Tiger

Tigers (Panthera tigris) are mammals of the Felidae family and one of four "big cats" in the Panthera genus. A group of tigers is called an "ambush" or a "streak". They are predatory carnivores and the largest of all living cats. Template:Taxobox begin
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Most tigers live in forests and grasslands (for which their camouflage is ideally suited). Among the big cats, only the tiger and jaguar are strong swimmers, and tigers are often found bathing in ponds, lakes and rivers. Tigers hunt alone and eat primarily medium-sized herbivores such as deer, wild pigs, and buffalo. However, they will also take larger or smaller prey on occasion. Humans are the tiger's only serious enemy and often kill tigers illegally for their fur or penises, which are used as aphrodisiacs in Chinese Medicine. Poaching for fur and destruction of habitat have greatly reduced tiger populations and it has been placed on the endangered species list. It will remain on the list until its population grows.

Physical characteristics

Although different subspecies of tiger have different characteristics, in general male tigers weigh between 150 and 310 kg (330 lb and 680 lb) and females between 100 and 160 kg (220 lb and 350 lb). The males are between 2.6 and 3.3 metres (8 ft 6 in and 10 ft 9 in) in length, and the females are between 2.3 and 2.75 metres (7 ft 6 in and 9 ft) in length. Of the more common subspecies, Corbetts Tigers are the smallest and Amur Tigers the largest.

The ground of the coat may be any colour from yellow to orange-red, with white areas on the chest, neck, and the inside of the legs. A common recessive variant is the white tiger, which may occur with the correct combination of parents; they are not albinos. Black or melanistic tigers have been reported, but no live specimen has ever been captured or photographed. Another variant, the golden tabby tiger (also called the "golden tiger" or "tabby tiger"), has a golden hue, much lighter than the colouration of normal tigers, and brown stripes. This form is very rare and only a handful of golden tabby tigers are known to exist, all in captivity. There are also old texts referring to 'blue'or 'Maltese' tigers, actually a silvery-grey tone, though no reliable evidence has been found.

The stripes of most tigers vary from brown or grey to pure black, although white tigers have far fewer apparent stripes. The form and density of stripes differs between subspecies, but most tigers have in excess of 100 stripes. The now extinct Javan Tiger may have had far more than this. The pattern of stripes is unique to each animal, and thus could potentially be used to identify individuals, much in the same way as fingerprints are used to identify people. This is not, however, a preferred method of identification, due to the difficulty of recording the stripe pattern of a wild tiger. It seems likely that the purpose of stripes is camouflage, serving to hide these animals from their prey (few large animals have colour vision as capable as that of humans, so the colour is not so great a problem as one might suppose). The stripe pattern is found on a tiger's skin and were you foolish enough to shave one, you would find that its distinctive camouflague pattern would be preserved.

Method of killing

Tigers overpower their prey from almost any angle, usually from ambush, and bite the neck, often breaking the prey's spinal column or windpipe, or severing the jugular vein or carotid artery, much as the domestic cat does to far-smaller prey.

Powerful swimmers, tigers are known to kill prey while swimming. Some tigers have even ambushed boats for the fishermen on board or their catch of fish.

Subspecies

There are eight subspecies of tiger, three of which are extinct and one of which is almost certain to become so in the near future. Their historical range (severely diminished today) ran through Russia, Siberia, Iran, Afghanistan, India, China and southeast Asia, including the Indonesian islands. These are the surviving subspecies, in descending order of wild population:

The Siberian Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), also known as the Amur, Manchurian or North China tiger, is confined almost totally to a very restricted part of eastern Russia where it is now protected. There are less than 400 of these tigers in the wild, and many populations are likely to no longer be genetically viable, subject to potentially catastrophic inbreeding. By far the largest subspecies, with males exceeding lengths of 12 feet (3.7 m) and weights of 850 pounds (390 kg), the Siberian Tiger is also noted for its thick coat, distinguished by a paler golden hue and a smaller number of stripes.

The South China Tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis), also known as the Amoy or Xiamen tiger, is the most critically endangered subspecies of tiger, and will almost certainly become extinct. It seems likely that the last known wild South Chinese tiger was shot and killed in 1994, and no live tigers have been seen in their natural habitat for the last 20 years. In 1959, Mao Zedong declared the tiger to be a pest, and numbers quickly fell from about 4,000 to approximately 200 in 1976. In 1977 the Chinese government reversed the law, and banned the killing of wild tigers, but this appears to have been too late to save the subspecies. There are currently 59 known captive Chinese tigers, all within China, but these are known to be descended from only 6 animals. Thus, the genetic diversity required to maintain the subspecies no longer exists, making its eventual extinction very likely.

Indochinese Tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti), also called Corbett's tiger, is found in Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Estimates of its population vary between 1,200 to 1,800, but it seems likely that the number is in the lower part of the range. The largest current population is in Malaysia, where illegal poaching is strictly controlled, but all existing populations are at extreme risk from habitat fragmentation and inbreeding. In Vietnam, almost three-quarters of the tigers killed provide stock for Chinese pharmacies. Also the tigers are seen by poor natives as a resource through which they can ease poverty.

The Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The wild population is estimated at between 400 and 500 animals, occurring predominantly in the island’s five national parks. Recent genetic testing has revealed the presence of unique genetic markers, indicating that it may develop into a separate species, if it is not made extinct. This has led to suggestions that Sumatran Tigers should have greater priority for conservation than any other subspecies. Habitat destruction is the main threat to the existing tiger population (logging continues even in the supposedly protected national parks), but 66 tigers were recorded as being shot and killed between 1998 and 2000—nearly 20% of the total population.

