Tiger

For other uses, see Tiger (disambiguation).

Tiger
Bengal Tiger (P. tigris tigris)
Conservation status
Endangered
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Felidae
Genus:	Panthera
Species:	P. tigris
Binomial name
Panthera tigris (Linnaeus, 1758)
Historical distribution of tigers (pale yellow) and 2006 (green).
Synonyms
Felis tigris Linnaeus, 1758 Tigris striatus Severtzov, 1858 Tigris regalis Gray, 1867

The tiger (Panthera tigris) is a mammal of the Felidae family, one of four "big cats" in the Panthera genus. Native to the mainland of southeastern Asia, the tiger is an apex predator and the largest feline species in the world, comparable in size to the biggest fossil felids. The Bengal Tiger is the most common subspecies of tiger, constituting approximately 80% of the entire tiger population, and is found in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Nepal. It is the national animal of India. An endangered species, the majority of the world's tigers now live in captivity.

The tiger is solitary and territorial, preferring cover in deep forest, but also ranging in open areas. The cat hunts by stalk-and-ambush and may take a variety of mid- and large-sized prey, particularly ungulates. Males are much larger than females and have larger home ranges. Amongst the nine extant tiger subspecies, there is significant size variation.

Physical characteristics

Tigers are the heaviest cats found in the wild, but the subspecies differ strongly in size. Large male Siberian Tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) can reach a total length of 3.5 m and a weight of 300 kg. Apart of those exceptional large individuals, male siberian tigers usually have a head and body length of 190–220 cm and an average weight of 250 kg. (The tail of a tiger is 60–110 cm long.) The heaviest Indian Tiger (P. t. tigris), which is confirmed through reliable sources weighed 258 kg (570 lb). Reports of tigers weighing far more than 300 kg are mentioned in literature, but none of these cases is confirmed. Females are smaller, those of the Siberian or Indian subspecies weigh only between 100 and 167 kg. Isle tigers like the sumatran subspecies (P. t. sumatrae) are much smaller than mainland tigers and weigh usually only 100–140 kg in males and 75–110 kg in females. The extinct bali tiger (P. t. balica) was even smaller with a weight of 90–100 kg in males and 65–80 kg in females.

Tigers have rusty-reddish to brown-rusty coats, a fair (whitish) medial and ventral area and stripes that vary from brown or hay to pure black. The form and density of stripes differs between subspecies, but most tigers have in excess of 100 stripes. The pattern of stripes is unique to each animal, and thus could potentially be used to identify individuals, much in the same way as fingerprints are used to identify people. This is not, however, a preferred method of identification, due to the difficulty of recording the stripe pattern of a wild tiger. It seems likely that the function of stripes is camouflage, serving to hide these animals from their prey. The stripe pattern is found on a tiger's skin and if shaved, its distinctive camouflage pattern would be preserved.

Like most cats, tigers are believed to have some degree of colour vision.

There is a well-known mutation that produces the white tiger, an animal which is rare in the wild, but widely bred in zoos due to its popularity. The white tiger is not a separate sub-species, but only a colour variation. There are also unconfirmed reports of a "blue" or slate-coloured tiger, and largely or totally black tigers, and these are assumed, if real, to be intermittent mutations rather than distinct species. Similar to the lion, the tiger has the ability to roar.

Biology and ecology

Home range

Adult tigers are territorial and fiercely defensive. The size of a tigers home range mainly depends on prey abundance and in case of male tigers on access to females. A tigress may have a territory of 20 km² while the territories of males are much larger, covering 60–100 km². While females can at times be aggressive towards other females, their territories can overlap and they do tolerate each other. Males on the other hand are usually intolerant of other males within their territory unless they are just passing by. Because of their aggressive nature, territorial disputes can be violent and may end in the death of one of the males, though deaths are uncommon. Most encounters between tigers end without physical incident. To identify his territory the male marks trees by spraying urine and anal gland secretions on trees as well as by marking trails with scat. Males show a behaviour called flehmen, a grimacing face, when identifying a female's reproductive condition by sniffing their urine markings.

