ...
, long nasal bone
The nasal bones are two small oblong bones, varying in size and form in different individuals; they are placed side by side at the middle and upper part of the face and by their junction, form the bridge of the upper one third of the nose.
Ea ...
s and a lengthened cranium
The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, ...
with a large sagittal crest
A sagittal crest is a ridge of bone running lengthwise along the midline of the top of the skull (at the sagittal suture) of many mammalian and reptilian skulls, among others. The presence of this ridge of bone indicates that there are exceptiona ...
.[ It resembles a lion's skull, but differs from it in the concave or flattened underside of the lower jaw and in its longer nasals.][ The tiger has 30 fairly robust teeth and its somewhat curved canines are the longest in the cat family at .]
The tiger has a head-body length of with a tail and stands at the shoulder. The Siberian and Bengal tigers are the largest.[ Male Bengal tigers weigh , and females weigh ; island tigers are the smallest, likely due to ]insular dwarfism
Insular dwarfism, a form of phyletic dwarfism, is the process and condition of large animals evolving or having a reduced body size when their population's range is limited to a small environment, primarily islands. This natural process is dist ...
.[ Male Sumatran tigers weigh , and females weigh .][
The tiger is popularly thought to be the largest living felid species; but since tigers of the different subspecies and populations vary greatly in size and weight, the tiger's average size may be less than the lion's, while the largest tigers are bigger than their lion counterparts.][
]
Coat
The tiger's coat usually has short hairs, reaching up to , though the hairs of the northern-living Siberian tiger can reach . Belly hairs tend to be longer than back hairs. The density of their fur is usually thin, though the Siberian tiger develops a particularly thick winter coat. The tiger has lines of fur around the face and long whiskers, especially in males.[ It has an orange colouration that varies from yellowish to reddish. White fur covers the underside, from head to tail, along with the inner surface of the legs and parts of the face.] On the back of the ears, it has a prominent white spot, which is surrounded by black. The tiger is marked with distinctive black or dark brown stripes, which are uniquely patterned in each individual.[ The stripes are mostly vertical, but those on the limbs and forehead are horizontal. They are more concentrated towards the back and those on the trunk may reach under the belly. The tips of stripes are generally sharp and some may split up or split and fuse again. Tail stripes are thick bands and a black tip marks the end.
The tiger is one of only a few striped cat species. Stripes are advantageous for ]camouflage
Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...
in vegetation with vertical patterns of light and shade, such as trees, reeds and tall grass.[Miquelle, D. "Tiger" in ] This is supported by a Fourier analysis study showing that the striping patterns line up with their environment.
The orange colour may also aid in concealment, as the tiger's prey is colour blind and possibly perceives the tiger as green and blended in with the vegetation.
Colour variations
The three colour variants of Bengal tigers – nearly stripeless snow-white, white and golden – are now virtually non-existent in the wild due to the reduction of wild tiger populations but continue in captive populations. The white tiger
The white tiger or bleached tiger is a leucistic pigmentation variant of the Mainland tiger. It is reported in the wild from time to time in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, in the Sunderbans region and e ...
has a white background colour with sepia-brown stripes. The golden tiger is pale golden with reddish-brown stripes. The snow-white tiger is a morph with extremely faint stripes and a pale sepia-brown ringed tail. White and golden morphs are the result of an autosomal recessive trait
In genetics, dominance is the phenomenon of one variant (allele) of a gene on a chromosome masking or overriding the effect of a different variant of the same gene on the other copy of the chromosome. The first variant is termed dominant and t ...
with a white locus
Locus (plural loci) is Latin for "place". It may refer to:
Entertainment
* Locus (comics), a Marvel Comics mutant villainess, a member of the Mutant Liberation Front
* ''Locus'' (magazine), science fiction and fantasy magazine
** ''Locus Award ...
and a wideband
In communications, a system is wideband when the message bandwidth significantly exceeds the coherence bandwidth of the channel. Some communication links have such a high data rate that they are forced to use a wide bandwidth; other links may h ...
locus, respectively. The snow-white variation is caused by polygene
A polygene is a member of a group of non-epistatic genes that interact additively to influence a phenotypic trait, thus contributing to multiple-gene inheritance (polygenic inheritance, multigenic inheritance, quantitative inheritance), a type of ...
s with both white and wideband loci. The breeding of white tigers is controversial, as they have no use for conservation. Only 0.001% of wild tigers have the genes for this colour morph and the overrepresentation of white tigers in captivity is the result of inbreeding
Inbreeding is the production of offspring from the mating or breeding of individuals or organisms that are closely related genetically. By analogy, the term is used in human reproduction, but more commonly refers to the genetic disorders an ...
. Hence, their continued breeding will risk both inbreeding depression
Inbreeding depression is the reduced biological fitness which has the potential to result from inbreeding (the breeding of related individuals). Biological fitness refers to an organism's ability to survive and perpetuate its genetic material. ...
and loss of genetic variability in captive tigers.
Pseudo-melanistic
The term melanism refers to black pigment and is derived from the gr, μελανός. Melanism is the increased development of the dark-colored pigment melanin in the skin or hair.
Pseudomelanism, also called abundism, is another variant of pi ...
tigers with thick, merged stripes have been recorded in Simlipal National Park and three Indian zoos; a population genetic
Population genetics is a subfield of genetics that deals with genetic differences within and between populations, and is a part of evolutionary biology. Studies in this branch of biology examine such phenomena as adaptation, speciation, and pop ...
analysis of Indian tiger samples revealed that this phenotype
In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological prop ...
is caused by a mutation
In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, m ...
of a transmembrane
A transmembrane protein (TP) is a type of integral membrane protein that spans the entirety of the cell membrane. Many transmembrane proteins function as gateways to permit the transport of specific substances across the membrane. They frequentl ...
aminopeptidase
Aminopeptidases are enzymes that catalyze the cleavage of amino acids from the amino terminus (N-terminus) of proteins or peptides (exopeptidases). They are widely distributed throughout the animal and plant kingdoms and are found in many subcel ...
gene. Around 37% of the Simlipal tiger population has this feature, which has been linked to genetic isolation
Introduction
Geographic isolation or other factors that prevent reproduction have resulted in a population of organisms with a change in genetic diversity and ultimately leads to the genetic isolation of species. Genetic isolates form new specie ...
.
Distribution and habitat
The tiger historically ranged from eastern Turkey, northern Iran and Afghanistan to Central Asia and from northern Pakistan through the Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India ...
and Indochina to southeastern Siberia, Sumatra, Java and Bali.[ As of 2022, it inhabits less than 7% of its historical distribution and has a scattered range in the Indian subcontinent, the ]Indochinese Peninsula
Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...
, Sumatra, northeastern China and the Russian Far East
The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admin ...
.[ As of 2020, India had the largest extent of global tiger habitat with , followed by Russia with .]
The tiger mainly lives in forest habitats and is highly adaptable.[Sunquist, M. (2010). "What is a Tiger? Ecology and Behaviour" in ] Records in Central Asia indicate that it primarily inhabited Tugay
Tugay is a form of riparian forest or woodland associated with fluvial and floodplain areas in arid climates. These wetlands are subject to periodic inundation, and largely dependent on floods and groundwater rather than directly from rainfall ...
riverine forests and hilly and lowland forests in the Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...
. In the Amur
The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China ( Inner Manchuria). The Amur proper is long ...
