Habitat: Varied including tropical rainforests, snow-covered coniferous and deciduous forests, mangrove swamps and drier forest types. Not in open habitats.
Geographical spread: India (has two-thirds of the world population), Manchuria, China and Indonesia.
Current population: In 1993 there were an estimated 3,750 tigers left in India (a decrease from 4,334 in 1989) (BBC Wildlife, Dec 1995). There are 150-200 Siberian tigers, 30-80 South Chinese tigers, 600-650 Sumatran tigers and 1050-1750 Indochine se tigers. There is a total population of 5100-7400 tigers left in the world.
Status: Of 8 original subspecies, the Balinese became extinct in the 1940s, the Caspian in the early 1970s and the Javan in the early 1990s. All surviving subspecies are classified as endangered by the IUCN.
Size: Tigers are the largest living felids. Siberian tigers are the largest of all. Male Indian, head to tail tip 2.7-3.1m, shoulder height 91cm. Male Javan and Sumatran head to tail tip 2.2-2.7m. Female head to tail tip 2.4-2.8m.
Weight: Male Indian 180-260kg, male Javan and Sumatran 100-150kg, male Siberian 180-306kg. Female 130-160kg, female Siberian 167kg.
Average life expectancy: About 15 years in the wild, 20 years in captivity.
Normal diet: Carnivorous. Feeds on medium to moderate-sized prey, but will eat basically anything that it can catch. The larger hoofed mammals make up the majority of its diet, typical prey include, sambar, chital, Swamp deer, Red deer, Rusa deer and Wild pigs. They also take very large prey such as rhino and elephant calves, water buffalo, moose, wapiti and guar. In many areas agricultural stock are also readily taken, particularly when wild prey is depleted.
Normal lifestyle: Solitary, stalk-and-ambush hunter. The basic social unit is the mother and young but sometimes at bait kills a male and female are seen. Keeping groups in captivity has indicated tigers have high degree of social tolerance. The h abitat in which the tiger lives favours a dispersed social system rather than a close-knit one. Tigers operate more efficiently by hunting alone. In Nepal males (60-100sqkm) and females (20sqkm) occupy home ranges that do not overlap with the home ranges of those of others of their sex. Transient tigers move through the ranges of residents. In the Soviet far East where prey is scattered and migratory, tiger density is much less at less than one per 100sqkm. Defence of territory takes place through marki ng trees, bushes and rocks along trails and in conspicuous places throughout the area. This helps to avoid direct physical conflict in a solitary animal which relies on its own physical health to obtain food. Sexual maturity is reached at 3-4 years. A fe male bears 3-4 blind and helpless cubs and rears them alone. Cubs are dependent on their mother until they are 18 months old and then may stay in their mother's range until they are 2-3.5 years old when they disperse to seek their own home ranges.
Previous geographical spread: Was found across much of Asia, Afghanistan and probably N. Korea.
Reasons for decline: The tiger is highly specialised, with specific ecological requirements and is thus not a particularly adaptable species. Tigers need large prey and sufficient cover for hunting and these requirements are becoming less and less common. Agriculture is taking its toll on land space as is deforestation, overgrazing, mining and other forms of habitat destruction and fragmentation. Most tiger reserves are relatively small, less than 1,OOOsqkm and isolated and thus tiger populations within them are small and little interbreeding between populations occurs. Poaching is also a very real threat to tiger populations, for example 30-50% of the population of Siberian tigers (which live mainly in the eastern territories of Khabarovsk and Primoriye in the Russian Federation) were killed by poachers in 1993-1994. Tigers are killed for their bones which are ground up to make tonics and traditional medicines. In 1994 1 animal could generate US dollars 10,000 worth of business. Skins may be s old to collectors, but the main market is in China, South Korea and Taiwan. All three countries have officially banned the sale of tiger products but the illegal trade still continues. Other markets include, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. I n 1900 there were about 100,000 tigers in Asia, they have declined faster than any other cat and by the early 1970s there were no more than 500 left.
Current threats: According to Tiger Link,1 tiger per day is killed for the trade in skin and bones, but the figure may be as high as 500 per year (BBC Wildlife, Dec 1995). The main problem is that 95% of the remaining populations contain less than 120 tigers and inbreeding is a very real threat. It has been estimated that a population with less than 50 breeding adults will be genetically impoverished in 100 years.
Conservation projects: In 1972 World Wide Fund for Nature togetherwith the Indian government launched Project Tiger. The species was given complete international protection and more than 40 reserves were created. However after an increase in numbe rs by 50% over 15 years organisers got lax and poachers quickly resurfaced. Nevertheless, today the Bengal Tiger is by far the most numerous specles.
File last modified Thursday, October 3, 1996