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TIGER

Society & Culture


Hello ladies and gentlemen, I am Shrishti Lunia. Today, I am going to tell you about tigers. So be careful as we are going to travel into the world of tigers. I hope the adventure will be fantastic.

Currently, tigers are found in a variety of habitats in South and Southeast Asia, China, and eastern Russia. They thrive in temperate, tropical, or evergreen forests, mangrove swamps, and grasslands. The tiger helps maintain a healthy ecosystem and a balanced food chain, and as an apex predator, it is India's national animal.

Types of Tigers

  1. Royal Bengal Tiger:
  • Habitat: Tropical forests of the Indian subcontinent, Bhutan (up to 4500 m above sea level), and mangrove forests.
  1. Amur Tiger:
  • Habitat: Snowfields, evergreen forests, mangrove swamps, grasslands, and birch forests in eastern Russia, China, and North Korea.
  • Characteristics: Solitary animals.
  1. Sumatran Tiger:
  • Habitat: Forests of Sumatra.
  • Characteristics: Orange fur with thick black stripes.
  • Status: Less than 400 remaining due to deforestation and poaching.
  1. Caspian Tiger:
  • Habitat: Eastern Turkey, southern Caucasus, northern Iran, Iraq, northwestern China, and Central Asia.
  • Status: Disappeared by the early 1880s.
  1. Javan Tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica):
  • Habitat: Indonesian island of Java until the mid-1970s, evergreen forests, mangroves, and grasslands.
  1. Indochinese Tiger:
  • Habitat: Tropical and subtropical forests of South Asia, native to Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
  • Characteristics: Strong, long legs allow them to jump high, swim, and run up to 60 miles per hour.
  1. Malayan Tiger:
  • Habitat: Malay Peninsula and southern Thailand.
  • Status: Threatened by deforestation, poaching, and human-tiger conflict.
  1. Bornean Tiger:
  • Habitat: Island of Borneo in prehistoric times.
  • Status: Potentially extinct.
  1. South China Tiger:
  • Discovery: Found in Xiamen, Fujian Province by American naturalist Harry Caldwell in the early 19th century.
  • Status: One of China's 10 endangered species, protected as a first-class animal.

Diet and Lifespan

  • Favorite Food: Deer and wild boar, including sambar deer, chital deer, swamp deer, and sika deer. They also eat prey ranging in size from termites to elephants.
  • Diet: Includes large prey weighing around 20 kg (45 lb) or more, such as elk, deer, pigs, cattle, horses, buffalo, and goats.
  • Lifespan: Typically 10 to 15 years in the wild, up to 20 years in rare cases. About half of all wild tiger cubs do not live beyond the age of two.
  • Reproduction: Female tigers give birth to 2 to 3 cubs (sometimes up to 7) after about 103 days of mating. Cubs stay with their mothers until they are three years old.

Habitat and Threats

Tigers live in a variety of habitats, including rainforests, grasslands, savannahs, and mangrove swamps. Unfortunately, human activity has led to the loss of 93% of their historical habitat. Predators of tigers include humans, elephants, and bears, while tiger cubs face threats from hyenas, alligators, and snakes.

Thank you for joining me on this