Tiger facts

●    Tigers are the largest cat species and can reach up to 4m (13ft) long.
●    Their distinctive orange and black stripes are unique, like a human fingerprint.
●    Tigers can hunt and kill prey much larger than themselves.
●    Tiger cubs stay with their mothers until they are about two years old.
●    Tigers are territorial and require large areas of forest to hunt.
●    Tiger populations are stabilising in some countries with strict protections, but are still declining in countries where poaching is more common.
●    The international commercial trade in all tiger body parts has been prohibited since 1987.

Tigers are the biggest of the big cats. Adult male tigers weigh 100-260kg, while females weigh 75-180kg. They also range from 1.5m (5ft) to over 4m (13ft) from nose to tail tip, making them almost four times as large as the next biggest cat in their habitat; the leopard. Of all the tiger subspecies, the Amur tiger is the largest.

Tigers are apex predators, meaning they are at the top of their food chain. All tigers have bodies that are specialised for hunting large prey, with their thick necks, long muscular forearms, powerful jaws, large teeth and claws, and keen senses. Like domestic cats, their claws (which measure up to 10cm (4in) long) are retractable to keep them sharp and ready for hunting.¹ 

Tigers use their sense of smell for communication rather than hunting prey. They mark their territories with scent, like their smaller domestic cousins. But they have exceptional eyesight and hearing, and can hunt in day or at night.

Tigers have white dots on the backs of their ears. The dots are supposed to mimic the eyes of a much larger tiger. This trick, known as eyespot mimicry, is also used by other species, such as butterflies, to ward off predators. Though, other than humans, the only animal likely to attack a tiger is a bigger tiger.

Tigers don’t need to eat as often as you might think – they make a kill on average once each week.² This works out at about 5kg of meat each day for an adult male. But an adult female raising four cubs has to keep her energy levels up. She must consume on average 11kg each day from the start of pregnancy to when her cubs are ready to fend for themselves – and this can take 651 days in total.³

The larger the prey, the less frequently they need to eat. So, when large prey populations, like deer or water buffalo, are reduced tigers might resort to eating fish, birds, rodents, insects and primates.

Tigers can predate animals much larger than themselves – such as water buffalo or cattle. But, like most predators, their ideal prey would be approximately the same weight as themselves – such as large antelope and tapirs.⁴

Tigers hunt using their stealthy skills and stripey coats, which camouflage them in the forest. While tigers might appear bright orange to us, and therefore stand out against the green backdrop of the forest, their prey see something different. Deer are dichromats – meaning they are red-green colourblind.⁵ So, an orange tiger looks a shade of green to them. The stripes add to their camouflage effect by breaking up their outlines against the foliage.

Why did tigers not evolve to have a green coat in that case? Well, orange and red colours are much more commonly produced by all mammals.⁶ You might have noticed that no mammals have naturally green coats. 

Tigers reach sexual maturity at about 4 years old, with males maturing a little later than females. Adult males’ home ranges overlap with up to three females at a time, but females rarely overlap with each other – and when tigers do come into contact with each other, it can end in a fight.

Tigers mate throughout the year, rather than having mating seasons.⁷ Tigers form mating pairs – though one male might have access to more than one female – but only interact with each other during mating. Male tigers are able to tell when females are in heat by sniffing their scent markings. Heat lasts for about five days.

When tigers mate, they do so multiple times a day.⁸ The male bites the back of the female’s neck to hold her down, and the whole act lasts up to 30 seconds.⁹ 

Pregnancy lasts for 100 days or more, and on average females have two cubs per litter.¹⁰ However, almost half of cubs die before they are 12 months old. Humans are the main cause of death for tiger cubs.¹¹ Female tigers wait on average two years between each litter.

Like almost all mammals, tiger mothers raise their cubs on milk initially. Cubs feed on milk for their first six months, before moving onto solid food caught by their mothers. 

As they get a bit older, tiger mothers teach their cubs how to find prey, hunt and be prepared for independent life, and cubs practise their skills by playfighting with each other. It can take up to two years for a tiger cub to be ready for independence. Once they leave their mothers, cubs will seldom come across other tigers until they start searching for a mate. 

Tigers live in tropical and temperate forests in the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia, and in the evergreen forests of Russia and China. Tigers can be quite adaptable – making mangrove forests, which grow in the margins of brackish waters, and high Himalayan passes their homes. They need dense forests rather than open areas to hunt, as they rely on camouflage and stealth to sneak up on their prey.

Tigers require large habitats, which means they come under pressure from human activity, such as farming and logging. Their home ranges vary from 20 sq km (7.7 sq miles), to about 400 sq km (154 sq miles).¹² Per 100 sq km, there could be as many as 15 to 19 tigers.¹³ Females ranges are smaller than males.