Male tigers can mingle easily with females in their territories and will even share kills. George Schaller observed a male tiger share a kill with two females and four cubs. Females are often reluctant to let males near their cubs, but Schaller saw that these females made no effort to protect or keep their cubs from the male. This suggest that the male might have been the father of the cubs. In contrast to male lions, male tigers will allow the females and cubs to feed on the kill first. Females will also share kills, even more so than the males. They are also much more tolerate of sharing kills with individuals of the same sex.

Tigers have been studied in the wild using a variety of techniques. The populations of tigers were estimated in the past using plaster casts of their pugmarks. In recent times, camera trapping has been used instead. Newer techniques based on DNA from their scat are also being evaluated. Radio collaring has also been a popular approach to tracking them for study in the wild.

Reproduction

A female is only receptive for a few days and mating is frequent during that time period. A pair will copulate frequently and noisily, like other cats. The gestation period is 103 days and 3–4 cubs of about 1 kg (2 lb) each are born. The females rear them alone. Wandering male tigers may kill cubs to make the female receptive. At 8 weeks, the cubs are ready to follow their mother out of the den. The cubs become independent around 18 months of age, but it is not until they are around 2–2½ years old that they leave their mother. The cubs reach sexual maturity by 3–4 years of age. The female tigers generally own territory near their mother, while males tend to wander in search of territory, which they acquire by fighting and eliminating another male. Over the course of her life, a female tiger will give birth to an approximately equal number of male and female cubs. Tigers breed well in captivity, and the captive population in the United States may rival the wild population of the world.

Habitat

Tigers are found in a variety of habitats, from tropical rainforests and boreal forests to dry savannas as they are found in Ranthambore National Park. Compared to the lion, the tiger prefers more dense vegetation, for which its camouflage is ideally suited, and where a single predator is not at a disadvantage compared to a pride. Among the big cats, only the tiger and jaguar are strong swimmers; tigers are often found bathing in ponds, lakes, and rivers.

Food

Tiger dentition. The large canines are used to make the killing bite, but they tear meat when feeding using the carnassial teeth

In the wild, tigers mostly feed on larger and medium sized ungulates. Sambar, chital, wild boar and nilgai are the tiger's favoured prey in India. In Siberia the main prey species are Mandchurian elk, wild boar, sika deer, roe deer and musk deer. In Sumatra; Rusa deer, wild boar and Malayan tapir are preyed on. Tigers also prey on large herbivores like water buffalos, gaurs and moose. Like many predators, they are opportunistic and will eat much smaller prey such as as monkeys, peacocks, hares and fish.

They also may kill such formidable predators as canids, leopards, and pythons. Tigers have been known to kill even crocodiles on occasion, although predation is rare and the predators typically avoid one another. Siberian tigers and brown bears are a serious threat to each other; however, tigers kill bear cubs and even ambush adult brown bears. Bears (Asiatic black bears and brown bears) make up 5-8% of the tigers diet in the Russian Far East. Sloth bears of are quite aggressive and will sometimes drive tigers away from their kills altough the opposite happens as well and in some cases Indian tigers even prey on sloth bears.

Adult elephants are too dangerous to tigers to serve as common prey, but conflicts between elephants and tigers do sometimes take place. A case where a tiger killed an adult female Indian rhino has been observed Young elephant and rhino calves are occasionally taken.

Tigers sometimes prey on domestic animals such as dogs, cows, horses and donkeys. These individuals are termed cattle-lifters or cattle-killers in contrast to typical game-killers. Especially old and injured tigers have have been known to attack humans and are then termed as man-eaters, which often leads to them being captured, shot or poisoned. The Sundarbans mangrove swamps of Bengal, where some healthy tigers have been known to hunt humans, have had a higher incidence of man-eaters.

