35 Amazing Facts about Tiger | Amazing Facts 4U
- Tigers are the largest members of the cat family ahead of lions renowned for their power and strength.
- It’s amazing that tigers can reach a length of up to 3.3 meters (11 feet) and weigh as much as 300 kg (660 pounds). The siberian tiger is the largest tiger subspecies.
- Three of the nine subspecies of the modern tiger are in fact extinct in the 20th century. The remaining six are all endangered species.
- The fact is there are only about 3,500 tigers are left in the wild. There is a greater number in captivity. In fact, there are 12000 tigers in captivity in the US alone.
- The tiger is in fact capable of killing animals over twice its size. Usually, it uses stealth to catch its victims attacking from the side of the rear.
- Tigers have eyes with round pupils unlike cats having slitted pupils. The reason is cats are nocturnal whereas tigers hunt primarily in the dawn and dusk.
- Tigers have eyes that are in fact the brightest of any other animal in the world. At dusk, or in the beam of a torch, you can appreciate the intensity.
- Tigers’ night vision is about six times better than humans’.
- White tigers carry a rare gene found in one among 10000 tigers. Amazingly tigers have yellow eyes, but white tigers have blue eyes.
- Tigers scratch trees and use their urine to mark their territories. Their urine smells like buttered popcorn.
- The amazing fact is tigers can tell the age, gender, and reproductive condition of other tigers from the smell of urine markings.
- The fact is tigers normally roar only to communicate with far-off tigers. A tiger about to attack will therefore not roar but might hiss instead.
- Tigers prefer to hunt large prey by ambush. It’s amazing that if you look at a tiger straight in the eye, it is less likely to attack, as the element of surprise is lost.
- Tigers usually kill prey by strangulation of the neck or by severing a major artery in the neck affecting heavy blood loss. They ambush and seize the prey in its neck by their teeth. Tigers can also bite through bones with their powerful teeth and jaws breaking the neck vertebrae of prey. Tigers will sometimes use their powerful front paws which are strong enough to smash a bear’s skull or break its back.
- When several tigers are present at a kill, the fact is the males will often wait for females and cubs to eat first, unlike lions, which do the opposite. Tigers rarely argue or fight over a kill and simply wait for their turn.
- Tigers have been known to reach speeds up to 65 kph (40 mph) however the success rate for the hunt is about 10 %.
- Tigers are capable of leaping over 6 meters and jumping up to 5 meters vertically. Their muscular legs are so powerful that they can remain standing even when dead.
- The amazing fact is tigers have the knack of imitating the call of other animals to successfully attract prey.
- The tiger relies heavily on its powerful teeth for hunting. Loss of its canines (tearing teeth) through injury or old age may starve it to death.
- Tigers usually live alone unlike lions and aggressively scent-mark large territories (up to 100 sq km) to keep their rivals away.
- Tigers have in fact antiseptic saliva. They lick their wounds to disinfect them.
- Females give birth to litters of two to six cubs which are raised with little help from the male. Cubs can’t take care of themselves hunt until 18 months old and thereafter remain with their mothers for two to three years when they are strong enough to find their own territory.
- Tigers are in fact completely blind for the first week of their life. About half do not survive to adulthood.
- Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur. Even a shaved tiger would still show its stripes. Stripes are necessary for camouflage and help identification as it is never duplicated. Most tigers have over 100 stripes.
- The markings on a tiger’s forehead closely resemble the Chinese character for a king, giving tigers a cultural status as a regal animal.
- The tiger is in fact one of the best swimmers in the animal kingdom, unlike most cats which are afraid of water. They can easily swim three or four miles. Of all the big cats, only the tiger and jaguar are strong swimmers
- Amazingly a tiger’s tongue very rough and it can vigorously clean any part. In fact, it can lick the paint off a building.
- When a tiger moves around they leave footprints called “Pug Marks” which are very distinctive of the tiger.
- A tiger’s roar can be heard for over 3 miles. The Lion, Leopard, Jaguar, and Tiger are the only cats that can roar.
- Tigers live for about 25 years both in captivity and in the wild.
- Tigers’ have short-term memory which is amazing thirty times longer than humans and they do not forget things as easily as we do.
- Tigers have a brain that is the largest of all carnivores except the polar bear weighing over 300 gm. It is comparable to the size of a Chimpanzee’s brain.
- One man-eating tiger called the Champawat Tiger during the 19th and 20th centuries killed over 436 people in Nepal and India until Jim Corbett shot her down. Most of the man-eating tigers are found to be old and canine-less. They tend to target men as they cannot hunt their targeted animals due to their lack of strength and canine teeth. Champawat tiger was found to have lost two of her canine teeth.
- Tigers can mate with lions and other cats in captivity to produce hybrids. Through genetics, male lions normally try to make their offspring as large as possible but are counteracted by female lions, who make offspring smaller. A male lion and a female tiger produce enormous offspring, ligers, whereas a female lion and a male tiger produce a much smaller tiglon.
- Amazingly ligers can be over 4m long and are the largest cats in the world.
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