TIGER | Facts, Information, Habitat, and Pictures ...

Description

The word tiger comes from the Latin "tigris", and the Romans in turn borrowed the name from the ancient Greeks. The word is thought to have arrived in ancient Greece from Persia, the Persian word tiger meaning 'sharp'. In ancient Iran, tiger meant arrow, possibly related to the animal's quick reactions and lightning leap. The tiger was first described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in his monumental work 'The System of Nature' in 1758; he also gave the animal a scientific name 'Felix Tigris', translated from Latin as cat tiger. Since 1929, the animal has been assigned to the genus Panther with the scientific name Panther Tigris, which it bears to this day. The tiger's closest relative is the snow leopard, not the lion, leopard or jaguar as previously thought.

What a Tiger Looks Like - Size and Appearance 

The tiger is the world's largest wild cat species, characterized by its long, slender, muscular body, large head, and powerful limbs. They can reach a maximum height of 1.15 meters. Males weigh between 90 and 300 kilograms, and their total length, including the tail, is between 250 and 390 centimeters. The tail is about half the length of the body. Females weigh an average of 65-167 kg and are 200-275 cm long. Tigers have a much larger body mass difference between males and females than other cat species. Males are on average 1.7 times larger than females. Also, males have thicker paws, so the animal's sex can be determined by its footprints. The size of tigers varies greatly depending on the subspecies and the abundance of food. On average, tigers on the mainland are much larger than tigers on the islands. The largest tigers are the Amur and Bengal tigers, with some record-breaking males weighing 385 kg. The island animals usually weigh less than 142 kg. The animal's coat is quite sparse, dense, and low in the south. In colder climates, the raptor's coat is longer and fluffier. Long mane-like hairs, called sideburns, grow around the neck and chin. The head is large and round, with a domed forehead and widely spaced jaws. The eyes are yellow. The raptor's ears are very small and rounded, and the inner hairs are white.

The basic color of the animal ranges from orange to brownish, with white areas on the neck and chest. The black stripes are unique to each animal. Tigers are among the few cats with striped coloration; spotted cats are much more common in the wild. Vertical stripes on the flanks help tigers blend into tall grass. The orange color of the fur also helps the animal blend in. Because predators can only see two colors, the orange color in ungulates' eyes blends into the grass.

Black and white tiger

The animal also comes in other colors - white, gold, snow white without stripes and black. These are virtually absent in the wild due to drastic population declines, but are regularly seen in captive animals. The white tiger has white fur with light brown stripes.

The golden tiger has pale yellow fur with a shade of gray and reddish-brown stripes. The snow white coloration is characterized by very light, almost imperceptible stripes and reddish-brown rings on the tail. 

White and golden tigers are not a separate breed, but the result of a genetic mutation, a lack of pheomelanin, the pigment responsible for the orange color of the fur. Black tigers are the result of pseudo-melanism. The basic coloration in black tigers is not black but light orange, so they are not melanocytic. The dark stripes on black tigers are disproportionately large, and behind the large stripes, the main color is barely visible, so the coat appears darker in color.

Character and lifestyle 

In the wild, untouched by humans, tigers, unlike other cats, are active mainly during the day. They are predators that rarely climb trees, but can do so if necessary. Tigers are good swimmers and often swim in rivers, lakes and other bodies of water to escape the heat. They can swim rivers up to 7 km wide and cover up to 29 km per day.

Like other big cats, tigers live as loners. Adult animals usually have their own territory. The size of the territory varies depending on the terrain, number of prey and sex of the animal and is on average up to 150 km2 for males and up to 50 km2 for females. Two to four females may inhabit the territory of a single male, although male and female territories do not overlap. Young females usually stay close to their mother, while young males migrate in search of their own territory.

Despite their predominantly solitary lifestyle, tigers interact with each other better than other cats. Adults, both males and females, share prey with other predators. Adult males have been shown to let females and cubs eat their prey before eating it themselves - but this is very rare in lions. In territorial disputes between males, most conflicts are limited to threats, with the loser acknowledging the winner's dominance by rolling onto his back and showing his belly. Fights between males revolve mainly around females in heat and often end with the death of one of the males.