TIGERS: CHARACTERISTICS, STRIPES, NUMBERS, HABITAT

TIGERS

Tigers (Panthera tigris) are large, striped carnivorous cats native to Asia. They first appeared on the fossil record about a million years ago in southern China. They were abundant over much of Asia until the 19th century, and lived in an area that extended from Iran to Siberia, Korea and Bali. [Source: Geoffrey Ward, National Geographic, December 1997; Stanley Breeden, National Geographic, December 1984; Eugene Linden, Time magazine, March 28, 1994; John Burns, New York Times, March 15, 1994; Geoffrey C. Ward, Smithsonian, November 1987.

Tiger are the largest felidae animals (members of the cat family in the world. Leonardo DiCaprio and Carter S. Roberts wrote in the Washington Post, “Tigers have long provoked awe in the human imagination, becoming symbols of untamed nature whose "fearful symmetry," in the words of William Blake, has inspired everything from art to advertising. In the wild, however, tigers are on the verge of disappearing. [Source: Leonardo DiCaprio and Carter S. Roberts, Washington Post, November 7, 2010]

The Indian naturalist Kahlashi Sakkhala wrote: the tiger “is a creature of hypnotic power and fascination. The more one sees of this beautiful beast, the more one is charmed by its gorgeous color, the vivid pattern of the stripes on its glossy skin, the strength of the muscles and the grace of the tiger’s movements. But the tiger is far from being just a beautiful big cat. It is at the apex of nature’s pyramid, a balancing force on all the animals and creatures within its kingdom.

Mark Magnier wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “In India, the tiger is considered a national treasure. Durga, the powerful Hindu goddess, rides a tiger, while Shiva, the god of destruction and regeneration, sits on a tiger skin. But not everyone is enamored of its stripes.” "People facing the music every day are not tiger lovers," tiger reserve conservator Sunayan Sharma said. "They always say they are not against the tiger, but the moment you believe them, you are finished." [Source: Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times, September 8, 2009]

Books: “Tigers and Tigerwallahs” by Geoffrey C. Ward, (Oxford University Press, 2002); “Wild Tigers of Ranthambhore” by Fateh Singh Rathore (Oxford University Press, 2000); “Tigers: The Secret Life” by Valmik Thapar, a prominent Indian naturalist (Oxford University Press, 2001).

Websites and Resources on Animals: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; BBC Earth bbcearth.com; A-Z-Animals.com a-z-animals.com; Live Science Animals livescience.com; Animal Info animalinfo.org ; World Wildlife Fund (WWF) worldwildlife.org the world’s largest independent conservation body; National Geographic National Geographic ; Endangered Animals (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species) iucnredlist.org

News: mongabay.com ; indiatimes.com ; 21stcenturytiger.org ; tigersincrisisnews.com ; atigerjournal.com

Tiger Numbers

According to the Global Tiger Forum, there are currently around 5,574 tigers left in the wild, with tiger populations being stable or increasing in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Russia and China. Unfortunately, tiger numbers are still decreasing in much of Southeast Asia. As of 2022, India's tiger population is estimated to be 3,682, which is almost 75 percent of the world's wild tiger population. Wild tigers are still found in 14 Asian countries, including China and Russia. The following are the countries with the highest number of wild tigers:
India the largest population of wild tigers, with an estimated 3,682 to 3,925 in 2023
Russia has an estimated 540 wild tigers
Indonesia has an estimated 500 wild tigers
Nepal has an estimated 355 wild tigers
Thailand has an estimated 189 wild tigers
Malaysia has an estimated 150 wild tigers
Bangladesh has an estimated 106 wild tigers
Bhutan has an estimated 103 wild tigers
China has an estimated 50 wild tigers
Myanmar has an estimated 33 wild tigers

There were an estimated 3,200 tigers living worldwide in the wild in the today. There were around 100,000 tigers worldwide at the turn of the 20th century. There were around 11,000 in the mid-1960s and 5,500 to 7,500 in the early 1980s.

Estimated tiger populations in 1997, when there were thought to be 5,000 to 7,000 tigers: 1) India, 2,500-3,750; 2) Myanmar (no estimate available); 3) Malaysia, 600-650; 4) Russia, 430 to 470; 5) Indonesia, 400 to 500; 6) Bangladesh, 300 to 460; 7) Thailand, 250 to 600; 8) Laos (no estimate available; 9) Vietnam, 200 to 300; 10) Nepal, 180 to 250; 11) Cambodia, 100 to 200; 12) Bhutan, 50 to 240; 13) China, 20 to 30 South China tigers; 14) North Korea, fewer than 10.

Counting tigers is no easy task. It is tricky and unreliable. Because tigers are so difficult to find in the wild, censuses are conducted by counting tiger paw prints and studying prey and feces samples in a given area; using sampling techniques to calculate in tigers they may have missed; and extrapolating that number over an area where tigers are thought to live. By making plaster casts of tiger prints researchers are able to tell one animal from another.

