National Animal of India, Tiger popularly known as Royal Bengal Tiger in India and India has the largest number of wild tiger in the world. The Royal Bengal Tiger commonly known as India Tiger and Scientifically named as Leo Tigris. The specialty of these Tigers is that they have a small head in proportionate to its body. He is a cold-blooded mammal. Even though there are not enough tigers left in India maybe around 4000 but some nature experts declare firmly that this number is even less than 3000. This number has decreased because of increasing illegal hunting. In 1973 the population was even down to 1800 when Project Tiger was introduced to increase their population and so there is an improvement in this number.
These tigers are spread across the country in different national parks. Some national parks have more number of tigers whereas others have less. Sunderban has an estimated population of tigers say around 270 and Kanha has 102. It is usually difficult to catch a glimpse of the animal. Still few parks give a realistic chance of seeing tigers just because as the park officials track the tigers on daily basis and tigers have become habitual to tourists in 4-wheel drivers.
The best chance to see the tigers is provided in three parks in the country Corbett in the the Himalayan foothills of northern Uttar Pradesh, Kanha in Madhya Pradesh state and Ranthambhore in Rajasthan. Most of the tourists claim that they have not seen any wild tigers in India other than in these three parks.
Tiger preserves in India are called Tiger parks and they are largely involved into protection of tiger and the project is names as 'Project Tiger'.
There are several different type and subtype of tiger and at different geographical location they are indicated by different names.
Increasing illegal hunting has already made a great loss to 3 different types of tiger the Bali, Javan and Caspian subspecies and there is a threat to the remaining type. The tiger subspecies today include the Indian or Bengal, Indo-Chinese, South Chinese, Sumatran, and Siberian tigers.
Tigers occupy habitats as diverse as the coniferous, mixed deciduous forests of the Russian Far East to the tropical rain forests, grasslands, and marshes of India and Indonesia. In the past, they were also found around the Caspian Sea in Turkey and Iran and on the islands of Bali and Java in Indonesia. Tigers belong to the family of cats and are called as digest of all cats they are considered in a group which include lions, jaguars and leopards.
The largest of all tiger subspecies are Siberian tigers. They can survive in temperature are low as -49° Fahrenheit because of their size and extra thick, long coat.
The coats of Siberian tigers are more yellow than their tropical relatives. Tropical tigers are brighter in color with shorter and thinner hair. The smallest of all tigers were Bali tigers. The smallest of living subspecies today are Sumatran tigers.
There are some variations in different type of tigers, males generally have a length of 11 feet right from their nose to tip of tail and they weight approximately 400 pounds and even male tigers have ruffs of hairs around their cheeks where as females are slightly smaller having a length of 8 or little more and weight of 300 pounds.
The orange coat with black stripes and white patches are easily noticeable in a zoo tigers blend well with their natural surroundings. The black lines over the tiger skin help them to break their body in tall grasslands. These stripes are also known as the unique identity of a tiger just like human fingerprints which never match for two different people same is the case with these stripes patterns on tiger which never match with one another.
Tiger is a carnivores or flesh eating animal. They mainly prefer to have deer, antelopes and wild pigs but they eat whatever they can catch. Anything as small as frogs, turtles. Fish or birds or animal as large as water buffalo, elk, rhinoceros, or elephant calves. They generally avoid contact with humans.
Tigers are well-equipped for hunting they have very keen eyesight which can pick up anything at even slightest movement. They have large cup-shaped ears to focus on sounds and which make their hearing very sensitive. Long stiff whiskers helps tiger maneuver through twigs and branches in the dark. The sense of smell of a tiger is also excellent.
Tigers have retractable claws same as like of house cats. By keeping the very sharp it helps them while walking on rocks or hard ground they can pull their claws into a protective sheath to prevent them from becoming worn down.
Tigers normally hunt at night time but they continue to hunt during the day if they are not successful sometimes they may travel 10-20 miles in a single night to search for meal for themselves.
To get their prey they believe in overcoming by surprise and great strength. They may stalk their prey, or lie in ambush at a watering hole or a well-used path. To only a brief distance of say 80 feet tigers can run very fast. If an animal escapes from a tigers trap not every time but at times they continue to chase it.
After catching their prey tigers are very effective at killing it. But as compared to the success in catching their prey they loose it more say in 15-20 attempts they succeed in only one for there meal.
The diet of a tiger is 50-70 pounds at one meal. Many times due to less meal or sometimes without meal they go week. Tigers mark their territories and they have different ways to do it by scratching trees, scraping the ground, and spraying trees, rocks and bushes with urine. A male tiger encompasses up to 25 square miles which they may share with a female tiger but will never tolerate a male tiger. A female tiger can encompass up to 8-10 square miles.
Tigers live up to 15 years in the wild and most of its time is spend all alone. They only come together to mate for which the period lasts only for 20-30 days and the time comes mostly during the winter and spring. Then once again the male and female go their separate ways.
It takes about 3 to 3 months after mating when 2 to 3 little averaging cubs are born. The size of a cub is of a house cat they are blind and helpless and it takes them approximately 2 weeks before they open their eyes and about 3 months old when they start eating. For about 2 months the mother brings food back to den for cubs after that the cubs accompany her for hunting to learn how to hunt. They follow their mother through tall grass and keeping sight of the back of her ears which can be easily identified by the black coloring with a large white spot.
Till 1 year they learn hunting to survive and then they hunt on their own. But it happens many a times that due to lack of experience the young may be hurt or even killed by the antlers or hooves of prey. By this time they leave the company of their other to form a new territory of their own and are ready to breeding and for m their own families.
As estimated century ago some 50,000 to 80,000 tigers roamed in India alone and today thee number is only 5,000 tigers all over the world and the number is continuously declining.
Till the time trophy hunting and market of tiger rugs and coats was banned it was a threatened to tiger's survival. As per the growing population, habitat destruction and an insatiable demand for tiger parts may be too much for the remaining tigers to survive.
Tiger parts are also used to cure disease in many Asian cultures such as rheumatism, convulsions, typhoid fever, and dysentery. Tiger bones are also very useful for making traditional medicines and can cost as much as $75 to $115 per pound. This is equal to an income which takes a whole year for a villager to make it. Tiger genitalia is also considered to be an aphrodisiac which is a substance thought to contribute to sexual stamina. Because of all these reason tigers poaching.
The threat of Siberian tigers poaching has increased in Russia since the border between Russia, china and North Korea have opened.
There is a great efforts from India to the world by creating a number of tiger reserves complete the patrolling guards since 1972. Still the poaching is a part of this wildlife due to widespread corruption and lack of income for villagers from other sources.
The tiger along with other animals is protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This is a part of agreement among approximately 120 nations to remove illegal trade in animals and plants, such as wild tigers, and products made from their parts. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the federal agency responsible for the U.S. government's compliance with the CITES treaty.
The U.S. government imposed applied wildlife trade sanctions on Taiwan in 1994 for that country's illegal trade in tiger and rhinoceros parts and products. This action is taken by U.S government for the first time on another country to penalize illegal trade in critically endangered wildlife.
Under Endangered Species Act all tigers are listed as endangered species, under which it is prohibiting from importing tiger parts and products into the United States except under certain conditions.
In areas where tigers no longer exist they are still alive in their believes, stories, legends and rituals. Maybe we can never get the same number of tigers as it was century ago but we can still learn to protect them before it is too late.
