About Tigers
Tigers. When you here that word what comes to mind? Is it an age old memory of tigers at a childhood zoo? Or is it a picture of a tiger, 6 feet tall and roaring. Whatever it is most people know what a tiger is, but what is a real WILD tiger. A tiger's scientific name is panthera tigris. They are 11 feet in total body length and can weigh up to 670 pounds!! Tigers, in the wild and in the zoo, can live up to 20-26 years. They also have huge teeth that can reach 3.5 inches! These teeth are used for ripping apart meat from animals such as boar or buffalo. Not your average housecat.
Can You See One
Most people also know that tigers are endangered. This is due to habitat destruction and poaching. There are also 9 subspecies, 3 are extinct. The non-extinct species are the Bengal tiger, the Indochinese tiger, the Malayan tiger, the Sumatran tiger, the Siberian tiger, and the South China tiger. The 3 extinct species are the Bali tiger, the Caspian tiger and the Javan tiger. There are also tiger hybrids called ligers and tigons. A tigon is a cross between the lioness and male tiger. A liger is the other way around and because of missing genes, grows way bigger than either parent. From 10-12 feet and 800-1000 pounds! The other type of tigers is white tigers and golden tigers. Technically these are not subspecies but color variation. Really they are just gene mutations. Golden tigers are the same thing but golden colors. However if a white tiger and a golden tiger are mated, it can make a stripe less white tiger. One more thing. There is the black tiger. Only one has been found. It was found in Chittagong in 1846. There are rumors of blue or slate colored tigers, but none have been found. Black tigers are accepted widely as real, but just mutations. No super tigers.