-Ussuri
The Ussuri or Wusuli (russian: Уссури; ) is a river that runs through Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krais, Russia and the southeast region of Northeast China. It rises in the Sikhote-Alin mountain range, flowing north and forming part of th ...
region of Russia and China, it inhabits Korean pine and temperate broadleaf and mixed forest
Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions.
These f ...
s; riparian forest
A riparian forest or riparian woodland is a forested or wooded area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal, sink or reservoir.
Etymology
The term riparian comes from the Latin word ...
s serve as dispersal corridors, providing food and water for both tigers and ungulate
Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Ungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. These include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraff ...
s.[Miquelle, D. G.; Smirnov, E. N.; Merrill, T. W.; Myslenkov, A. E.; Quigley, H.; Hornocker, M. G. & Schleyer, B. (1999). "Hierarchical spatial analysis of Amur tiger relationships to habitat and prey" in ] On the Indian subcontinent, it inhabits mainly tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Description
TSMF is generally found in large, disco ...
, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests
Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions.
These f ...
, tropical moist evergreen forests, tropical dry forest
The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...
s, alluvial plain
An alluvial plain is a largely flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A floodplain is part of the process, being the s ...
s and the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans
Sundarbans (pronounced ) is a mangrove area in the delta formed by the confluence of the Padma, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers in the Bay of Bengal. It spans the area from the Baleswar River in Bangladesh's division of Khulna to the Hooghly ...
.[Wikramanayake, E. D.; Dinerstein, E.; Robinson, J. G.; Karanth, K. U.; Rabinowitz, A.; Olson, D.; Mathew, T.; Hedao, P.; Connor, M.; Hemley, G. & Bolze, D. (1999). "Where can tigers live in the future? A framework for identifying high-priority areas for the conservation of tigers in the wild" in ] In the Eastern Himalaya
]
The Eastern Himalayas extend from eastern Nepal across Northeast India, Bhutan, the Tibet Autonomous Region to Yunnan in China and northern Myanmar. The climate of this region is influenced by the monsoon of South Asia from June to September. I ...
s, it was documented in temperate forest
A temperate forest is a forest found between the tropical and boreal regions, located in the temperate zone. It is the second largest biome on our planet, covering 25% of the world's forest area, only behind the boreal forest, which covers abou ...
up to an elevation of in Bhutan, of in the Mishmi Hills
The Mishmi Hills are located at the northeastern tip of India, in northeastern Arunachal Pradesh. On the Chinese side, they form the southern parts of Nyingchi Prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
These hills occur at the junction of Nor ...
and of in Mêdog County
Mêdog, or Metok, or Motuo County (; ), also known as Pemako ( meaning "Lotus Array", ), is a county as well as a traditional region of the prefecture-level city of Nyingchi in the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
, southeastern Tibet. In Thailand, it lives in deciduous
In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, a ...
and evergreen
In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...
forests. In Sumatra, it inhabits lowland peat swamp forest
Peat swamp forests are tropical moist forests where waterlogged soil prevents dead leaves and wood from fully decomposing. Over time, this creates a thick layer of acidic peat. Large areas of these forests are being logged at high rates.
Peat ...
s and rugged montane forest
Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucia ...
s.
Population density
Camera trap
A camera trap is a camera that is automatically triggered by a change in some activity in its vicinity, like presence of an animal or a human being. It is typically equipped with a motion sensor – usually a passive infrared (PIR) senso ...
ping during 2010–2015 in the deciduous and subtropical pine forest of Jim Corbett National Park, northern India revealed a stable tiger population density
Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...
of 12–17 individuals per in an area of .
In northern Myanmar, the population density in a sampled area of roughly in a mosaic of tropical broadleaf forest and grassland was estimated to be 0.21–0.44 tigers per as of 2009.
Population density in mixed deciduous and semi-evergreen forests of Thailand's Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary
The Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary ( th, เขตรักษาพันธุ์สัตว์ป่าห้วยขาแข้ง, ) is in Uthai Thani and Tak Provinces, Thailand. The park was established in 1974, and is part of the ...
was estimated at 2.01 tigers per ; during the 1970s and 1980s, logging and poaching had occurred in the adjacent Mae Wong and Khlong Lan National Parks, where population density was much lower, estimated at only 0.359 tigers per as of 2016.
Population density in dipterocarp
Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 16 genera and about 695 known species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. The family name, from the type genus ''Dipterocarpus'', is derived from Greek (''di'' = two, ''pteron'' = wing and ''karpos'' = fru ...
and montane forests in northern Malaysia was estimated at 1.47–2.43 adult tigers per in Royal Belum State Park, but 0.3–0.92 adult tigers per in the unprotected selectively logged Temengor Forest Reserve.
Behaviour and ecology
Camera trap data show that tigers in Chitwan National Park
, iucn_category = II
, location = Central Terai of Nepal
, established = 1973
, nearest_city = Bharatpur
, map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#India#South Asia , relief = 1
, label = Chitwan National Park
, label_position = top
, coordina ...
avoided locations frequented by people and were more active at night than during day.
In Sundarbans National Park
The Sundarbans National Park is a national park, tiger reserve and biosphere reserve in West Bengal, India. It is part of the Sundarbans on the Ganges Delta and adjacent to the Sundarban Reserve Forest in Bangladesh. It is located to south-w ...
, six radio-collared tigers were most active from dawn to early morning and reached their zenith around 7:00 o'clock in the morning.
A three-year-long camera trap survey in Shuklaphanta National Park
Shuklaphanta National Park is a national park in the Terai of the Far-Western Region, Nepal, covering of open grasslands, forests, riverbeds and tropical wetlands at an elevation of . It is bounded by the Mahakali river in the west and south. ...
revealed that tigers were most active from dusk until midnight.
In northeastern China, tigers were crepuscular
In zoology, a crepuscular animal is one that is active primarily during the twilight period, being matutinal, vespertine, or both. This is distinguished from diurnal and nocturnal behavior, where an animal is active during the hours of dayli ...
and active at night with activity peaking at dawn and dusk; they were largely active at the same time as their prey.
The tiger is a powerful swimmer and easily transverses rivers as wide as ; it immerses in water, particularly on hot days.[ In general, it is less capable of climbing trees than many other cats due to its size, but cubs under 16 months old may routinely do so. An adult was recorded climbing up a smooth pipal tree.][
]
Social spacing
Adult tigers lead largely solitary lives within home range
A home range is the area in which an animal lives and moves on a periodic basis. It is related to the concept of an animal's territory which is the area that is actively defended. The concept of a home range was introduced by W. H. Burt in 1943. H ...
s or territories
A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal.
In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...
, the size of which mainly depends on prey abundance, geographic area and sex of the individual. Males and females defend their home ranges from those of the same sex and the home range of a male encompasses that of multiple females.[ Two females in the ]Sundarbans
Sundarbans (pronounced ) is a mangrove area in the delta formed by the confluence of the Padma, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers in the Bay of Bengal. It spans the area from the Baleswar River in Bangladesh's division of Khulna to the Hooghly ...
had home ranges of .
In Panna Tiger Reserve, the home ranges of five reintroduced females varied from in winter to in summer and to during the monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal osci ...
; three males had large home ranges in winter, in summer and during monsoon seasons.
In Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve, 14 females had home ranges and five resident males of that overlapped with those of up to five females. When tigresses in the same reserve had cubs of up to four months of age, they reduced their home ranges to stay near their young and steadily enlarged them until their offspring were 13–18 months old.
The tiger is a long-ranging species and individuals disperse over distances of up to to reach tiger populations in other areas. Young tigresses establish their first home ranges close to their mothers' while males migrate further than their female counterparts. Four radio-collared females in Chitwan dispersed between and 10 males between . A subadult male lives as a transient in another male's home range until he is older and strong enough to challenge the resident male. Tigers mark their home ranges by spraying urine
Urination, also known as micturition, is the release of urine from the urinary bladder through the urethra to the outside of the body. It is the urinary system's form of excretion. It is also known medically as micturition, voiding, uresis, ...
on vegetation and rocks, clawing or scent rubbing trees and marking trails with faeces
Feces ( or faeces), known colloquially and in slang as poo and poop, are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. Feces contain a relati ...
, anal gland
Anal may refer to:
Related to the anus
*Related to the anus of animals:
** Anal fin, in fish anatomy
** Anal vein
Anal may refer to:
Related to the anus
*Related to the anus of animals:
** Anal fin, in fish anatomy
** Anal vein, in insect ...
secretions and ground scrapings.[ Scent markings also allow an individual to pick up information on another's identity. Unclaimed home ranges, particularly those that belonged to a deceased individual, can be taken over in days or weeks.][
Male tigers are generally less tolerant of other males within their home ranges than females are of other females. Disputes are usually solved by intimidation rather than fighting. Once dominance has been established, a male may tolerate a subordinate within his range, as long as they do not come near him. The most serious disputes tend to occur between two males competing for a female in oestrus. Though tigers mostly live alone, relationships between individuals can be complex. Tigers are particularly social at kills and a male tiger will sometimes share a carcass with the females and cubs within this home range and unlike male lions, will allow them to feed on the kill before he is finished with it. However, a female is more tense when encountering another female at a kill.
]
Communication
During friendly encounters and bonding, tigers rub against each other's bodies. Facial expressions include the "defence threat", which involves a wrinkled face, bared teeth, pulled-back ears and widened pupils.[ Both males and females show a flehmen response, a characteristic curled-lip grimace, when smelling urine markings. Males also use the flehmen to detect the markings made by tigresses in oestrus.][ Tigers will move their ears around to display the white spots, particularly during aggressive encounters and between mothers and cubs.][ They also use their tails to signal their mood. To show cordiality, the tail sticks up and sways slowly, while an apprehensive tiger lowers its tail or wags it side-to-side. When calm, the tail hangs low.
Tigers are normally silent but can produce numerous vocalisations. They roar to signal their presence to other individuals over long distances. This vocalisation is forced through an open mouth as it closes and can be heard away. They roar multiple times in a row and others respond in kind. Tigers also roar during mating and a mother will roar to call her cubs to her. When tense, tigers moan, a sound similar to a roar but softer and made when the mouth is at least partially closed. Moaning can be heard away.] Aggressive encounters involve growling
Growling is a low, guttural vocalization produced by animals as an aggressive warning but can also be found in other contexts such as playful behaviors or mating. Different animals will use growling in specific contexts as a form of communicat ...
, snarling
A snarl is a sound, often a growl or vicious utterance, often accompanied by a facial expression, where the upper lip is raised, and the nostrils widen, generally indicating hate, anger or pain. In addition to humans, other mammals includi ...
and hissing. An explosive "coughing roar" or "coughing snarl" is emitted through an open mouth and exposed teeth. In friendlier situations, tigers prusten
Prusten is a form of communicative behaviour exhibited by some members of the family Felidae. Prusten is also referred to as chuffing or chuffle (verb and noun). It is described as a short, low intensity, non-threatening vocalization. In order to ...
, a soft, low-frequency snorting sound similar to purring in smaller cats. Tiger mothers communicate with their cubs by grunting, while cubs call back with miaow
A meow or miaow is a cat vocalization. ''Meows'' may have diverse tones and are sometimes chattered, murmured or whispered. Adult cats rarely meow to each other, so an adult cat meowing to human beings is probably a post-domestication exten ...
s. When startled, they "woof". They produce a deer-like "pok" sound for unknown reasons, but most often at kills.
Hunting and diet
The tiger is a carnivore
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other ...
and an apex predator
An apex predator, also known as a top predator, is a predator at the top of a food chain, without natural predators of its own.
Apex predators are usually defined in terms of trophic dynamics, meaning that they occupy the highest trophic le ...
feeding mainly on large and medium-sized ungulates, with a preference for sambar deer
The sambar (''Rusa unicolor'') is a large deer native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia that is listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List since 2008. Populations have declined substantially due to severe hunting, local ins ...
, Manchurian wapiti, barasingha, gaur
The gaur (''Bos gaurus''; ), also known as the Indian bison, is a bovine native to South Asia and Southeast Asia, and has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986. The global population was estimated at a maximum of 21,000 ...
and wild boar
The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is ...
.
Abundance and body weight of prey species are assumed to be the main criteria for the tiger's prey selection, both inside and outside protected areas.
It also preys opportunistically on smaller species like monkey
Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incom ...
s, peafowl
Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera '' Pavo'' and '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are re ...
and other ground-based birds, porcupine
Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two families of animals: the Old World porcupines of family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of family, Erethiz ...
s and fish.[ Occasional attacks on ]Asian elephant
The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living species of the genus '' Elephas'' and is distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India in the west, Nepal in ...
s and Indian rhinoceros
}
The Indian rhinoceros (''Rhinoceros unicornis''), also called the Indian rhino, greater one-horned rhinoceros or great Indian rhinoceros, is a rhinoceros species native to the Indian subcontinent. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red Lis ...
es have also been reported.
More often, tigers take the more vulnerable calves.
They sometimes prey on livestock and dogs in close proximity to settlements.[ Tigers occasionally consume vegetation, fruit and minerals for ]dietary fibre
Dietary fiber (in British English fibre) or roughage is the portion of plant-derived food that cannot be completely broken down by human digestive enzymes. Dietary fibers are diverse in chemical composition, and can be grouped generally by the ...
and supplements.
Tigers learn to hunt from their mothers, though the ability to hunt may be partially inborn. Depending on the size of the prey, they typically kill weekly though mothers must kill more often.[ Families hunt together when cubs are old enough. They search for prey using vision and hearing. A tiger will also wait at a watering hole for prey to come by, particularly during hot summer days. It is an ambush predator and when approaching potential prey, it crouches with the head lowered and hides in foliage. It switches between creeping forward and staying still. A tiger may even doze off and can stay in the same spot for as long as a day, waiting for prey and launch an attack when the prey is close enough, usually within .][ If the prey spots it before then, the cat does not pursue further. A tiger can sprint and leap ; it is not a long-distance runner and gives up a chase if prey outpaces it over a certain distance.
]
The tiger attacks from behind or at the sides and tries to knock the target off balance. It latches onto prey with its forelimbs, twisting and turning during the struggle and tries to pull it to the ground. The tiger generally applies a bite to the throat until its victim dies of strangulation
Strangling is compression of the neck that may lead to unconsciousness or death by causing an increasingly hypoxic state in the brain. Fatal strangling typically occurs in cases of violence, accidents, and is one of two main ways that hanging ...
