Beastfile · Mammals

Tiger

Panthera tigris

Every wild tiger left would fit inside one small town.

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Overview

The tiger is the largest cat alive and there are only a few thousand left in the wild, a number small enough that the entire global wild population would fit into a modest town. It hunts alone, mostly at night, relying on a short explosive charge rather than a chase, and can take prey several times its own weight. The stripes are not only on the fur: shave a tiger and the pattern is still there in the skin, and every animal’s arrangement is unique. Individuals hold large territories and advertise them by scent and by scratch marks, which is why they need intact forest rather than fragments.

A tiger facing the camera showing its striped face and white ruff

Origin

Forest, mangrove and grassland across scattered parts of Asia, from India and Nepal through southeast Asia to the Russian Far East, in a fraction of the historical range.

Habitat

Forest

Notable Traits

•The largest cat species alive
•Stripes are unique to each animal, and used to identify individuals in the wild
•Hunts alone, usually at night, by ambush
•Holds very large individual territories
•Unusually willing to swim, unlike most cats

Conservation

Endangered. Poaching, prey depletion and the fragmentation of forest into patches too small to hold a territory are the main pressures, though a few countries have posted real increases.