In all of their range, tigers are the top predators and do not compete with other carnivores other than the dhole or Indian wild dog, which makes up for its relative lack of strength by numbers.

Hunting methods

Hunting Tiger

Tigers' extremely strong jaws and sharp teeth make them superb predators.

Tigers hunt alone and prefer medium to large sized herbivores. They ambush their prey as other cats do, overpowering them from any angle, using their body size and strength to knock large prey off balance. Even with their great masses, tigers can reach speeds of about 60 km/h (37 mph). Tigers prefer to bite the throats of large prey and it uses its muscled forelimbs to hold onto the prey, bringing it to the ground. The tiger remains latched onto the neck until its prey dies. With small prey, the tiger bites the nape, often breaking the spinal cord, piercing the windpipe, or severing the jugular vein or carotid artery. The prey is killed instantly.

In the wild, tigers can leap as high as 5 m (16 ft) and as far as 9–10 m (30–33 ft), making them one of the highest-jumping mammals (just slightly behind cougars in jumping ability).

They have been reported to carry domestic livestock weighing 50 kg (110 lb) while easily jumping over fences 2 m (6 ft 6 in) high. Their heavily muscled forelimbs are used to hold tightly onto the prey and to avoid being dislodged, especially by large prey such as gaurs. Gaurs and water buffalos weighing over a ton have been killed by tigers weighing about a sixth as much. The combination of claws and power behind a tiger's paws enables it to kill an adult human with one swipe.

Extinction risk

Main article: Tiger hunting

File:1990tiger.PNG

Tiger headcount in 1990

Humans are the tiger's most significant predator, as tigers are often poached illegally for their fur. Many Indian tigers' parts found their way to Tibet, where they were widely used for making traditional costumes.

At the Kalachakra Tibetan Buddhist festival in south India in January 2006 the Dalai Lama preached a ruling against using, selling, or buying wild animals, their products, or derivatives. The result when Tibetan pilgrims returned to Tibet afterwards was much destruction by Tibetans of their wild animal skins including tiger and leopard skins used as ornamental garments. It has yet to be seen whether this will result in a long-term slump in the demand for poached tiger and leopard skins.

Their bones and nearly all body parts are used in traditional Chinese medicine for a range of purported uses including pain killers and aphrodisiacs. The use of tiger parts in pharmaceutical drugs in China is already banned. China has even made some offenses in connection with Tiger poaching punishable by death. Poaching for fur and destruction of habitat have greatly reduced tiger populations in the wild. A century ago, it is estimated there were over 100,000 tigers in the world; now numbers are down to below 2,500 mature breeding individuals, with no subpopulation containing more than 250 mature breeding individuals; the threat of extinction is mitigated, however, by the presence of some 20,000 tigers currently in captivity.

Subspecies

There are nine recent subspecies of tiger, three of which are extinct and one of which is almost certain to become extinct in the near future. Their historical range (severely diminished today) ran through Russia, Siberia, Iran, Afghanistan, India, China and south-east Asia, including the Indonesian islands. These are the surviving subspecies, in descending order of wild population:

Bengal tiger

• The Bengal tiger or the Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is found in parts of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. It lives in varied habitats: grasslands, subtropical and tropical rainforests, scrub forests, wet and dry deciduous forests and mangroves. The Indian government's estimated population figure for these tigers is between 3,100 and 4,500, some 3,000 of which are found in India alone. However, many Indian tiger conservationists doubt this number, seeing it as overly optimistic. The number of Bengal tigers in India may be fewer than 2,000, as most of the collected statistics are based on pugmark identification, which often gives a biased result. Even though this is the most 'common' tiger, these tigers are under severe pressure from both habitat destruction and poaching. In 1972, India launched a massive wildlife conservation project, known as Project Tiger, to protect the depleting numbers of tigers in India. The project helped increase the population of these tigers from 1,200 in the 1970s to 3,000 in the 1990s and is considered as one of the most successful wildlife conservation programs. At least one Tiger Reserve (Sariska) has lost its entire tiger population to poaching. Male Bengal tigers range anywhere from 180 to 258 kg and females range between 100–160 kg. Males in the wild usually weigh 205 to 227 kg (450–500 lb), while the average female will weigh about 130 kg. However, the northern Indian and the Nepalese Bengal tigers are considerably bulkier than those found in the south of the Indian Subcontinent.

