Drawing of a Tiger by Team 4

What is a Tiger?

The tiger, one of the most magnificent animals in the world, is also one of the most endangered. A tiger is a mammal belonging to the family Felidea ( the cat family) in the order Carnivora. Carnivore means "meat eater." A cat of beauty, strength and majesty, the tiger is master of all and subject to none, except humans.

Largest of all cats, tigers are formidable predators with razor sharp claws, long teeth and powerful jaws and legs. Tigers can bring down animals far heavier than themselves, including buffalo, deer and wild bear. The tiger's speed and refined hunting skills also capture feasts of small prey, contributing to the 40 to 100 pounds (18 to 45 kg.) of meat that tigers can eat in a day. All tigers are striped, but each tiger's markings are unique. Tigers range in weight from 180 to 500 pounds (80 - 230 kg). Adult males are larger than adult females.

Tigers increasingly compete with expanding human population and industry for land and food, and many are killed by poachers who sell their skins and body parts as ingredients for traditional Chinese medicines. If these trends continue, the wild tiger may soon be extinct. Tigers perfer to live in densely covered land, where they can hide in tall grasses camouflaged by their dark stripes, and ambush their prey.

In dense forests it is easiest for a tiger to sneak up on prey when it is alone. Partly for this reason, unlike lions, tigers live solitary lives. Young tigers live with their mother until they are two or three years old, when they are old enough to fend for themselves and find territories of their own. Territories can range from 10 to 600 square miles.

Many people think that tigers live in Africa along with lions. Few people know or understand what the daily life of a tiger includes.



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