Tiger, largest member of the cat family and the only cat with striped fur. Perfectly designed predators, tigers possess beauty, grace, and awesome power. Their presence in the wild, revealed by a throaty roar or a track on a dusty trail, electrifies the forest and sends shivers down the spines of all who share its space.

Tigers typically reach a shoulder height of 3 feet and measure from 7 to 10 feet from head to rear end. Tigers range in size from the small Sumatrans, in which females weigh 165 to 240 pounds and males weigh 220 to 310 pounds, to the largest Bengal tigers, in which females weigh 220 to 350 pounds and males weigh 400 to 570 pounds.

Tiger fur is short and varies in color from dark orange to reddish brown. Stripe patterns are unique to individual tigers, and like fingerprints in humans, stripes can be used to tell tigers apart.

As carnivores that kill and feed entirely on the flesh of other mammals, tigers have short, powerful jaws with large jaw muscles. They have 30 teeth, 15 on each side of the jaw. Tigers use their large piercing canines to grab and kill prey. Their scissor-like molars slice flesh, and small incisors scrape meat from bones.

The time between conception and birth, known as gestation, is 100 to 112 days for tigers. Commonly two to three (rarely four or five) blind and helpless cubs are born in a secluded spot under very thick cover. Cubs weigh about 2.2 pounds at birth.

Mothers provide all parental care for the cubs, staying with them continuously for the first few days and hunting close by for the first two months. Fathers do not help raise cubs except to keep other adult males, which may kill newborns, out of the area. Cubs nurse until they are 6 months old, but begin eating meat after six to eight weeks when their mother takes them to her kills.

Visit: SAVE THE TIGERS
A site dedicated to the protection of and education
about the tiger species, including facts, trivia, pictures,
how to help, and information on the Siberian Tiger.