Governments and park officials sometimes inflate numbers for P.R. reasons and underestimate numbers to receive funding from organizations to help endangered tigers. According to report on India, "State administrators appear to deliberately conceal the loss of tigers to poachers.

Tiger Subspecies

There are five recognized subspecies of tigers still living today 1) Siberian tigers (P. t. altaica), currently found only in a small part of Russia, including the Amurussuri region of Primorye and Khabarovsk. 2) Bengal tigers (P. t. tigris), found in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. 3) Indochinese tigers (P. t. corbetti), found in Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. 4) South China tigers (P. t. amoyensis), found in three isolated areas in southcentral China. 5) Sumatran tigers (P. t. sumatrae) are found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. [Source: Kevin Dacres, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

Extinct species include: 1) Bali tigers (P. t. balica), 2) Javan tigers (P. t. sondaica), 3) Caspian tigers (P. t. virgata) are thought to be extinct. The later lived in Turkey, the Transcaucasus region, Iran, and central Asia. There may have also been other subspecies such as the Caucasus tiger and Xinjiang tiger..

David Attenborough wrote: “Tigers were once found in most parts of Asia. They were so widespread, living in rain forest, marshlands and dry scrub country , that they developed into separate regional populations sufficiently distinct in size and coat patterns to be classified as subspecies.” At the turn of the 20th century, there were eight tiger subspecies. Three became extinct — the Bali, Javan and Caspian tigers (which once ranged from Turkey to Afghanistan) “and five remain — the Siberian (Amur), Bengal, South China, Bengal, Indochinese and Sumatran. There are reasonably large populations of Bengal tigers and Indochinese tigers. There are only a few hundred each of the Siberian, South China, and Sumatran tigers.

Tiger Range and Habitat

The range of tigers once extended across Asia from eastern Turkey and the Caspian Sea to south of the Tibetan plateau eastward to Manchuria and the Sea of Okhotsk. Among the place they were found but no longer found today were northern Iran, Afghanistan, the Indus valley of Pakistan, Korea, and the islands of Java and Bali. [Source: Kevin Dacres, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

Tigers live in a wide variety of habitats in wide range of ecological conditions. They make their homes in tropical lowland evergreen rainforests, temperate forests, savannas, grasslands, scrub forests, mountains, marshes and other wetlands, monsoonal forest, dry thorn forest, scrub oak and birch woodlands, tall grass jungles, and mangrove swamps. Tigers are able to cope with a broad range of climatic variation, from warm moist areas, Siberian tigers live in areas with taiga forests and extreme snowfall, where temperatures may be as low as –40 degrees Celsius. Tigers have been found at elevations of 3,960 meters (13,000 feet). [Source: Kevin Dacres, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

As a rule tigers require only some vegetative cover, a source of water, and sufficient prey. Although they can be found in several habitats they prefers dense forest underbrush, and tall grasses which allows them to sneak up on their prey. They are very elusive and are rarely seen by humans. Even some scientists who study them have never seen them in the wild.

Tiger Size

Tigers are the largest and of all cats. Siberian tigers, the largest of all tigers, can reach a length of four meters (13 feet from tail to nose and weigh 363 kilograms (800 pounds), making them significantly larger than lions their next closest competitor and about 50 times bigger than a domestic cat (See Siberian Tigers, Russia and Bengal Tigers Under Tiger Species) . As a rule the size of a tiger is often determined by what it eats. Siberian tigers are big because they eat large deer. Sumatran tigers are smaller because they feed on smaller prey.

Tiger range in weight from 91 to 423 kilograms (200 to 933 pounds) and range in length from two to 3.7 meters (6.5 to 12.1 feet). Their average basal metabolic rate is 133.859 watts. Sexual Dimorphism (differences between males and females) is present: Males are larger than females. [Source: Kevin Dacres, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

Body size varies considerably among subspecies of tigers. Siberian tigers, also know as Amur tigers, are the largest. Male Siberian tigers can grow to 3.7 meters and weigh over 423 kilograms; females are up to 2.4 meters in length and 168 kilograms. Sumatran tigers (P. t. sumatrae) are the smallest living subspecies. Male Sumatran tigers measure 2.34 meters and weigh 136 kilograms; females measure 1.98 meters and weigh 91 kilograms.

Large size is also an advantage in the cold Some scientists believe that people in northern climates developed stockier bodies because they have less surface area and retain internal heat better than long thin bodies with long limbs which have more surface area to dissipate heat. This may be why many animals in hot climates have long thin bodies, while those in northern areas are stockier.

Tiger Age

Tigers usually live eight to 10 years in the wild, although they can reach ages into their 20s. In captivity tigers generally live to 16 to 18 year old . It is estimated that many adult tigers die as a result of human persecution and hunting, although their large prey can occasionally wound them fatally. Young tigers face numerous dangers when they disperse from their mother's home range, including being attacked and eaten by male tigers. Some researchers estimate a 50 percent survival rate for young tigers. [Source: Kevin Dacres, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

On average tigers that survive into adulthood live around 16 years. A tiger in captivity can live up to 25 years. The oldest tiger on record lived to be 26. Scientist often determine the age of a tiger by examining its teeth. If they are worn and broken it means the animal is old.

