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Tiger - PANTHERA TIGRIS
Endangered
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The Name "Tiger": "Tiger" comes from the Greek word "tigris," for the animal.
Location: India and eastern Asia.
Habitat: Terrestrial. Variable, including most forest types.
Description: There is a large size ditference between the different subspecies of tigers. The smallest subspecies is the Javan tiger, and the largest is the Siberian tiger found in Manchuria and Siberia. Depending on climate, the length of the coat also varies, but the striped pattern is similar in all tigers. This largest of all cats grows over nine feet long, with another three feet for its tail. And it can weigh up to 660 pounds.
Behavior: The tiger is essentially solitary. It has a clearly staked-out territory of up to 400 square miles, which it patrols at regular intervals, marking it with droppings and other signs. It hunts at night, lying in ambush for a wide variety of prey such as deer, buffalo and goats, but also smaller mammals. It is an agile animal and swims well. In colder northern climates it accumulates up to two inches of fat beneath its skin.
Reproduction: Gestation lasts for about 105 days, after which the female bears two to four young, which nurse for five or six months and stay with their mother for a year or longer. Mating may occur at any time of year.
Note: The total number of tigers in the world is now reduced to a few thousand, and many local races are virtually extinct already.
Go to the Carnivore Page to learn more about all the meat-eating animals.
Or go to the Cat Index to study other
wild cats.
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