.[ It has an average bite force at the canine tips of 1234.3 ]newtons
The newton (symbol: N) is the unit of force in the International System of Units (SI). It is defined as 1 kg⋅m/s, the force which gives a mass of 1 kilogram an acceleration of 1 metre per second per second. It is named after Isaac Newton in ...
. Holding onto the throat puts the cat out of reach of horns, antlers, tusks and hooves. Tigers are adaptable killers and may use other methods, including ripping the throat or breaking the neck. Large prey may be disabled by a bite to the back of the hock
Hock may refer to:
Common meanings:
* Hock (wine), a type of wine
* Hock (anatomy), part of an animal's leg
* To leave an item with a pawnbroker
People:
* Hock (surname)
* Richard "Hock" Walsh (1948-1999), Canadian blues singer
Other uses:
* A t ...
, severing the tendon. Swipes from the large paws are capable of stunning or breaking the skull of a water buffalo
The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called the domestic water buffalo or Asian water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also found in Europe, Australia, North America, S ...
. They kill small prey with a bite to the back of the neck or head.[ Estimates of the success rate for hunting tigers range from a low of 5% to a high of 50%. They are sometimes killed or injured by large or dangerous prey like gaur, buffalo and boar.][
Tigers typically move kills to a private, usually vegetated spot no further than , though they have been recorded dragging them . They are strong enough to drag the carcass of a fully grown buffalo for some distance. They rest for a while before eating and can consume as much as of meat in one session, but feed on a carcass for several days, leaving little for scavengers.
]
Competitors
In much of their range, tigers share habitat with leopards and dhole
The dhole (''Cuon alpinus''; ) is a canid native to Central, South, East and Southeast Asia. Other English names for the species include Asian wild dog, Asiatic wild dog, Indian wild dog, whistling dog, red dog, red wolf, and mountain wolf. ...
s. They typically dominate both of them, though with dholes it depends on their pack size. Interactions between the three predators involve chasing, stealing kills and direct killing. Large dhole packs may kill tigers. Tigers, leopards and dholes coexist by hunting different sized prey. In Nagarhole National Park
Nagarahole National Park is a national park located in Kodagu district and Mysore district in Karnataka, India.
This park was declared the 37th Tiger Reserve of India in 1999. It is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. The Western Ghats Ni ...
, the average weight for tiger kills was found to be , compared to for leopards and for dholes. In Kui Buri National Park
Kui Buri National Park is a national park of Thailand in the Tenasserim Hills in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province. It was established as the 90th national park in March 1999.
Geography
The park, with an area of 605,625 rai ~ covers parts of the ...
, following a reduction in prey numbers, tigers continued to kill favoured prey while leopards and dholes increased their consumption of small prey.[
Both leopards and dholes can live successfully in tiger habitat when there is abundant food and vegetation cover.][ Otherwise, they appear to be less common where tigers are numerous. The recovery of the tiger population in Rajaji National Park during the 2000s led to a reduction in leopard population densities. Similarly, at two sites in central India the size of dhole packs was negatively correlated with tiger densities. Leopard and dhole distribution in Kui Buri correlated with both prey access and tiger scarcity. In ]Jigme Dorji National Park
The Jigme Dorji National Park (JDNP), named after the late Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, is the second-largest National Park of Bhutan. It occupies almost the entire Gasa District, as well as the northern areas of Thimphu District, Paro District, Puna ...
, tigers were found to inhabit the deeper parts of forests while the smaller predators were pushed closer to the fringes.
Reproduction and life cycle
The tiger generally mates
Mates is an English surname, and may refer to:
* Mates (born 1964), British newsreader and journalist
* Michael Mates (born 1934), British politician
* Frederick S. Mates, founded the Mates Investment Fund in 1967 that crashed in the bear market ...
all year round, particularly between November and April. A tigress is in oestrus for three to six days at a time, separated by three to nine week intervals.[ A resident male mates with all the females within his home range, who signal their receptiveness by roaring and marking. Younger, transient males are also attracted, leading to a fight in which the more dominant, resident male drives the usurper off.][ During courtship, the male is cautious with the female as he waits for her to show signs she is ready to mate. She signals to him by positioning herself in ]lordosis
Lordosis is historically defined as an ''abnormal'' inward curvature of the lumbar spine. However, the terms ''lordosis'' and ''lordotic'' are also used to refer to the normal inward curvature of the lumbar and cervical regions of the human spi ...
with her tail to the side. Copulation typically lasts no more than 20 seconds, with the male biting the female by the scruff of her neck. After it is finished, the male quickly pulls away as the female may turn and slap him. Tiger pairs may stay together for up to four days and mate multiple times. Gestation
Gestation is the period of development during the carrying of an embryo, and later fetus, inside viviparous animals (the embryo develops within the parent). It is typical for mammals, but also occurs for some non-mammals. Mammals during preg ...
lasts around or over three months.[
A tigress gives birth in a secluded location, be it in dense vegetation, in a cave or under a rocky shelter. Litters consist of as many as seven cubs, but two or three are more typical.][ Newborn cubs weigh and are blind and ]altricial
In biology, altricial species are those in which the young are underdeveloped at the time of birth, but with the aid of their parents mature after birth. Precocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the mome ...
. The mother licks and cleans her cubs, suckles them and viciously defends them from any potential threat. Cubs open their eyes at the age of three to 14 days and their vision becomes clear after a few more weeks. They can leave the denning site after two months and around the same time they start eating meat.[ The mother only leaves them alone to hunt and even then she does not travel far. When she suspects an area is no longer safe, she moves her cubs to a new spot, transporting them one by one by grabbing them by the scruff of the neck with her mouth.
A tigress in Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve maximised the time spent with her cubs by reducing her home range, killing larger prey and returning to her den more rapidly than without cubs; when the cubs started to eat meat, she took them to kill sites, thereby optimising their protection and access to food.
In the same reserve, one of 21 cubs died in over eight years of monitoring and mortality did not differ between male and female juveniles.
Tiger monitoring over six years in Ranthambore Tiger Reserve indicated an average annual survival rate of around 85 percent for 74 male and female cubs; survival rate increased to 97 percent for both males and female juveniles of one to two years of age.]
Causes of cub mortality include predators, floods, fires, death of the mother and fatal injuries.[
]
After around two months, the cubs are able to follow their mother. They still hide in vegetation when she goes hunting. Young bond through play fighting and practice stalking. A hierarchy develops in the litter, with the biggest cub, often a male, being the most dominant and the first to eat its fill at a kill. Around the age of six months, cubs are fully weaned and have more freedom to explore their environment. Between eight and ten months, they accompany their mother on hunts. A cub can make a kill as early as 11 months and reach independence as a juvenile of 18 to 24 months of age; males become independent earlier than females.[ Radio-collared tigers in Chitwan started leaving their natal areas at the age of 19 months.][ Young females are ]sexually mature
Sexual maturity is the capability of an organism to reproduce. In humans it might be considered synonymous with adulthood, but here puberty is the name for the process of biological sexual maturation, while adulthood is based on cultural defini ...
at three to four years, whereas males are at four to five years.[ Generation length of the tiger is about 7–10 years.
Wild Bengal tigers live 12–15 years. Data from the International Tiger Studbook 1938–2018 indicate that captive tigers lived up to 19 years.
