India tiger: The Indian Tiger has perhaps attracted more vivid portrayals than any other species. While the tiger has been traditionally associated with the Hindu Goddess Durga, today it has also become a symbol of national pride. Efforts for its conservation have been quite remarkable but so are the challenges posed by poachers.
India is home to the world’s largest population of tigers in the wild. According to the World Wildlife Fund, of the 3,500 tigers around the world, 1,400 are found in India. Only 11% of original Indian tiger habitat remains, and it is becoming significantly fragmented and often degraded.
Tiger hunting took place on a large scale in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, being a recognized and admired sport by the British in colonial India as well as the maharajas and aristocratic class of the erstwhile princely states of pre-independence India. Tiger hunting was done by some hunters on foot; others sat up on machans with a goat or buffalo tied out as bait; yet others on elephant-back
Tiger Country
Historically, tigers lived in all the regions of India, from the snow-covered Himalayas at elevations of 10,000 feet, to the forests of South India. Today, tigers may inhabit high-mountain terrain, dry tropical forests, humid evergreen forests and mangrove swamps. An adult tiger defends a large area from all other tigers of the same sex. The primary resource of this territory is food. A female’s territory must contain enough prey to support herself and her cubs. A male’s territory, additionally, must offer access to females with which to mate. Thus, a male’s territory overlaps with that of one to seven females. But territory size varies enormously and is directly related to the abundance of prey in a given habit. For instance, Indian tigers in prey-rich habitats defend quite small territories and female territories average just eight square miles.
Mama tiger. Papa tiger. Baby tiger. A word on their family life.
Except for a mother and her cubs, tigers live and hunt alone. But that does not mean they are not social. Scent marks and visual signposts, such as scratch marks, allow tigers to track other tigers in the area and even identify individuals. A female tiger knows the other females of nearby territories and in many cases, a neighbor may be her daughter. Females know their overlapping males (and vice versa) and probably know when a new male takes over
Reproduction
Tigers breed between February and May. After breeding, 15-16 weeks will pass by before cubs are born. Tigresses typically have two cubs, but they can have as many as six. When the cubs are nearly ready to be born, the mother seeks out a den and prepares her litter. Caves make particularly good dens. Male tigers stay with a female for only a short time after their cubs are born.
When tiger cubs are six months old, they are ready to join their parents on hunts. They stay with their mothers until about age two. Tigers may live for as long as 20 years.
Diet
Tigers prey primarily on wild boar and other swine and medium to large deer such as chital, red deer and sambar. When together, tigers also hunt gaur, a large wild cattle.
Hunting
A tiger hunts alone, primarily between dusk and dawn, travelling 6-20 miles in a night in search of prey. A typical predatory sequence includes a slow silent stalk until the tiger is 30 to 35 feet from the selected prey, followed by a lightning fast rush to close the gap. The tiger then grabs the animal in its forepaws, brings it to the ground and finally kills the animal with a bite on the neck or throat. After dragging the carcass to a secluded spot, the tiger eats. A tiger eats 33 to 40 pounds of meat on an average night and must kill about once every week. Catching a meal is not easy, a tiger is successful only once in 10 to 20 hunts.
The Elusive White Tiger
There are only 200 white tigers left in the world. The last spotting of a White Bengal Tiger in the wild was in central India in 1951. It is from this animal that all white tigers in captivity today have descended.
