Tiger

About this species

Size

Head and body 1.4–2.8m; tail 0.6–1.1m; 0.8–1.1m at the shoulder

Weight

Bengal tiger males 200–260kg, females 100–160kg

Diet

Mainly large and medium hoofed mammals such as sambar, barasingha, gaur and wild boar; also smaller animals and sometimes livestock

Habitat

Many forest types, from Himalayan foothill forest and central Indian dry forest to alluvial grassland and the Sundarbans mangroves

Litter size

Usually 2–3 cubs

The tiger is the largest cat in India: a muscular animal with a big head, broad front paws and a tail about half the length of its body. The orange coat varies from yellowish to reddish, with white on the belly, inner legs and parts of the face, and a white spot ringed in black on the back of each ear. The black or dark brown stripes are mostly vertical and form a pattern unique to each individual, which is how camera-trap surveys tell tigers apart. The tail has thick bands and a black tip. Stripes break up the outline in grass and dappled shade (Wikipedia, general species account).

Across its range the tiger lives alone in a home range that it defends against others of the same sex, and a male's range overlaps those of several females. It hunts by ambush, creeping up under cover and usually attacking from within about 30 m, then killing with a bite to the throat or neck. Kills are dragged into cover and fed on over several days. The tiger swims well and often lies in water on hot days. Cubs stay with their mother for about two years before leaving to find a range of their own (Wikipedia, general species account).

India holds most of the world's wild tigers. The fifth All India Tiger Estimation in 2022 surveyed forests in 20 states and photographed 3,080 individual tigers older than one year with camera traps at 32,588 locations, giving a minimum population estimate of 3,167 (NTCA and WII, Status of Tigers 2022). Tigers are found in five landscapes: the Shivalik hills and Gangetic plains, central India and the Eastern Ghats, the Western Ghats, the northeastern hills and Brahmaputra floodplains, and the Sundarbans. The same survey found tigers spreading into forests outside reserves in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, but losses outside protected areas in parts of the Western Ghats.

Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)