Tigers and leopards (Panthera pardus) have similar habitat requirements and are found in many of the same countries. Though smaller than tigers, leopards hunt similar prey – small deer and antelope, and livestock like goats, sheep and occasionally cattle.¹⁴ Where tigers and leopards co-exist, leopards are forced to target more challenging prey, like cattle, as tigers dominate the supply of smaller prey. The fact that tigers and leopards hunt livestock means that they are both the target of retaliatory killings by farmers. 

Tigers are known to live in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, and Thailand.¹⁵

This is a little bit of a contentious topic which is currently under review by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission Cat Specialist Group. While there is one living species of tiger – Panthera tigris – most zoologists agree that tigers can be divided into subspecies.

Tigers live in several geographically distinct areas separated by large mountain ranges like the Himalayas, deserts, seas and grasslands. So, they do not often, if ever, travel from one distinct region to another. Over time, this has meant that there are slight genetic differences between these populations.

Currently, it is most accepted that there are six extant (or living) subspecies.¹⁶ These are:

• Amur tiger (P. t. altaica), which is native to far eastern Russia and northeastern China and used to be called the Siberian tiger. 
• Northern Indochinese tiger (P. t. corbetti) which is found in Indochina, north of the Malayan Peninsula. 
•  Malayan tiger (P. t. jacksoni) native to the Malayan Peninsula. 
• Sumatran tiger (P. t. sumatrae) found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. 
• Bengal tiger (P. t. tigris) native to the Indian subcontinent. 
• South China tiger (P. t. amoyensis), this subspecies has not been seen in the wild since the 1970s and is thought to be extinct.

There are thought to be three extinct tiger subspecies,  based on historical records and written accounts of their shape and appearance, not genetic data. They are:

• Bali tiger (P. t. balica) found on the Indonesian island of Bali. 
• Javan tiger (P. t. sondaica) native to the Indonesian island of Java. 
• Caspian tiger (P. t. virgata) which was thought to cover large parts of central Asia and as far west as Turkey.¹⁷

The best estimate for the total number of tigers in the wild is 5,578.¹⁸ It is thought that 70% of these are mature adults, which means there are at most 3,905 tigers who are able to reproduce.

In the last century, tigers have become extinct in Singapore, Bali, Java, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Since 1999, the wild tiger population has decreased somewhere between 22% and 63%, and their range has contracted by about 50% in that time.¹⁹ Tigers now occupy less than 7% of their historical range.

The population decline since 1999 has been attributed to poaching as well as human activity resulting in habitat loss. However, humans have been responsible for the loss of wild tigers for much longer than the past 25 years.

Wildlife corridors help tigers to move between protected areas.

Some attempts to protect tigers from these threats in India, Nepal, Thailand, and northeast Asia have been successful, and their numbers are thought to be stabilising or even increasing.²⁰ This is thanks to better protections to the forests they live in, such as efforts to curb deforestation and farming in their habitats. However, in most of southeast Asia, tiger numbers are still falling.²¹ 

The more positive outlook in India, Nepal and Thailand might offset the less positive outlook in southeast Asia. So, overall, tiger numbers might bounce back in the future.

These regional trends are expected to continue, with some gains in South and possibly Northeast Asia and further declines in Southeast Asia. Gains in South Asia with high tiger densities may well offset losses in Southeast Asia, resulting in an increasing future trend in global tiger numbers.

Tigers are threatened by human activity and climate change as they contend with losing their habitat to logging, farming and the expansion of human settlements. Tigers need huge areas of primary forest to survive. But across Asia these forests are being chopped up and fragmented by roads, farms and logging. As a result, tigers’ ranges are getting smaller and smaller.

As tigers increasingly come into contact with farms, and their primary forests are cut down, some have resorted to hunting livestock, leading to retaliatory killings by farmers.

The forests that tigers live in rely on water from some of the largest rivers in Asia – like the Ganges, Irrawaddy and Salween. But droughts and floods are increasing in frequency, which is threatening these habitats.

Tigers are mostly poached for two reasons: to sell their body parts or to prevent them from killing livestock. Tiger parts have been, and continue to be, used in alternative medicines and, because of their eye-catching fur, as ostentatious displays of wealth.²² A whole tiger might be sold for tens of thousands of dollars. China is the largest market for tiger parts.²³

Poaching continues to threaten tigers throughout their range. 

Featured image © Rajeshd1601 | Shutterstock

Fun fact image © Keyur Nandaniya | Unsplash

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