The Bengal Tiger or the so-called Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is largely found in the Sundarbans, a national forest of Bangladesh and of West Bengal, India. According to recent counts in a joint effort of the Bangladesh and Indian governments, there are about 800 tigers in this area. The Bengal Tiger is also found in Nepal and Bhutan. It is the national animal of both Bangladesh and India. These tigers are under severe pressure from both habitat reduction and from poaching.

The Malayan Tiger (Panthera tigris malayensis), exclusively found in the southern (Malaysian) part of the Malay Peninsular, which until 2004 wasn't considered a subspecies in its own right. The new classification came about after a study by the Laboratory of Genomic Study, part of the National Cancer Institute. Recent counts showed there are 600-800 tigers in the wild, making it the largest tiger population other than the Bengal Tiger. The Malayan Tiger is a national icon in Malaysia, appearing on its coat of arms and in logos of Malaysian institutions such as Maybank.

Recently Extinct

Tigers are uncommon in the fossil record. The distinct fossils of tigers were discovered from Pleistocene deposits—mostly in Asia. Nevertheless remains of described tiger fossils 100,000 years old in Alaska. Possibly because of a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska during the ice ages, this Alaskan tiger might be a North American population of Siberian tiger. In addition scientists discover similarities between tiger bones and those of the American lion: an extinct big cat that dominated much of North America as recently as 10,000 years ago. This controversial observations may lead to the assumption that the American lion was a New World tiger species. Tiger fossils have also turned up in Japan. These fossils prove that the Japanese tiger was no bigger than the island subspecies of tigers of recent ages. This may be due to the phenomenon in which body is related to environmental space, or in the case of a large predator like a tiger, availability of prey.

The Balinese Tiger (Panthera tigris balica) has always been limited to the island of Bali. These tigers were hunted to extinction—the last Balinese Tiger is thought to have been killed at Sumbar Kima, West Bali on 27 September, 1937; this was an adult female. No Balinese Tiger was ever held in captivity. The tiger still plays an important role in Balinese Hindu religion.

The Javan Tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) was limited to the Indonesian island of Java. It now seems likely that this subspecies was made extinct in the 1980s, as a result of hunting and habitat destruction, but the extinction of this subspecies was extremely probable from the 1950s onwards (when it is thought that fewer than 25 tigers remained in the wild). The last specimen was sighted in 1979.

The Caspian Tiger or Persian Tiger (Panthera tigris virgata) appears to have become extinct in the late 1960s, with the last reliable sighting in 1968. Historically it ranged through Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, the former Soviet Union and Turkey. It was said, such a tiger was last shot dead in the south-eastern-most Turkey in 1970.

Maneaters

Of all the big cats, tigers have the greater predisposition towards turning into maneaters, i.e. specifically targetting humans as prey. There are many reasons why tigers that otherwise would attack humans only if threatened begin to prefer to eat humans. An aged, sick, or injured tiger may lose the agility and speed needed to catch swifter prey or a healthy tiger may simply find human beings a convenient target in heavily populated regions like those found in India, home to the deadly Bengal Tiger. It is also said that a tiger actually prefers human flesh to most other meat, although some forms, such as the Siberian tiger, have never been known to prey on humans. Whatever the reasons, tigers, especially in the swamps and mangrove forests of the Sunderbans, are amongst the deadliest predators in the world. Tigers often ambush humans from the water here and fear of them has kept the region largely free from human habitation.

Jim Corbett in his book "Maneaters of Kumaon" describes how he shot the man-eating tigers responsible for killing nearly 1500 people. The most notorious was the Champawat Tiger, which alone devoured 436 people, a record that stands to this day.

Tigers in literature and popular culture

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

William Blake, "The Tyger", Songs of Experience

The word tiger is borrowed from Greek tigris, itself borrowed from Persian ([1]). American English Tigress first recorded 1611. Tiger's-eye "yellowish-brown quartz" is recorded from 1891.

The tiger has certainly managed to appeal to man's imagination. Both Rudyard Kipling in The Jungle Books and William Blake in his Songs of Experience depict him as a ferocious, fearful animal. In The Jungle Books, the tiger Shere Khan is the biggest and most dangerous enemy of Mowgli, the uncrowned king of the jungle. Even in the Bill Watterson comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes, Hobbes the tiger sometimes escapes his role of cuddly animal. At the other end of the scale there is Tigger, the tiger from A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories, who is always happy and never induces fear. In the award winning A Tiger for Malgudi, a Yogi befriends a tiger. Rajah, a pet of the characters Aladdin and Jasmine of Disney's animated feature film Aladdin, is uncharacteristically dog-like in its behavior, but even more oddly Tony the Tiger is renowned for his Frosted Flakes and may be the only cat, real or fictional, who thrives on a vegetarian diet.

A stylized tiger was a mascot of the 1988 Summer Olympic Games of Seoul.

Humble Oil, a division of Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (Jersey Standard), used a stylized tiger to promote gasoline and the slogan "Put a Tiger in your Tank". Jersey Standard adopted the use of a real tiger in its advertising when it took the Exxon name company-wide in 1972, and the brand kept the tiger mascot as a part of ExxonMobil when they merged in 1999.

Most recently, Yann Martel won the Man Booker Prize in 2002 with his novel Life of Pi about an Indian boy castaway on the Pacific Ocean with a Royal Bengal Tiger.

In the Chinese novel Water Margin, tigers appeared numerous times as attacking travellers. In the Wu Song story he became famous when slaying a tiger with his barehands who been terrorizing the local towns nearly a decade.

References

Jim Corbett, Man-eaters of Kumaon, Oxford University Press, 1946

External links

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