Tigers - Did You Know?

Face of a tiger

• There are three subspecies of tiger that are already extinct. These are the Caspian, Balinese and Javan tigers.

• The tigers’ stripes are unique to each animal and can be used to identify individuals, in much the same way that our fingerprint identifies us. 
  

• The word “tiger” means ‘arrow’ in the original Persian language. 

• Fewer than half of the cubs born ever live beyond the age of two years. 

• The Siberian Tiger is the largest of all the subspecies. 

• The urine that is sprayed liberally to mark personal territory can also communicate to other tigers whether the sprayer of that urine is male or female, foreign or local, or receptive to mating. 

• Fossil remains seem to indicate that tigers have been on the earth for approximately two million years. 

• An adult male eats about 150 kilograms of meat every month. 

• White Tigers are actually a genetic mutation and not a subspecies. All White Tigers are of the Bengal subspecies.

• For every 20 attempts at killing an animal, a tiger is only successful once. Therefore, it will spend much of its life hunting, only to eat once every four or five days. For this reason, it must try to eat as often and as much as possible.

• Tigers are excellent swimmers. 

• In a recent poll conducted by Animal Planet, tigers were cited as one of the favourite animals. 

• A tiger can cover about 10 metres in one powerful leap. However, its energy levels are best suited to such short bursts of activity, and cannot be maintained over long distances. 

• The tiger is one of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. There are a number of famous people that are born in the year of the tiger, including:

o Ptolemy – 90 CE (Common Era)
o Muhammad - 570 CE
o Ivan the Terrible - 1530
o Ludwig von Beethoven – 1770
o Karl Marx - 1818
o Tom Cruise - 1962
o Leonardo DiCaprio - 1974
o Jodie Foster - 1962
o Marilyn Monroe - 1926
o Demi Moore - 1962
o Kate Moss – 1974

• Tigers have sensory whiskers scattered randomly on their bodies. This is why they (and other cats) rub up against one another to form close bonds. 

• Tigers have exceptional vision in the dark. In fact, they can see about six times better than human beings can in low light. 

• There are white spots on the back of each of the cat’s ears. These are called “eye spots” and are used to intimidate prey or threats.