Tiger

My Picture of the day is of a tiger in the Calgary zoo. It was taken over a year ago and still to this day it makes me smile, for he was scratching his face on the tree!

Here are some interesting facts about tigers that I found on the internet..... hope you enjoy!

1)      You can hear a tiger roar over a mile away

2)      A tiger can eat 100 pounds of meat a night. Compare this to 400 hamburgers! They need a lot of food because they may go days without meals.

3)      Tigers have eyes that are the brightest of any other animal in the world. At dusk, or in the beam of a torch, they blaze black the ambient light with awe-inspiring intensity.

4)      Tigers are the biggest cats in the world. They live in steamy hot jungles as well as icy cold forests. There are 5 different kinds or subspecies of tigers that are alive in our world today. These tigers are called Siberian, South China, Indochinese, Bengal and Sumatran. Tigers are an endangered species; only 5,000 to 7,400 tigers left in the wild. Three tiger subspecies, the Bali, Javan, and Caspian tigers have become extinct in the past 70 years.

5)      Depending on the subspecies, the head-body length of a tiger is about 4 ½ - 9 feet. The length of the tail is 3-4 feet. The foot pads vary in size with age, resulting in inaccurate estimates when used in censuring wild population.

6)      Tigers have round pupils and yellow irises (except for the blue eyes of white tigers). Due to retinal adaptations that reflect light back to the retina, the night vision of tigers is 6x better than that of humans. Not only that, but tigers can see in color.

7)      Siberian tigers are the heaviest subspecies at 500 or more lbs, with males heavier than females. The lightest subspecies is the Sumatran; males weight about 250lbs and females 200lbs. The heaviest tiger recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records is a 1,025lbs male Siberian tiger.

8)      The size of a tiger’s territory depends on the amount of food available, and usually ranges from about 10-30 square miles. Siberian tigers sometimes have really big territories (as big as 120 square miles).

9)      Although tigers usually live alone, tiger territories can overlap. A male tiger’s territory usually overlaps those of several female tigers.

10)   Young tigers live with their mothers until they are 2-3 years old... then they find their own territories.

11)   Tigers use their tails for balance when they run through fast turns. They also use their tails as a way to communicate with other tigers.

12)   A tiger’s paw prints are called pug mark.

13)   The life span of tigers in the wild is thought to be around 10 years. Tigers in zoos live twice as long.

14)   Tiger clubs are born blind and weigh only 2-3lbs, depending on the subspecies. They live on milk for 6-8 weeks before the female begins taking them to kill and feed. Tigers have fully developed canines by 16 months of age, but do not begin making their own kills till about 18 months.