Indochinese Tiger

• The Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti), also called Corbett's tiger, is found in Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Estimates of its population vary between 1,200 to 1,800, but it seems likely that the number is in the lower part of the range. The largest current population is in Malaysia, where illegal poaching is strictly controlled, but all existing populations are at extreme risk from habitat fragmentation and inbreeding. In Vietnam, almost three-quarters of the tigers killed provide stock for Chinese pharmacies. Also, the tigers are seen by poor natives as a resource through which they can ease poverty. Indochinese tigers are smaller and darker than Bengal tigers. Males weigh from 150–190 kg (330–420 lb) on average while females are smaller at 110–140 kg (242–308 lb).

• The Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni), exclusively found in the southern (Malaysian) part of the Malay Peninsula, was not considered a subspecies in its own right until 2004. The new classification came about after a study by Luo et al. from the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity Study, part of the National Cancer Institute of the United States. Recent counts showed there are 600–800 tigers in the wild, making it the third largest tiger population behind the Bengal tiger and the Indochinese tiger. The Malayan tiger is a national icon in Malaysia, appearing on its coat of arms and in logos of Malaysian institutions, such as Maybank.

Sumatran tiger

• The Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The wild population is estimated at between 400 and 500, seen chiefly in the island's national parks. Recent genetic testing has revealed the presence of unique genetic markers, indicating that it may develop into a separate species, if it is not made extinct. This has led to suggestions that Sumatran tigers should have greater priority for conservation than any other subspecies. Habitat destruction is the main threat to the existing tiger population (logging continues even in the supposedly protected national parks), but 66 tigers were recorded as being shot and killed between 1998 and 2000, or nearly 20% of the total population. The Sumatran tiger is the smallest of all living tiger subspecies. Adult males weigh between 100–130 kg (220–286 lb), females 70–90 kg (154–198 lb). Their small size is an adaptation to the thick, dense forests of the Sumatra island where they reside, as well as the smaller-sized prey. On February 3 2007 a pregnant Sumatran Tiger was caught by people from Rokan Hilir village at Riau province. Indonesian fauna conservation officials are planning to transfer her to the Bogor Safari Park in Java.

Amur tiger

• The Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), also known as the Siberian, Manchurian or North China tiger, is confined completely to the Amur region in far eastern Siberia, where it is now protected. The last two censuses (1996 and 2005) found 450–500 Amur tigers within their single and more or less continuous range making it one of the largest undivided tiger populations in the world. Considered the largest subspecies, with the exception of the northern Indian and the Nepalese Bengal tigers, the largest Amur tiger on record weighed 306 kg (675 lb). The average weight of a male Amur tiger is around 227 kg (500 lb). The Amur tiger is also noted for its thick coat, distinguished by a paler golden hue and a smaller number of stripes. The Amur tiger is the largest and heaviest of all naturally-occuring felines. A six-month old Amur tiger can be as big as a fully grown leopard. There is only one cat that grows to a larger size than the male Amur Tiger: the Liger, a genetic mutation bred in captivity. Its parents are always a male lion and a female tiger.

South China tiger

• The South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis), also known as the Amoy or Xiamen tiger, is the most critically endangered subspecies of tiger and will almost certainly become extinct. It is one of the smaller tiger subspecies. The length of the South China tiger ranges from 2.2–2.6 m (87–104 in) for both males and females. Males weigh between 127 and 177 kg (280–390 lb) while females weigh between 100 and 118 kg (220–260 lb). It seems likely that the last known wild South China tiger was shot and killed in 1994, and no live tigers have been seen in their natural habitat for the last 20 years. In 1977, the Chinese government passed a law banning the killing of wild tigers, but this appears to have been too late to save the subspecies. There are currently 59 known captive South China tigers, all within China, but these are known to be descended from only six animals. Thus, the genetic diversity required to maintain the subspecies may no longer exist, making extinction a possibility. Currently, there are breeding efforts to reintroduce these tigers to the wild by 2008.