The father does not play a role in raising the young, but he encounters and interacts with them. The resident male appears to visit the female–cub families within his home range. They socialise and even share kills. One male was recorded looking after cubs whose mother had died. By defending his home range, the male protects the females and cubs from other males. When a new male takes over, dependent cubs are at risk of ]infanticide
Infanticide (or infant homicide) is the intentional killing of infants or offspring. Infanticide was a widespread practice throughout human history that was mainly used to dispose of unwanted children, its main purpose is the prevention of resou ...
as the male attempts to sire his own young with the females. A seven-year long study in Chitwan National Park revealed that 12 of 56 detected cubs and juveniles were killed by new males taking over home ranges.[
]
Health and diseases
Tigers are recorded as hosts for various parasites including tapeworms like ''Diphyllobothrium
''Diphyllobothrium'' is a genus of tapeworms which can cause diphyllobothriasis in humans through consumption of raw or undercooked fish. The principal species causing diphyllobothriasis is ''D. latum'', known as the broad or fish tapeworm, or b ...
erinacei'', '' Taenia pisiformis'' in India and nematodes like '' Toxocara'' species in India and '' Physaloptera preputialis'', '' Dirofilaria ursi'' and '' Uiteinarta'' species in Siberia.[ ]Canine distemper
Canine distemper virus (CDV) (sometimes termed footpad disease) is a viral disease that affects a wide variety of mammal families, including domestic and wild species of dogs, coyotes, foxes, pandas, wolves, ferrets, skunks, raccoons, and feline ...
is known to occur in Siberian tigers. A morbillivirus infection was the likely cause of death of a tigress in the Russian Far East that was also tested positive for feline panleukopenia and feline coronavirus
Feline coronavirus (FCoV) is a positive-stranded RNA virus that infects cats worldwide. It is a coronavirus of the species '' Alphacoronavirus 1'' which includes canine coronavirus (CCoV) and porcine transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus ( ...
.
Blood samples from 11 adult tigers in Nepal showed antibodies for canine parvovirus-2, feline herpesvirus
Feline viral rhinotracheitis (FVR) is an upper respiratory or pulmonary infection of cats caused by ''Felid alphaherpesvirus 1'' (FeHV-1), of the family ''Herpesviridae''. It is also commonly referred to as feline influenza, feline coryza, and f ...
, feline coronavirus, leptospirosis
Leptospirosis is a blood infection caused by the bacteria '' Leptospira''. Signs and symptoms can range from none to mild (headaches, muscle pains, and fevers) to severe ( bleeding in the lungs or meningitis). Weil's disease, the acute, seve ...
and ''Toxoplasma gondii
''Toxoplasma gondii'' () is an obligate intracellular parasitic protozoan (specifically an apicomplexan) that causes toxoplasmosis. Found worldwide, ''T. gondii'' is capable of infecting virtually all warm-blooded animals, but felids, such ...
''.
Threats
The tiger has been listed as Endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...
on the IUCN Red List
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...
since 1986 and the global tiger population is thought to have continuously declined from an estimated population of 5,000–8,262 tigers in the late 1990s to 3,726–5,578 individuals estimated as of 2022.[ During 2001–2020, landscapes where tigers live declined from to .][ ]Habitat destruction
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...
, habitat fragmentation
Habitat fragmentation describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat), causing population fragmentation and ecosystem decay. Causes of habitat fragmentation include geological proces ...
and poaching
Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights.
Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set ag ...
for fur and body parts are the major threats that contributed to the decrease of tiger populations in all range countries.[
Protected areas in central India are highly fragmented due to linear infrastructure like roads, railway lines, ]transmission line
In electrical engineering, a transmission line is a specialized cable or other structure designed to conduct electromagnetic waves in a contained manner. The term applies when the conductors are long enough that the wave nature of the transmi ...
s, irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been dev ...
channels and mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...
activities in their vicinity.
In the Tanintharyi Region
Tanintharyi Region ( my, တနင်္သာရီတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; Mon: or ; ms, Tanah Sari; formerly Tenasserim Division and subsequently Tanintharyi Division, th, ตะนาวศรี, RTGS: ''Tanao Si'', ; ...
of southern Myanmar, deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then land conversion, converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban area, urban ...
coupled with mining activities and high hunting pressure threatens the tiger population.
In Thailand, nine of 15 protected areas hosting tigers are isolated and fragmented, offering a low probability for dispersal between them; four of these have not harboured tigers since about 2013.
In Peninsular Malaysia, of tiger habitat was cleared during 1988–2012, most of it for industrial plantation
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...
s.
Large-scale land acquisitions of about for commercial agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...
and timber extraction in Cambodia contributed to the fragmentation of potential tiger habitat, especially in the Eastern Plains.
Inbreeding depression
Inbreeding depression is the reduced biological fitness which has the potential to result from inbreeding (the breeding of related individuals). Biological fitness refers to an organism's ability to survive and perpetuate its genetic material. ...
coupled with habitat destruction, insufficient prey resources and poaching is a threat to the small and isolated tiger population in the Changbai Mountains
The Changbai Mountains (simplified Chinese:长白山; traditional Chinese:長白山) are a major mountain range in Northeast Asia that extends from the Northeast Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, across the border between ...
along the China–Russia border.
In China, tigers became the target of large-scale 'anti-pest' campaigns in the early 1950s, where suitable habitats were fragmented following deforestation and resettlement of people to rural areas, who hunted tigers and prey species. Though tiger hunting was prohibited in 1977, the population continued to decline and is considered extinct in South China since 2001.
Tiger populations in India have been targeted by poachers since the 1990s and were extirpated in two tiger reserves in 2005 and 2009.
Between March 2017 and January 2020, 630 activities of hunters using snares, drift nets, hunting platforms and hunting dogs were discovered in a reserve forest of about in southern Myanmar. Nam Et-Phou Louey National Park was considered the last important site for the tiger in Laos, but it has not been recorded there at least since 2013; this population likely fell victim to indiscriminate snaring. Anti-poaching units in Sumatra's Kerinci Seblat landscape removed 362 tiger snare traps and seized 91 tiger skins during 2005–2016; annual poaching rates increased with rising skin prices.
Poaching is also the main threat to the tiger population in far eastern Russia, where logging roads facilitate access for poachers and people harvesting forest products that are important for prey species to survive in winter.
Body parts of 207 tigers were detected during 21 surveys in 1991–2014 in two wildlife markets in Myanmar catering to customers in Thailand and China.
During the years 2000–2022, at least 3,377 tigers were confiscated
Confiscation (from the Latin ''confiscatio'' "to consign to the ''fiscus'', i.e. transfer to the treasury") is a legal form of seizure by a government or other public authority. The word is also used, popularly, of spoliation under legal forms, o ...
in 2,205 seizures in 28 countries; seizures encompassed 665 live and 654 dead individuals, 1,313 whole tiger skins, 16,214 body parts like bones, teeth, paws, claws, whiskers and of meat; 759 seizures in India encompassed body parts of 893 tigers; and 403 seizures in Thailand involved mostly captive-bred tigers. Seizures in Nepal between January 2011 and December 2015 obtained 585 pieces of tiger body parts and two whole carcasses in 19 districts. Seizure data from India during 2001–2021 indicate that tiger skins were the most often traded body parts, followed by claws, bones and teeth; trafficking routes mainly passed through the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Assam.
A total of 292 illegal tiger parts were confiscated at US ports of entry from personal baggage, air cargo and mail between 2003 and 2012.
