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Facts note: I have compiled this information over the years from many
sources. I may not agree with all of them, like the number of tigers
estimated to still be in the wild, but I thought you might like to look
them over.
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Today only about 5,000-7,400 wild tigers live across Asia. The past
and present ranges of the remaining five tiger subspecies are illustrated.
The northernmost living tiger, the Siberian tiger, lives primarily in
southeastern Russia. The South China tiger occurs only in southern China.
The range of the Indochinese tiger extends across most of Southeast Asia.
The Bengal tiger is found primarily in India, while the Sumatran tiger
is restricted to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The Bali, Caspian,
and Javan tigers have become extinct in the past 70 years.
Across all of Asia, once vast forests have fallen for timber or conversion
to agriculture. What is left are small islands of forest surrounded by
a growing and relatively poor human population. They collect firewood
from the forests. Their livestock graze to the forest edges, and common
tiger prey-wild pigs and deer-are shot, poisoned or snared for food by
poachers. Worse yet, bones and other tiger body parts used in Chinese
folk medicine now command premium prices on the international black market,
and poachers now poison water holes or set steel wire snares to kill
tigers.
Forestry and wildlife departments are too understaffed and under budgeted
to be effective against this onslaught. Conservation efforts that emphasize
increased protection for large felids like tigers have failed or are
failing across all of Asia. Simply put, tigers are disappearing in the
wild. If we continue to maintain the status quo, then we run the risk
of losing all wild tigers.
The tiger evolved slightly later than the lion and evolved along a separate
cat line at a later date.
Five
Remaining Tiger Sub-species:
Bengal: panthera tigris tigris (Indian)
Siberian: panthera tigris altaica (Amur, Ussuri, Northeast China, Manchurian)
South China: panthera tigris amoyensis (Amoy) (In November 2002
Ron Tilson reports the extinction of this subspecies.)
Sumatran: panthera tigris sumatrae
Indo-Chinese: panthera tigris corbetti
Extinct
Sub-species:
Bali: Extinct in the 1940's p.t. balica
Caspian: Extinct in the 1970's p.t. virgata
Javan: Extinct in the 1980's p.t. sondaica
This
information is from the Matt Tiger Gee Wiz file
Tigers visit Australia so rarely (always been the
case) in the wild and only ever seem to have occurred naturally up in
the Torrens Melville
Islands that adjoin Sumatra. No one has seen a wild Tiger up there
for 40 years although there are certainly remains of them in caves etc.
By the way, there used to be a Half Javan Half Sumatran tiger at The
port Moresby Wildlife park in the 1960's. But no one has seen a Javan
tiger since the 1972 wild photograph.
Last proven Caspian Tiger in a western or Soviet zoo was both London's
and Moscow's died in 1966 and 1971.
Last proven Javan tiger was in Adelaide Zoo in Australia died in 1948?
(about)
Number of Privately owned tigers in Australia (Private...1995) 131
Number of commercially owned tigers in Australia (zoo's, circuses,
wildlife parks etc.) 226 (1995)
Siberian tiger Stud book lists 355 pure bred stud tigers in zoo's worldwide.
Number of years Chinese restaurant owner got for serving a tiger dish
in Melbourne Australia in 1997 - 12 years without parole.
Number of Tiger part seized by Australian customs 23(1996/97)
Last photograph of a wild Caspian Tiger 1961
Last photo of wild Chinese Tiger 1998?
More
Tiger Facts
It is believed the Caspian Tiger became extinct in the 1950's, the
Javan in 1972 and the Bali in 1937.
The night vision of tigers is six times better than that of humans.
Tiger claws, like cats, are retractable.
Tiger stripes are like human fingerprints, no two are the same.
A tigers tail is 3 to 4 foot long, about half as long as its body.
A tiger's paw prints are called pug marks.
Adult tigers like to live alone (except for a mother with cubs).
A tigers territory can range from 10 - 30 square miles.
Tigers mark their territories by spraying their scent and scratching
marks on trees.
Wild tigers can eat as much as 40 pounds of meat at one time and
often do not eat again for several days.
The word for a group of tigers is a STREAK.
The life span of tigers in the wild is thought to be about 10 to
15 years.
A tiger's forefeet have five toes and the hind feet have four toes.
All toes have claws. The claws are 80 to 100 mm in length.
The length of a tiger's canine teeth can be between 74.5 to 90
mm.
Depending on the subspecies, the head-body length of a tiger is
about 41/2 to 9 feet (1.4-2.8 m).
Male tigers weigh heavier than females.
Siberian tigers are the heaviest subspecies at 500 or more pounds
(225 kg).
The lightest subspecies is the Sumatran at around 250 pounds (110
kg).
The heaviest tiger recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records
is a 1,025-pound male Siberian tiger.
Tiger cubs are born blind and weigh only about 2 to 3 pounds (1
kg), depending on the subspecies.
Cubs live on milk for 6-8 weeks before the female begins taking
them to kills to feed.
Tigers have fully developed canines by 16 months of age, but they
do not begin making their own kills until about 18 months of age.
Young tigers live with their mother until they are two to three
years old, then they find their own territories.
Tigers live in thick forests or areas with tall grasses to hide
in and plenty of prey to eat.
Tigers are not found in Africa because they never evolved there.
Modern day tigers are all descended from tigers that originally
lived in south central China.
They never moved from China to Africa because Africa was just too
far away and besides, they would have had to cross an ocean!
Unlike most cat species, tigers like water and are good swimmers.
In tropical climates, tigers frequently spend time lying in water
to cool off.
Pound for pound a tiger has five times the pulling strength of
a trained human athlete.
Tigers can see about six times as well in the dark as a human.
A tiger may go days between kills, so it may eat over 40 pounds
of meat at a setting.
Tigers may live from 10 to 15 years in the wild, but in captivity
16 to 20 years is more common.
A tiger has two to five cubs in a litter. They come into the world blind
and weighing only about two to three pounds.
White
Tigers
White tigers are not albino tigers!
White tigers are not a separate subspecies of tiger, and they are not
albinos, they are just white-colored Bengal tigers.
White tigers are only born when two tigers that both carry the
unusual gene for white coloring mate - their color is caused by
a double
recessive allele. A Bengal tiger with two normal alleles or one
normal and one
white allele is colored orange. Only a double dose of the mutant
allele results in white tigers.
White tigers have blue eyes, pink noses, and creamy white fur with
chocolate colored stripes.
White tigers are not from Siberia!
Although some people think that white tigers come from Siberia
where their white color helps camouflage them in the snow, this
is not
true - they come from India!
The only wild white tigers ever reported are white-colored Bengal
tigers found in India. In captivity, however there are some white
tigers that
are generics - a mix of different subspecies.
White Bengal tigers are sometimes mated with tigers from other
subspecies, producing white generic tigers.
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