Tiger
Carl Linnaeus described the tiger in 1758 within his work Systema Naturae. He assigned it the scientific name Felis tigris at that time. Reginald Innes Pocock moved the species to the genus Panthera in 1929. This change resulted in the current name Panthera tigris. Genetic analyses indicate the tiger and snow leopard are sister species. Their lineages split from each other between 2.70 and 3.70 million years ago. The earliest appearance of the modern tiger species in the fossil record involves jaw fragments from Lantian in China. These fragments date to the early Pleistocene. Results of a phylogeographic study suggest all living tigers share a common ancestor. That ancestor lived between 108,000 and 72,000 years ago. Modern populations originated from a refugium in Indochina. They spread across Asia after the Last Glacial Maximum. Ancestors of the South China tiger intermixed with a relict population while colonizing northeastern China.
The Siberian tiger possesses long hair and dense fur for cold climates. Its ground colour varies widely from ochre-yellow in winter to more reddish tones after moulting. Male Bengal tigers weigh up to 306 kilograms while females reach 165 kilograms. Island tigers like the Sumatran tiger are significantly smaller due to insular dwarfism. Male Sumatran tigers weigh around 100 kilograms. The tiger has five digits on its front feet including a dewclaw. It has four digits on its back feet. All paws feature retractile claws that can reach eight centimeters in length. The skull is robust with a constricted front region. It features proportionally small elliptical orbits and long nasal bones. The tiger has thirty fairly robust teeth. Its somewhat curved canines measure ten centimeters and are the longest in the cat family. The head-body length ranges from two hundred to three hundred centimeters. A tail extends about one hundred fifty centimeters. The coat usually has short hairs reaching up to three centimeters. Northern-living Siberian tigers develop hairs up to seven centimeters long during winter.
Camera trap data show tigers in Chitwan National Park avoided locations frequented by people. They were more active at night than during the day. In Sundarbans National Park, six radio-collared tigers reached their zenith of activity around 7:00 o'clock in the morning. Tigers are powerful swimmers and easily traverse rivers as wide as six kilometers. An adult was recorded climbing fifteen meters up a smooth pipal tree. Adult tigers lead largely solitary lives within home ranges or territories. Males and females defend their home ranges from those of the same sex. Two females in the Sundarbans had home ranges of four hundred square kilometers. Male tigers generally mark their home ranges by spraying urine on vegetation. Disputes are usually solved by intimidation rather than fighting. Tigers learn to hunt from their mothers though the ability may be partially inborn. A tiger will wait at a watering hole for prey to come by particularly during hot summer days. It switches between creeping forward and staying still. A tiger can sprint sixty-five kilometers per hour and leap eight meters. The success rate for hunting tigers ranges from five percent to fifty percent. Tigers typically move kills to a private vegetated spot no further than two kilometers.
The global tiger population is thought to have continuously declined from an estimated 5,000 to 8,262 individuals in the late 1990s. Estimates as of 2022 place the number between 3,726 and 5,578 individuals. During 2001, 2020 landscapes where tigers live declined from 400,000 square kilometers to 370,000 square kilometers. In China tigers became the target of large-scale anti-pest campaigns in the early 1950s. Between March 2017 and January 2020 hunters used snares drift nets and hunting dogs in southern Myanmar reserves. Anti-poaching units in Sumatra's Kerinci Seblat landscape removed 362 tiger snare traps during 2005, 2016. At least 3,377 tigers were confiscated in 2,205 seizures across 28 countries between 2000 and 2022. Seizures included 665 live and 654 dead individuals plus 1,313 whole tiger skins. Demand for tiger parts for use in traditional Chinese medicine has been cited as a major threat. Local people killing tigers in retaliation for attacking livestock is a threat in several range countries.
An estimated 80,000 tigers were killed between 1875 and 1925 by human hunters. The Champawat Tiger was responsible for over 430 human deaths in Nepal and India before she was shot by Jim Corbett. Tiger attacks in the Sundarbans caused 1,396 human deaths in the period from 1935 to 2006 according to official records of the Bangladesh Forest Department. In the 1840s the number of deaths in Singapore ranged from 200 to 300 annually. Tigers have been kept in captivity since ancient times. In ancient Rome tigers were displayed in amphitheatres where they were slaughtered in venatio hunts. Starting in the Middle Ages tigers were being kept in European menageries. In 2020 there were over 8,000 captive tigers in Asia and over 5,000 in the US. There are more tigers in captivity than in the wild. Private collectors are thought to be ill-equipped to provide proper care for tigers which compromises their welfare. The keeping of tigers and other big cats by private people was banned in the US in 2022.
In a 2004 online poll involving more than 50,000 people from 73 countries the tiger was voted the world's favourite animal with 21% of the vote. In Chinese astrology the tiger is the third out of 12 symbols in the Chinese zodiac. It controls the period between 15:00 and 17:00 o'clock in the afternoon. The White Tiger represents the west along with yin and the season of autumn. The tiger is one of the animals displayed on the Pashupati seal of the Indus Valley Civilisation. In Hinduism the tiger is the vehicle of Durga the goddess of feminine power and peace. William Blake's 1794 poem The Tyger portrays the animal as the duality of beauty and ferocity. The tiger Shere Khan in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894) is the mortal enemy of the human protagonist Mowgli. Friendly tame tigers have also existed in culture notably Tigger the Winnie-the-Pooh character and Tony the Tiger the Kellogg's cereal mascot.
Common questions
When did Carl Linnaeus describe the tiger in Systema Naturae?
Carl Linnaeus described the tiger in 1758 within his work Systema Naturae. He assigned it the scientific name Felis tigris at that time.
What is the current scientific name for the tiger species Panthera tigris?
Reginald Innes Pocock moved the species to the genus Panthera in 1929. This change resulted in the current name Panthera tigris.
How long ago did the tiger and snow leopard lineages split from each other?
Genetic analyses indicate their lineages split from each other between 2.70 and 3.70 million years ago. The earliest appearance of the modern tiger species in the fossil record involves jaw fragments from Lantian in China dating to the early Pleistocene.
What are the weight differences between male and female Bengal tigers?
Male Bengal tigers weigh up to 306 kilograms while females reach 165 kilograms. Island tigers like the Sumatran tiger are significantly smaller due to insular dwarfism with males weighing around 100 kilograms.
When was the keeping of tigers by private people banned in the US?
The keeping of tigers and other big cats by private people was banned in the US in 2022. Estimates as of 2022 place the number of wild tigers between 3,726 and 5,578 individuals.