Demand for tiger parts for use in traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logica ...
has also been cited as a major threat to tiger populations.
Interviews with local people in the Bangladeshi Sundarbans revealed that they kill tigers for local consumption and trade of skins, bones and meat, in retaliation
Revenge is committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Francis Bacon described revenge as a kind of "wild justice" that "does... offend the law ndputteth the law out of office." ...
for attacks by tigers and for excitement.
Tiger body parts like skins, bones, teeth and hair are consumed locally by wealthy Bangladeshis and are illegally trafficked from Bangladesh to 15 countries including India, China, Malaysia, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan and the United Kingdom via land borders, airports and seaports.[
Tiger bone glue is the prevailing tiger product purchased for medicinal purposes in ]Hanoi
Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi i ...
and Ho Chi Minh City
, population_density_km2 = 4,292
, population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2
, population_demonym = Saigonese
, blank_name = GRP (Nominal)
, blank_info = 2019
, blank1_name = – Total
, blank1_ ...
. "Tiger farm" facilities in China and Southeast Asia breed tigers for their parts, but these appear to make the threat to wild populations worse by increasing the demand for tiger products.[
Local people killing tigers in retaliation for attacking and preying on livestock is a threat in several tiger range countries, as this consequence of ]human–wildlife conflict
Human–wildlife conflict (HWC) refers to the negative interactions between human and wild animals, with undesirable consequences both for people and their resources, on the one hand, and wildlife and their habitats on the other ( IUCN 2020). HW ...
also contributes to the decline of the population.
Conservation
Internationally, the tiger is protected under CITES Appendix I
CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...
, banning trade of live tigers and their body parts.[
In Russia, hunting the tiger has been banned since 1952.
In Bhutan, it has been protected since 1969 and enlisted as totally protected since 1995.] Since 1972, it has been afforded the highest protection level under India's Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
In Nepal and Bangladesh, it has been protected since 1973.
Since 1976, it has been totally protected under Malaysia's Protection of Wild Life Act, and the country's Wildlife Conservation Act enacted in 2010 increased punishments for wildlife-related crimes.
In Indonesia, it has been protected since 1990.
In China, the trade in tiger body parts was banned in 1993.
The Thai Wildlife Preservation and Protection Act was enacted in 2019 to combat poaching and trading of body parts.
In 1973, the National Tiger Conservation Authority and Project Tiger
Project Tiger is a tiger conservation programme launched in April 1973 by the Government of India during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's tenure. The project aims at ensuring a viable population of the Bengal tiger in its natural habitats, protect ...
were founded in India to gain public support for tiger conservation.[ Since then, 53 tiger reserves covering an area of have been established in the country up to 2022.]
Myanmar's national tiger conservation strategy developed in 2003 comprises management tasks such as restoration of degraded habitats, increasing the extent of protected areas and wildlife corridors, protecting tiger prey species, thwarting tiger killing and illegal trade of its body parts and promoting public awareness through wildlife education programmes.
Bhutan's first Tiger Action Plan implemented during 2006–2015 revolved around habitat conservation, human–wildlife conflict management, education and awareness; the second Action Plan aimed at increasing the country's tiger population by 20% until 2023 compared to 2015.[
In 2009, the Bangladesh Tiger Action Plan was initiated to stabilise the country's tiger population, maintain habitat and a sufficient prey base, improve law enforcement and foster cooperation between governmental agencies responsible for tiger conservation.
The Thailand Tiger Action Plan ]ratified
Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent that lacked the authority to bind the principal legally. Ratification defines the international act in which a state indicates its consent to be bound to a treaty if the parties inte ...
in 2010 envisioned increasing the country's tiger populations by 50% in the Western Forest Complex and Dong Phayayen–Khao Yai Forest Complex and reestablish populations in three potential landscapes until 2022.
The Indonesian National Tiger Recovery Program ratified in 2010 aimed at increasing the Sumatran tiger population by 2022. The third strategic and action plan for the conservation of the Sumatran tiger for the years 2020–2030 revolves around strengthening management of small tiger population units of less than 20 mature individuals and connectivity between 13 forest patches in North Sumatra
North Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Utara) is a province of Indonesia located on the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan. North Sumatra is Indonesia's fourth most populous province after West Java, East Java ...
and West Sumatra
West Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Barat) is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the west coast of the island of Sumatra and includes the Mentawai Islands off that coast. The province has an area of , with a population of 5,534,472 at the 2020 cen ...
provinces.
Increases in anti-poaching patrol efforts in four Russian protected areas during 2011–2014 contributed to reducing poaching, stabilising the tiger population and improving protection of ungulate populations. Poaching and trafficking were declared to be moderate and serious crimes in 2019.[
Anti-poaching operations were also established in Nepal in 2010, with increased cooperation and intelligence sharing between agencies. These policies have led to many years of "zero poaching" and the country's tiger population has doubled in a decade.][
Anti-poaching patrols in the large core area of ]Taman Negara
Taman Negara is a national park in Peninsular Malaysia. It was established in 1938/1939 as the King George V National Park after Theodore Hubback lobbied the sultans of Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan to set aside a piece of land that covers the ...
lead to a decrease of poaching frequency from 34 detected incidents in 2015–2016 to 20 incidents during 2018–2019; the arrest of seven poaching teams and removal of snares facilitated the survival of three resident female tigers and at least 11 cubs.
Army and police officers are deployed for patrolling together with staff of protected areas in Malaysia.[
]Wildlife corridor
A wildlife corridor, habitat corridor, or green corridor is an area of habitat (ecology), habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities or structures (such as roads, development, or logging). This allows an exchange of i ...
s are important conservation measures as they facilitate tiger populations to connect between protected areas; tigers use at least nine corridors that were established in the Terai Arc Landscape and Sivalik Hills
The Sivalik Hills, also known as the Shivalik Hills and Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas that stretches over about from the Indus River eastwards close to the Brahmaputra River, spanning the northern parts of the Indian ...
in both Nepal and India.
Corridors in forested areas with low human encroachment are highly suitable.
In West Sumatra, 12 wildlife corridors were identified as high priority for mitigating human–wildlife conflicts.
In 2019, China and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding for transboundary cooperation between two protected areas, Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park and Land of the Leopard National Park, that includes the creation of wildlife corridors and bilateral monitoring and patrolling along the Sino-Russian border.
Rescued and rehabilitated problem tigers and orphan
An orphan (from the el, ορφανός, orphanós) is a child whose parents have died.
In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is usuall ...
ed tiger cubs have been released into the wild and monitored in India, Sumatra and Russia.
In Kazakhstan, habitat restoration and reintroduction
Species reintroduction is the deliberate release of a species into the wild, from captivity or other areas where the organism is capable of survival. The goal of species reintroduction is to establish a healthy, genetically diverse, self-sustainin ...
of prey species in Ile-Balkash Nature Reserve have progressed and tiger reintroduction is planned for 2025.
Reintroduction of tigers is considered possible in eastern Cambodia, once management of protected areas is improved and forest loss stabilized. South China tigers are kept and bred in Chinese zoos, with plans to reintroduce their offspring into remote protected areas.[ Coordinated ]breeding program
A breeding program is the planned breeding of a group of animals or plants, usually involving at least several individuals and extending over several generations. There are a couple of breeding methods, such as artificial (which is man made) ...
s among zoos have led to enough genetic diversity in tigers to act as "insurance against extinction in the wild".
