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BENGAL TIGER FACTS |
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Class: |
Mammalia |
Kingdom: |
Animalia |
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Phylum: |
Chordata |
Order: |
Carnivora |
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Family: |
Felidae |
Genus: |
Panthera |
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Species: |
P. tigris |
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Size: |
Male tiger can range u to 3 m (10
ft.), female to 2.7 m (9 ft.) |
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Weight: |
Male can be up to 225 kg (500 lb.),
female to 135 kg (300 lb.); |
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Territorial
behavior: Tigers are essentially solitary and territorial
animals. The size of a tiger's home range mainly depends on prey
abundance, and, in the case of male tigers, on access to females. A
tigress may have a territory of 20 square kilometers while the
territories of males are much larger, covering 60–100 km2. The
ranges of males tend to overlap those of several females.
The relationships between individuals can be quite complex, and it
appears that there is no set "rule" that tigers follow with regards
to territorial rights and infringing territories. For instance,
although for the most part tigers avoid each other, both male and
female tigers have been documented sharing kills. Dr. George Beals
Schaller is a mammalogist, naturalist, conservationist and author,
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, suggesting 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. Furthermore,
tigers seem to behave relatively amicably when sharing kills, in
contrast to lions, which tend to squabble and fight. Unrelated
tigers have also been observed feeding on prey together.
When young female tigers first establish a territory, they tend to
do so fairly close to their mother's area. The overlap between the
female and her mother's territory tends to wane with increasing
time. Males, however, wander further than their female counterparts,
and set out at a younger age to eke out their own area. A young male
will acquire territory either by seeking out a range devoid of other
male tigers, or by living as a transient in another male's
territory, until he is old and strong enough to challenge the
resident male. The highest mortality rate (30-35% per year) amongst
adult tigers occurs for young male tigers who have just left their
natal area, seeking out territories of their own.
Male tigers are generally more intolerant of other males within
their territory than females are of other females. For the most
part, however, territorial disputes are usually solved by displays
of intimidation, rather than outright aggression. Several such
incidents have been observed, in which the subordinate tiger yielded
defeat by rolling onto its back, showing its belly in a submissive
posture. Once dominance has been established, a male may actually
tolerate a subordinate within his range, as long as they do not live
in too close quarters. The most violent disputes tend to occur
between two males when a female is in oestrus, and may result in the
death of one of the males, although this is actually a relatively
rare occurrence.
To identify his territory, the male marks trees by spraying of urine
and anal gland secretions, as well as marking trails with scat.
Males show a grimacing face, called the Flehmen response, when
identifying a female's reproductive condition by sniffing their
urine markings. |
Hunting and diet:
In the wild, tigers mostly feed on larger and medium sized animals.
Sambar, gaur, domestic buffalo, chital, boar, and nilgai are the
tiger's favored prey in India. Sometimes, they also prey on
leopards, pythons, sloth bears and crocodiles. They are
opportunistic and will eat much smaller prey, such as monkeys,
peafowls, hares, and fish, crabs. Tigers also 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. Old tigers, or those wounded and rendered
incapable of catching their natural prey, have turned into
man-eaters; this pattern has recurred frequently across India. An
exceptional case is that of the Sundarbans, where healthy tigers
prey upon fishermen and villagers in search of forest produce,
humans thereby forming a minor part of the tiger's diet.
Tigers usually hunt at night. They generally hunt alone and ambush
their prey as most 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 49-65
kilometres per hour (35-40 miles per hour), although they can only
do so in short bursts, since they have relatively little stamina;
consequently, tigers must be relatively close to their prey before
they break their cover. Tigers have great leaping ability;
horizontal leaps of up to 10 metres have been reported, although
leaps of around half this amount are more typical. However, only one
in twenty hunts ends in a successful kill. When hunting large prey,
tigers prefer to bite the throat and use their forelimbs to hold
onto the prey, bringing it to the ground. The tiger remains latched
onto the neck until its prey dies of strangulation. By this method,
gaurs and water buffalos weighing over a ton have been killed by
tigers weighing about a sixth as much. With small prey, the tiger
bites the nape, often breaking the spinal cord, piercing the
windpipe, or severing the jugular vein or common carotid artery.
Though rarely observed, some tigers have been recorded to kill prey
by swiping with their paws, which are powerful enough to smash the
skulls of domestic cattle, and break the backs of sloth bears. |
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Reproduction :
Females achieve sexual maturity at 3 to 4 years whereas males
achieve the same at the age of 4 to 5 years. Mating can occur all
year round, but is generally more common between November and April.
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 16 weeks. The
litter size usually consists of around 3–4 cubs of about 1 kg (2 lb)
each, which are born blind and helpless. The females rear them
alone, father of the cubs generally takes no part in rearing them.
Unrelated wandering male tigers may even kill cubs to make the
female receptive, since the tigress may give birth to another litter
within 5 months if the cubs of the previous litter are lost. |
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Physical
characteristics: Today, tigers are perhaps the most recognizable
of all the cats (with the possible exception of the lion). They
typically have rusty-reddish to brown-rusty coats, a whitish medial
and ventral area, a white "fringe" that surrounds the face, and
stripes that vary from brown or gray to pure black. The form and
density of stripes differs between subspecies (as well as the ground
coloration of the fur; for instance, Siberian tigers are usually
paler than other tiger subspecies), but most tigers have over 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 help tigers
conceal themselves amongst the dappled shadows and long grass of
their environment as they stalk their prey. The stripe pattern is
found on a tiger's skin and if shaved, its distinctive camouflage
pattern would be preserved. Like other big cats, tigers have a white
spot on the backs of their ears. |
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Habitat:
Typical tiger country has three main features: It will always have
good cover, it will always be close to water and plenty of prey.
Bengal Tigers live in all types of forests, including Wet,
Evergreen, semi-evergreen of Assam and eastern Bengal; the mangrove
forest of Ganges Delta; The deciduous forest of Nepal and thorn
forests of the Western Ghats. Among the big cats, only the tiger and
jaguar are strong swimmers; tigers are often found bathing in ponds,
lakes, and rivers. Unlike other cats, which tend to avoid water,
tigers actively seek it out. During the extreme heat of the day,
they are often to be found cooling off in pools. Tigers are
excellent swimmers, better than the jaguar and can swim up to 4
miles. Tigers are often to be found carrying their dead prey across
lakes. |
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Man-eating tigers:
Although humans are not regular prey for tigers, they have killed
more people than any other cat, particularly in areas where
population growth, logging, and farming have put pressure on tiger
habitats. Most man-eating tigers are old and missing teeth,
acquiring a taste for humans because of their inability to capture
preferred prey. Almost all tigers that are identified as man-eaters
are quickly captured, shot, or poisoned. Unlike man-eating leopards,
even established man-eating tigers will seldom enter human
settlements, usually remaining at village outskirts. Nevertheless,
attacks in human villages do occur. Man-eaters have been a
particular problem in India and Bangladesh, especially in Kumaon,
Garhwal and the Sundarbans mangrove swamps of Bengal, where some
healthy tigers have been known to hunt humans. Because of rapid
habitat loss due to climate change, tiger attacks have increased in
the Sundarbans. |
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