Tiger Characteristics

Tigers are regarded as the strongest and most dangerous of all cats. They can knock down animals four times their size and have the largest canine teeth or any terrestrial carnivore. The jaws of a tiger are powerful enough to crush the backbone of prey and gentle enough to lift a tiger cub and carry it from a den to a hiding place. Tigers have very good vision. They can hunt almost equally well during the day and at night. They also have good hearing. They rely on sight, hearing and smell to locate prey.

Tigers can cover 13 feet in a single bound when they are running at full speed and can leap 23 feet. Their huge size and the immense amount of energy needed to move their bodies restricts them to one or two bounding leaps. Tigers have paw pads that are soft and particularly sensitive to heat. This prevents them from running through thorny underbrush and particularly hot sand. Tigers sharpen their claws by scrapping them on trees. They stand on their hind legs and raking them downwards in the bark. Their sand-paper-like tongues are rough enough to tear way human skin with a couple of licks.

Body morphology varies considerably among subspecies of tigers. Male Indochinese tigers though smaller than Siberian tigers in body size at 2.85 meters in length and 195 kilograms,have the longest skull of all tiger subspecies, measuring 319 to 365 millimeters. [Source: Kevin Dacres, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

According to Animal Diversity Web: Tigers are powerful animals, one is known to have dragged a gaur bull weighing 700 kilograms. Tigers have short, thick necks, broad shoulders, and massive forelimbs, ideal for grappling with prey while holding on with long retractible claws and broad forepaws. A tiger’s tongue is covered with hard papillae, to scrape flesh off the bones of prey. Thanks to their large webbed paws and muscular bodies, tigers are excellent swimmers.

All tigers have a dental formula of 3/3, 1/1, 3/2, 1/1. Bengal tigers (P. t. tigris) have the longest canines of any living large cat; from 7.5 to 10 centimeters in length. A tiger's skull is robust, short, and broad with wide zygomatic arches. The nasal bones are high, projecting little further than the maxillary, where the canines fit. Tigers have a well-developed sagittal crest and coronoid processes, providing muscle attachment for their strong bite.

Tigers share nearly all but 4.4 percent of their DNA with domestic cats.Tigers have 38 chromosomes. The karyotype has 16 pairs of metacentric and submetacentric autosomes and two pairs of acrocentric autosomes. The X chromosome is a medium-sized metacentric and the Y chromosomes is a small metacentric.

Tiger Stripes, Fur and Coloration

According to Animal Diversity Web: Tigers have a reddish-orange coat with vertical black stripes along the flanks and shoulders that vary in size, length, and spacing. Some subspecies have paler fur and some are almost fully white with either black or dark brown stripes along the flanks and shoulders. The underside of the limbs and belly, chest, throat, and muzzle are white or light. White is found above the eyes and extends to the cheeks. A white spot is present on the back of each ear. The dark lines about the eyes tend to be symmetrical, but the marks on each side of the face are often asymmetrical. The tail is reddish-orange and ringed with several dark bands. [Source: Kevin Dacres, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

A tiger’s yellowish coat and black stripes help it blend in with shadows and high, brown grass, where they often do their hunting. The markings are considered "disruptive" camouflage, which act to break up the animal’s outline, especially at dusk, when they usually begin their hunt. A tiger’s coloring and markings are even an advantage when they are in the water. The naturalist Kahlashi Sankhala said, “the dazzling sun confuses the eyes and a tiger can easily be taken for a river boulder.” The fur of tigers that live in cold, open areas is thick and light colored while the fur of tigers that live in the tropics have shorter and darker hair. Dark coloring is an advantages in an area with lots of trees and shadows.

Scientists can identify tigers by the stripes and squiggles on the animals cheeks and forehead which are as distinctive and unique as human fingerprints. Some Bengal tigers are born with almost white fur, the result of a recessive genetic trait. These tigers usually have blue eyes and black stripes. Most of the white tigers alive today are descendants of a single white tiger found by a maharaja in India in the 1850s. Such tigers rarely survive long in the wild. Their strange coloration cause them to be rejected or even attacked by other tigers.

Elise Poore wrote in Live Science: Tiger stripes vary between individuals, much like fingerprints in humans. The markings play an important role in helping a tiger remain hidden while hunting prey. The stripes help break up the shape of the animal's body, allowing it to blend in with tall grass. In 1952, the British Mathematician Alan Turing theorized that a chemical reaction between two homogeneous substances were responsible for the famous tiger-stripe pattern, along with other patterns commonly found in nature. He dubbed these substances "morphogens." One acted as an "activator" and the other as an "inhibitor" — with the "activator" causing a stripe to form and the "inhibitor" creating a blank space. In 2012, a study in the journal Nature Genetics experimentally validated this theory by identifying the morphogens at play in the formation of ridge patterns in the mouths of mice. [Source: Elise Poore, Live Science, January 6, 2024]

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated January 2025