Relationship with humans

Hunting
Tigers have been hunted by humans for millennia, as indicated by a painting on the Bhimbetka rock shelters in India that is dated to 5,000–6,000 years ago. They were hunted throughout their range in Asia, chased on horseback, elephant-back or even with sled dogs and killed with spears and later firearms. Such hunts were conducted both by native governments and empires like the Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the ...
, as well as European colonists. Tigers were often hunted as trophies
A trophy is a tangible, durable reminder of a specific achievement, and serves as a recognition or evidence of merit. Trophies are often awarded for sporting events, from youth sports to professional level athletics. In many sports medals (or, i ...
and because of their perceived danger. An estimated 80,000 tigers were killed between 1875 and 1925.
Attacks
In most areas, tigers avoid humans, but attacks are a risk wherever people coexist with them. Dangerous encounters are more likely to occur in edge
Edge or EDGE may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Edge computing, a network load-balancing system
* Edge device, an entry point to a computer network
* Adobe Edge, a graphical development application
* Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed b ...
habitats between wild and agricultural areas.[Nyhus, P. J. & Tilson, R. (2010). "''Panthera tigris'' vs ''Homo sapiens'': Conflict, coexistence, or extinction?" in ] Most attacks on humans are defensive, including protection of young; however, tigers do sometimes see people as prey.[ Man-eating tigers tend to be old and disabled.][ Tigers driven from their home ranges are also at risk of turning to man-eating.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the ]Champawat Tiger
The Champawat Tiger was a Bengal Tigress responsible for an estimated 436 deaths in Nepal and the Kumaon division of India, during the last years of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century. Her attacks have been listed in t ...
was responsible for over 430 human deaths in Nepal and India before she was shot by Jim Corbett
Edward James Corbett (25 July 1875 – 19 April 1955) was a British hunter, tracker, naturalist, and author who hunted a number of man-eating tigers and leopards in the Indian subcontinent.
He held the rank of colonel in the British Indian ...
. This tigress suffered from broken teeth and was unable to kill normal prey. Modern authors speculate that sustaining on meagre human flesh forced the cat to kill more and more. Tiger attacks were particularly high in Singapore during the mid-19th century, when plantations expanded into the tiger's habitat. In the 1840s, the number of deaths in the area ranged from 200 to 300 annually. Tiger attacks in the Sundarbans caused 1,396 human deaths in the period 1935–2006 according to official records of the Bangladesh Forest Department. Victims of attacks are local villagers who enter the tiger's domain to collect resources like wood and honey. Fishermen have been particularly common targets. Methods to counter tiger attacks have included face masks worn backwards, protective clothes, sticks and carefully stationed electric dummies.
Captivity
Tigers have been kept in captivity since ancient times. In ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–50 ...
, tigers were displayed in amphitheatre
An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...
s; they were slaughtered in venatio hunts and used to kill criminals. The Mongol ruler Kublai Khan
Kublai ; Mongolian script: ; (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder of the Yuan dynasty of China and the fifth khagan-emperor of the ...
is reported to have kept tigers in the 13th century. Starting in the Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, tigers were being kept in European menagerie
A menagerie is a collection of captive animals, frequently exotic, kept for display; or the place where such a collection is kept, a precursor to the modern zoological garden.
The term was first used in 17th-century France, in reference to the ...
s. Tigers and other exotic animals were mainly used for the entertainment of elites but from the 19th century onward, they were exhibited more to the public. Tigers were particularly big attractions and their captive population soared. In 2020, there were over 8,000 captive tigers in Asia, over 5,000 in the US and no less than 850 in Europe. There are more tigers in captivity than in the wild.[ Captive tigers may display stereotypical behaviours such as pacing or inactivity. Modern zoos are able to reduce such behaviours with exhibits designed so the animals can move between separate but connected enclosures. Enrichment items are also important for the cat's welfare and the stimulation of its natural behaviours.
Tigers have played prominent roles in ]circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and uni ...
es and other live performances. Ringling Bros included many tiger tamers in the 20th century including Mabel Stark, who became a big draw and had a long career. She was well known for being able to control the tigers despite being a small woman; using "manly" tools like whips and guns. Another trainer was Clyde Beatty, who used chairs, whips and guns to provoke tigers and other beasts into acting fierce and allowed him to appear courageous. He would perform with as many as 40 tigers and lions in one act. From the 1960s onward, trainers like Gunther Gebel-Williams
Gunther Gebel-Williams (September 12, 1934 – July 19, 2001) was an animal trainer for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1968 to 1990.
Early life
Gebel was born in Schweidnitz, Lower Silesia (now Świdnica, Poland). As a c ...
would use gentler methods to control their animals. Sara Houcke was dubbed "the Tiger Whisperer" as she trained the cats to obey her by whispering to them. Siegfried & Roy
Siegfried & Roy were a duo of German-American magicians and entertainers, best known for their appearances with white lions and white tigers. It was composed of Siegfried Fischbacher (June 13, 1939 – January 13, 2021) and Roy Horn (born Uwe ...
became famous for performing with white tigers in Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...
. The act ended in 2003 when a tiger attacked Roy during a performance. In 2009, tigers were the most traded circus animals. The use of tigers and other animals in shows would eventually decline in many countries due to pressure from animal rights
Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the sa ...
groups and greater desires from the public to see them in more natural settings. Several countries restrict or ban such acts.
Tigers have become popular in the exotic pet
An exotic pet is a pet which is relatively rare or unusual to keep, or is generally thought of as a wild species rather than as a domesticated pet. The definition varies by culture, location, and over time—as animals become firmly enough est ...
trade, particularly in the United States where only 6% of the captive tiger population in 2020 were being housed in zoos and other facilities approved by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), originally the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums, is an American 501(c)(3)
nonprofit organization founded in 1924 and dedicated to the advancement of zoos and public aquariums ...
.[ Private collectors are thought to be ill-equipped to provide proper care for tigers, which compromises their welfare. They can also threaten public safety by allowing people to interact with them.] The keeping of tigers and other big cats by private people was banned in the US in 2022. Most countries in the European Union have banned breeding and keeping tigers outside of licensed zoos and rescue centres, but some still allow private holdings.
Cultural significance
The tiger is among the most famous of the charismatic megafauna
Charismatic megafauna are animal species that are large—in the relevant category that they represent—with symbolic value or widespread popular appeal, and are often used by environmental activists to gain public support for environmentalist g ...
. Kailash Sankhala
Kailash Sankhala (30 January 1925 – 15 August 1994) was an Indian biologist and conservationist. He was the Director of Delhi Zoological Park and Chief Wildlife Warden of Rajasthan. He is best known for his work in preserving tigers. Sankh ...
has called it "a rare combination of courage, ferocity and brilliant colour",[ while Candy d'Sa calls it "fierce and commanding on the outside, but noble and discerning on the inside". In a 2004 online poll involving more than 50,000 people from 73 countries, the tiger was voted the world's favourite animal with 21% of the vote, narrowly beating the dog. Similarly, a 2018 study found the tiger to be the most popular wild animal based on surveys, as well as appearances on websites of major zoos and posters of some animated movies.
While the lion represented royalty and power in ]Western culture
image:Da Vinci Vitruve Luc Viatour.jpg, Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions, human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise '' ...