Extinct tiger subspecies

File:Panthera tigris balica.jpg

A hunted down Balinese Tiger.

• The Balinese tiger (Panthera tigris balica) has always been limited to the island of Bali. These tigers were hunted to extinction – the last Balinese tiger is thought to have been killed at Sumbar Kima, West Bali on 27 September 1937; this was an adult female. No Balinese tiger was ever held in captivity. The tiger still plays an important role in Balinese Hindu religion.

• The Javan tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) was limited to the Indonesian island of Java. It now seems likely that this subspecies was made extinct in the 1980s, as a result of hunting and habitat destruction, but the extinction of this subspecies was extremely probable from the 1950s onwards (when it is thought that fewer than 25 tigers remained in the wild). The last specimen was sighted in 1979.

• The Caspian tiger or Persian Tiger (Panthera tigris virgata) appears to have become extinct in the late 1960s, with the last reliable sighting in 1968, though it is thought that such a tiger was last shot dead in the south-eastern-most part of Turkey in 1970. Historically it ranged through Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, the former Soviet Union and Turkey. The Caspian tiger was a large subspecies and reached nearly the dimensions of the Bengal Tiger. The heaviest confirmed weight of a male was 240 kg. The ground colour was comparable to that of the indian subspecies, but differed especially in the tight, narrow striping pattern. The stripes were rather dark grey or brown than black. Especially during the winter was the fur relatively long. The Caspian tiger was one of two subspecies of tiger (along with the Bengal) that was used by the Romans to battle gladiators and other animals, including the Barbary Lion.

Evolution

The Tiger is uncommon in the fossil record, which is why its evolution remains partly unclear. The oldest remains of a tiger like cat, called Panthera palaeosinensis have been found in China and Java. This species occurred about 2 million years ago at the beginning of the pleistocene and was smaller than a tiger. Early true tiger fossils stem from Java and are between 1.6 and 1.8 million years old. Distinct fossils from the early and middle pleistocene were discovered in deposits from China, Sumatra and Java. A subspecies called Trinil tiger (Panthera tigris trinilensis) for example occurred about 1.2 million years ago and was found at the locality of Trinil, Java, Indonesia. In India, and northern Asia the tiger appears for the first time in the late pleistocene. Fossil tigers were also found in eastern Beringia (but not on the American Continent) and Sachalin island. Tiger fossils of the late pleistocene have also turned up in Japan. These fossils indicate that the Japanese tiger was not bigger than the island subspecies of tigers of recent ages. This may be due to the phenomenon in which body size is related to environmental space (see island dwarfism), or in the case of a large predator like a tiger, availability of prey. Until the Holocene tigers occurred also in Borneo, where it is not present today.

Traditional Asian medicine

Skeleton

Tiger parts are used in traditional Chinese medicines. Many people in China believe that tiger parts have medicinal properties. There is no scientific corroboration to these beliefs, which include:

• The tail of the tiger is sometimes ground and mixed with soap to create an ointment for use in treating skin cancer.
• The bones found in the tip of the tiger's tail are said to ward off evil spirits.
• Crushed tiger bones added to wine serves as a Taiwanese general tonic.
• The feet of a tiger, when dipped in palm oil and hung in front of a door is said to diminish the likelihood of evil spirits from entering.
• Tiger's skin is said to cure a fever caused by ghosts. In order to use it effectively, the user must sit on the tiger's skin, but beware; if too much time is spent on the tiger's skin, legend says the user will become a tiger.
• Adding honey to the gallstones and applying the combination to the hands and feet is said to effectively treat abscesses.
• Burnt tiger hair can allegedly drive away centipedes.
• Mixing the brain of a tiger with oil and rubbing the mixture on your body is an alleged cure for both laziness and acne.
• Rolling the eyeballs into pills is an alleged remedy for convulsions.
• If whiskers are kept as a charm, legend says one will be protected against bullets and have increased courage.
• One will allegedly possess courage and shall be protected from sudden fright if you wear a tiger's claw as a piece of jewellery or carry one in your pocket.
• Strength, cunning, and courage can allegedly be obtained by consuming a tiger's heart.
• Floating ribs of a tiger are considered a good luck talisman.
• The tiger's penis is said to be an aphrodisiac.
• Small bones in a tiger's feet tied to a child's wrists are said to be a sure cure for convulsions.

Tigers in literature and popular culture

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?...

William Blake, "The Tyger", Songs of Experience. The most anthologized poem in the English language.

The word "tiger" is borrowed from the Greek word "tigris", which itself is derived "possibly from an Iranian source." In American English, "Tigress" was first recorded in 1611. "Tiger's-eye" is a name for a golden-brown striped, chatoyant, fibrous variety of quartz used as a semi-precious gemstone.

The tiger has long been a subject of imaginative literature. Both Rudyard Kipling in The Jungle Book and William Blake in Songs of Experience depict the tiger as a menacing and fearful animal. In The Jungle Book, the tiger, Shere Khan, is the wicked mortal enemy of the protagonist, Mowgli. However, other depictions are more benign: Tigger, the tiger from A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories, is cuddly and likable. In the Man Booker Prize winning novel "Life of Pi," the protagonist, Pi Patel, sole human survivor of a ship wreck in the Atlantic Ocean, befriends another survivor: a large Bengal Tiger. The famous comic strip Calvin and Hobbes features Calvin and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes. A tiger is also featured on the cover of the popular cereal "Frosted Flakes" bearing the name "Tony the Tiger".

The tiger is one of the most popular sports teams nicknames/mascots. Some examples are the Australian Football League team Richmond Tigers, the American Major League Baseball team Detroit Tigers, the Australian NRL team Wests Tigers, the English rugby union club Leicester Tigers, the English football (soccer) club Hull City and the NCAA Division I sports teams LSU Tigers, Auburn Tigers, and Clemson Tigers.

During Bleeding Kansas in 1850s, pro-slavery militiamen operating out of Missouri who raided anti-slavery settlements in Kansas styled themselves the "Tigers." This tradition survives in University of Missouri mascot "Tigers."

Humble Oil, a division of Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, USA, (Jersey Standard), used a caricatured tiger and the slogan "Put a Tiger in your Tank" to promote their gasoline/petrol products. Jersey Standard used a real tiger in its advertising when it took the Exxon name company-wide in 1972 and when advertising abroad as Esso. The brand kept the tiger mascot as a part of ExxonMobil when they merged in 1999.

The tiger is one of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals. Also in various Chinese art and martial art, the tiger is depicted as an equal rival towards the Chinese dragon. In Imperial China, a tiger often represented the highest army general (or present day defense secretary), while the emperor and empress were represented by a dragon and phoenix, respectively.

The tiger is regarded as the king of the jungle in most parts of Asia, because its forehead has a marking which resembles the Chinese character 王, which means "king". Consequently, many cartoon depictions of tigers in China are drawn with 王 on their forehead.

In a poll organised by Animal Planet in 2004, More than 50,000 viewers from 73 countries voted to decide their favourite animal. The tiger received 10,904 votes winning the title of the World's Favourite Animal, beating man's best friend, dog, by 17 votes. Third most popular was the dolphin, followed by the horse and the lion.

A stylized tiger cub, "Hodori", was a mascot of the 1988 Summer Olympic Games of Seoul.

The image and name of the tiger are used on tins of Tiger Balm, an ointment for strained or sore muscles.

The tiger as a national animal

The Tiger is the national animal of:

• Bangladesh (Royal Bengal Tiger)
• China, along with Dragon and Panda; the Tiger is the unofficial symbol
• India (Royal Bengal Tiger)
• Malaysia
• Nepal (Royal Bengal Tiger)
• North Korea (Siberian Tiger)
• South Korea (Siberian Tiger)
• Former Nazi Germany along with the black eagle (currently it is the black eagle (Bundesadler) (official) and leopard (unofficial)
• Former USSR (Siberian Tiger) (currently it is the Bear and golden bicephalic eagle)

• Soviet propaganda against the 'Nazi Tiger'
  Soviet propaganda against the 'Nazi Tiger'
• 
  Coat of Arms of Malaysia
• Coat of Arms of Tamil Eelam
  Coat of Arms of Tamil Eelam

Pet tigers

The American Zoo and Aquarium Association estimates that up to 12,000 tigers are being kept as private pets in the USA, which is significantly more than the world's entire wild population. 4000 are believed to be in captivity in Texas alone.

Part of the reason for America's enormous tiger population relates to legislation. Only nineteen states have banned private ownership of tigers, fifteen require only a licence, and sixteen states have no regulations at all.

The success of breeding programmes at American zoos and circuses led to an overabundance of cubs in the 1980s and 90s, which drove down prices for the animals. The SPCA estimate there are now 500 lions, tigers and other big cats in private ownership just in the Houston area.

Media

Video of the Panthera tigris at Disney's Animal Kingdom Template:Multi-video start Template:Multi-video item Template:Multi-video item Template:Multi-video item Template:Multi-video item Template:Multi-video item Template:Multi-video item Template:Multi-video item Template:Multi-video item Template:Multi-video end

• Endangered TV Video of the Siberian Tiger and other Endangered Animals.
• Endangered TV Video of the Sumatran Tiger and other Endangered Animals.
• Endangered TV Video of the Indochinese Tiger and other Endangered Animals.
• Imagine Animals Free images of the Indochinese Tiger and other Endangered Animals.
• Imagine Animals Free images of the Siberian Tiger and other Endangered Animals.
• Imagine Animals Free images of the Sumatran Tiger and other Endangered Animals.

See also

• White tiger
• Black tiger (animal)
• Smilodon (popularly known as the Sabertooth tiger, but not actually closely related to tigers). For other prehistoric mammals given this popular name, see saber-toothed tiger.
• Tigon, a hybrid of a male tiger and female lion
• Liger, a hybrid of a male lion and female tiger
• Tiger Temple, a Buddhist temple in Thailand famous for its tame tigers
• Siegfried & Roy, two famous tamers of tigers
• Project Tiger
• Maltese Tiger
• Toyger, a cat breed that looks like a mini-tiger.

References

General references

• Mazák, V. 1981. Panthera tigris. (PDF). Mammalian Species, 152: 1-8. American Society of Mammalogists.
• Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999 ISBN 0-8018-5789-9
• Tom Brakefield. 1993. Big cats kingdom of might, Voyageur press.
• John Seidensticker: Riding the Tiger. Tiger Conservation in Human-dominated Landscapes Cambridge University Press, 1999 ISBN 0521648351

External links

• Save The Tiger Fund
• Sundarbans Tiger Project Research and Conservation of tigers in the largest remaining mangrove forest in the world.
• Tiger Conservation Securing a future for Tigers in the wild
• Tigers in Crisis Information about the Earth's vanishing Tigers.
• BBC Wildfacts: Tiger
• Can India's tigers survive extinction? Author Valmik Thapar on the tiger crisis
• Why India's tigers may yet survive Scientist Ullas Karanth on the road ahead
• Tiger Haven Sanctuary

Gallery

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  Picture of Felis tigris (Panthera tigris) subspecies unknown
• 
  Indian painting, by Indischer Maler, c. 1650