The Life of Tigers

Among the largest species of cats in the world, tigers can be found across much of Asia, from Russia in the north to Sumatra in the south. Of the species Panthera tigris, zoologists have classified nine subspecies of tigers, including the extinct Bali, Caspian and Javan tigers, to the living Malayan, Sumatran, South China, Indochinese, Bengal and Amur or Siberian tiger. Like the human fingerprint, no two tigers possess the same pattern of stripes, which helps scientist identify them in the wild, and while their habitat has shrunk to less than seven percent of their historic range, tigers thrive in temperate to tropical evergreen forests, mangrove swamps and grasslands.

Wide Range of Sizes

Ranging in size from the 660 pound, ten feet long Amur tiger to the 310 pound eight foot long Sumatran tiger, panthera tigris are considered apex predators that hunt large ungulates like wild boar and deer, generally feeding once a week, consuming upwards of 75 pounds per meal. Although known for hunting day or night, when tigers hunt at night, they lie in wait for unsuspecting prey, who fail to recognize their impending doom due to low light conditions and a tiger’s natural camouflage provided by their stripes. Known for their solitary nature except during mating season, tigers communicate with one another through roars, grunts and chuffing, relying on scent markings and scratches on trees to communicate where one tiger’s home range ends and another’s begins.

Olympiad Swimmers

Tigers are also adept swimmers, able to forge rivers and lakes as long as five miles in length. With a lifespan of 10 to 15 years and the wild and 20 in captivity, female tigers reach sexual maturity at three to four years, while males achieve sexual maturity at four to five years. Known as induced ovulators, which means that females release their eggs only upon mating, after a 100-day gestation period, female tigers give birth to an average one to four offspring at a time, raising their cubs for an average two years, until their maturing cubs have learned how to hunt.

High Mortality Rates

While only 40 percent of cubs reach maturity, even in adulthood, mortality rates remain high due to their highly territorial nature, which frequently puts them in direct competition with others of their kind. To worsen their plight, all six subspecies of living tigers have been placed on critically endangered or endangered species lists, which threatens their future survival due to poaching, retaliatory killings and habitat loss, making the life of tigers, a majestic yet threatened wonder of the natural world.