, the tiger played such a role in various Asian cultures
Asian may refer to:
* Items from or related to the continent of Asia:
** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia
** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia
** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
. In ancient China, the tiger was seen as the "king of the forest" and symbolised the power of the emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( e ...
. In Chinese astrology
Chinese astrology is based on the traditional astronomy and calendars. Chinese astrology came to flourish during the Han Dynasty (2nd century BC to 2nd century AD).
Chinese astrology has a close relation with Chinese philosophy (theory of the ...
, the tiger is the third out of 12 symbols in the Chinese zodiac
The Chinese zodiac is a traditional classification scheme based on the lunar calendar that assigns an animal and its reputed attributes to each year in a repeating twelve-year cycle. Originating from China, the zodiac and its variations remai ...
and controls the period between 15:00 and 17:00 o'clock in the afternoon. The Year of the Tiger is thought to bring "dramatic and extreme events". The White Tiger
The white tiger or bleached tiger is a leucistic pigmentation variant of the Mainland tiger. It is reported in the wild from time to time in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, in the Sunderbans region and e ...
is one of the Four Symbols
The Four Symbols (, literally meaning "four images"), are four mythological creatures appearing among the Chinese constellations along the ecliptic, and viewed as the guardians of the four cardinal directions. These four creatures are also refe ...
of the Chinese constellations
Traditional Chinese astronomy has a system of dividing the celestial sphere into asterisms or constellations, known as "officials" (Chinese ''xīng guān'').
The Chinese asterisms are generally smaller than the constellations of Hellenistic t ...
, representing the west along with the yin
Yin may refer to:
*the dark force in the yin and yang from traditional Chinese philosophy and medicine
*Yīn (surname) (), a Chinese surname
*Yǐn (surname) (), a Chinese surname
*Shang dynasty, also known as the Yin dynasty
**Yinxu or Yin, the S ...
and the season of autumn. It is the counterpart to the Azure Dragon, which conversely symbolises the east, yang and springtime. The tiger is one of the animals displayed on the Pashupati seal of the Indus Valley Civilisation
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 Common Era, BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 B ...
. The big cat was depicted on seals and coins during the Chola dynasty
The Chola dynasty was a Tamil thalassocratic empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated to the 3rd century BC ...
of southern India, as it was the official emblem.[Thapar, R. "In Times Past" in ]
Tigers have had religious and folkloric significance. In Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
, the tiger, monkey and deer are the Three Senseless Creatures, with the tiger symbolising anger. In Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or ''dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global po ...
, the tiger is the vehicle
A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles ( motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles ( trains, trams ...
of Durga
Durga ( sa, दुर्गा, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars.
Durga's legend centres around comb ...
, the goddess of feminine power and peace, whom the gods created to fight demons. Similarly, in the Greco-Roman world
The Greco-Roman civilization (; also Greco-Roman culture; spelled Graeco-Roman in the Commonwealth), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were dir ...
, the tiger was depicted being ridden by the god Dionysus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...
. In Korean mythology
Korean mythology ( ) is the group of myths told by historical and modern Koreans. There are two types: the written, literary mythology in traditional histories, mostly about the founding monarchs of various historical kingdoms, and the much ...
, tigers are messengers of the Mountain Gods. In both Chinese and Korean culture
The traditional culture of Korea is the shared cultural and historical heritage of Korea and southern Manchuria before the division of Korea in 1945. Manchuria refers to the ancient geographical and historical region in Northeast Asia, includ ...
, tigers are seen as protectors against evil spirits and their image was used to decorate homes, tombs and articles of clothing.[ In the folklore of Malaysia and Indonesia, "tiger ]shaman
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a Spirit world (Spiritualism), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as tranc ...
s" heal the sick by invoking the big cat. People turning into tigers and the inverse has also been widespread; in particular weretigers are people who could change into tigers and back again. The Mnong people
The Mnong or Munong people ( Vietnamese: ''người Mơ-nông'') are an ethnic group mainly living in Central Highlands and Southeast regions of Vietnam, and Eastern region of Cambodia. They are made up of many smaller groups: Mnong Gar, Mno ...
of Indochina believed that tigers could shapeshift
In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shape-shifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, sorcery, spells or having inherited t ...
into humans. Among some indigenous peoples of Siberia, it was believed that men would seduce women by transforming into tigers.[
]William Blake
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...
's 1794 poem "The Tyger
"The Tyger" is a poem by the English poet William Blake, published in 1794 as part of his '' Songs of Experience'' collection and rising to prominence in the romantic period. The poem is one of the most anthologised in the English literary c ...
" portrays the animal as the duality of beauty and ferocity. It is the sister poem to " The Lamb" in Blake's ''Songs of Innocence and of Experience
''Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' is a collection of illustrated poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases: a few first copies were printed and illuminated by Blake himself in 1789; five years later, he bound these poems with a ...
'' and he ponders why God would create such different creatures. The tiger is featured in the mediaeval Chinese novel ''Water Margin
''Water Margin'' (''Shuihu zhuan'') is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' and ''All Men Are Brothers''.
The story, which is ...
'', where the cat battles and is slain by the bandit Wu Song
Wu Song ( zh, c=武松, p=wǔ sōng), also known as Wu the Second ( zh, c=武二郎, p=wŭ èrláng, labels=no), is a legendary hero recounted since the 13th century; and one of the well-known fictional characters in the ''Water Margin'', one of ...
, while the tiger Shere Khan in Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much o ...
's ''The Jungle Book
''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, w ...
'' (1894) is the mortal enemy of the human protagonist Mowgli
Mowgli () is a fictional character and the protagonist of Rudyard Kipling, Rudyard Kipling's ''The Jungle Book'' stories. He is a feral child, feral boy from the Pench National Park, Pench area in Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, India, who originally ap ...
. The image of the friendly tame tiger has also existed in culture, notably Tigger
Tigger is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic stuffed tiger. He was originally introduced in the 1928 story collection ''The House at Pooh Corner'', the sequel to the 1926 book ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' by A. A. Milne. Like other Pooh characte ...
, the Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard.
The first collection of stories about the character was the book ''Winn ...
character and Tony the Tiger, the Kellogg's
The Kellogg Company, doing business as Kellogg's, is an American multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States. Kellogg's produces cereal and convenience foods, including crackers and toas ...
cereal mascot.
See also
* List of largest cats
This list of largest cats shows the 10 largest extant Felidae species, ordered by maximum reported weight and size of wild individuals on record. The list does not contain cat hybrids, such as the liger or tigon.
List
Following list contains s ...
* International Tiger Day
''Global Tiger Day'', often called International Tiger Day, is an annual celebration to raise awareness for tiger conservation, held annually on 29 July. It was created in 2010 at the Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit in Russia. The goal of the day ...
* Tiger Temple
References
Bibliography
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External links
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{{Portal bar, Cats, Mammals, Animals, Biology, Asia
Apex predators
Big cats
Conservation-reliant species
EDGE species
Extant Pleistocene first appearances
Fauna of South Asia
Fauna of Southeast Asia
Felids of Asia
Mammals described in 1758
Mammals of East Asia
National symbols of India
National symbols of Malaysia
National symbols of Singapore
Panthera
Species endangered by agricultural development
Species endangered by deliberate extirpation efforts
Species endangered by human consumption for medicinal or magical purposes
Species endangered by logging
Species endangered by urbanization
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus