The tiger is the largest representative of the cat family. His greatness and formidable appearance delight everyone who has ever seen him live. In their native habitats, the tiger is called “king of the jungle” and is considered a symbol of courage and strength. To join the world of tigers, we picked up twenty interesting facts about this graceful and majestic beast.
Tigers living on the continents, in size and weight, are much larger than their relatives living on islands and peninsulas. For example, the adult male of the Amur tiger reaches a length of 300 cm without a tail, and the male of the Asia Minor tiger is only 240 cm long.
On average, an adult tiger must eat 7 to 9 kg of meat per day, 2.5 to 3 tons per year, which is twice as much as a lion needs.
The male tiger’s possessions sometimes reach hundreds of kilometers, while the female needs only 20 km². To circumvent their possessions, the tiger sometimes has to pass up to 40 km per day.
Tigers mark their territory, they do it in many ways: they leave scratches on trees, urinate on bushes and trees, loosen the ground or snow.
Strips of tiger are available not only on wool, but also on the skin. If the tiger is completely shaved, then eventually it will grow exactly, repeating the shaved pattern.
Striped pattern on the wool is unique and inherent only to its owner, like the fingerprints of a person.
Tigers do not climb trees. An exception to the rule are small cubs aged up to 2 years and weighing up to 60 kg.
The most active time for tigers is morning and evening. The day they spend on rest.
Tigers are not afraid of water and swim well, on a hot day necessarily arrange water procedures.
On the passed paws of the tiger there are five fingers, in the rear only four.
The length of claws in a tiger is 8 – 10 cm.
At night, the tigers see poorly, although their eyesight is six times better than the human.
The jump of a tiger in length reaches 6 meters, and in height of 5 meters.
For communication and communication among themselves, the tigers use a growl that can be heard at a distance of 5 kilometers.
Each tiger on the back of the ears has white marks, reminiscent of the eyes, they serve as a navigator for finding the mother of small cubs.
To their prey, the tigers prefer to attack from behind, so that the victim can not react in time and escape.
In the wild habitat there are tigers with white, gold and even bluish-black color. This phenomenon occurs for various reasons. For example, white color is obtained as a result of mutations. The golden color is caused by a recessive gene. Bluish-black or gray color indicates a disease, melanism.
Life expectancy of tigers is 26 years, both in freedom and in captivity.
Many tigers are kept in captivity in China and the US, their number is close to the number of wild populations.
In addition to animal food, tigers eat vegetable food – berries and fruits.
