Amur tiger Panthera tigris altaica
The Amur tiger is the largest and northernmost of all tiger subspecies (Photos 1 and 2). Winters in northern taiga are severe, and that is why the fur of the Amur tigers is thicker and longer than that of their southern counterparts, and the pelage is paler which helps the animals blend into the snow (Pictures 3 and 4). Only the Amur tiger has five-centimeter thick layer of fat on its belly which protects the animal from icy winds and cold. The ears of the Amur tiger are shorter than the ears of other tiger subspecies – which probably, prevent them from being frostbitten. This beautiful powerful carnivore has a long flexible body, large heavy head, strong legs, and long tail (Picture 5). The Amur tiger is the largest living felid which ranks even over the King of the Animals, the Lion, with a body length of adult Amur tiger measuring 380 cm, the height at the shoulders – 110 cm, and weight ranging from 160 to 270 kg (females are significantly smaller than males).
Tigers are solitary animals, and each of them has a huge home range of over 500 km². When the prey is abundant, resident tiger may not leave its home range for a long time. The tigers mark their home ranges by spraying urine and leaving scratches on the ground and trees, regularly patrolling their territories and checking their own and other tigers’ marks. The tigers are excellent hunters using their physical power and size for hunting large prey, but they could also eat fish, frogs, birds, mice, and sometimes even fruits of some plants. However, the major components of the Amur tigers’ diet are ungulates: red deer, sika deer, roe deer, wild bore, and elk. In spite of their brilliant carnivorous abilities, Amur tigers not always manage to kill their prey: only one attack out of 6 or 7 appears to be successful.
Because of the huge home ranges of the Amur tigers, it is often a female who starts searching for a partner. Gestation lasts from 95 to 112 days, then a female gives birth to a litter of 3 or 4 blind cubs. The eyes of the cubs open on the ninth day, and the teeth start growing at two weeks of age. At two months of age the cubs start leaving the den and learning to eat meat which their mother brings, though she keeps nursing their offspring for another 5 or 6 months. At the age of six months the cubs begin accompany their mother during her hunt. For many months the female helps her cubs learning to find, catch and kill prey. The cubs play a lot which also helps them to learn necessary hunting skills. At the age of one year the cubs start hunting independently, and by the age of two years they usually can kill large prey. However, young tigers stay close to their mother and hunt with her for a few years.
Regular field surveys of the Amur tiger population indicate that there are no more than 400 individuals remain in the wild. This rarest felid is listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Main threats to the survival of Amur tigers are presented by habitat destruction, and poaching of Amur tigers and their prey species.
Bengal tiger Panthera tigris tigris or Panthera tigris bengalensis
The tigers of this subspecies are found in Pakistan, East Iran, Northern and Central India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh. The Bengal tigers inhabit a wide spectrum of various biotopes, from tropical rain forests to arid savannahs and mangroves forests. Bengal tigers are smaller than tigers of the Amur subspecies: the weights of males range between 205 and 227 kg, and females weigh from 140 to 150 kg. Male Bengal tigers have an average total length of 270 to 310 cm including the tail (tigers reaching 370 cm have been reported), while females are smaller, measuring 240 to 265 cm on average (maximum – 290 cm); the tail is typically 85 to 110 cm long, and on average, the height at the shoulders ranges between 90 and 110 cm. The Bengal tigers from Nepal and north of India are larger than the animals from the south of Indian Subcontinent, with an average weight of the southern specimens of 235 kg. The heaviest known tiger was a male killed in 1967 in the Northern India that weighed 388.7 kg. The color of the pelage of these tigers varies from yellow to light orange, with the color of the stripes varying from dark brown to black; the animals’ bellies are white, and the tails are mostly white with black rings. The roar of the Bengal tiger could be heard from the distance of 3 km.
The Bengal tiger is the most numerous tiger subspecies. According to the data of Indian Government, about 2,000 specimens live in India. About 200 tigers are found in Bangladesh, 140 in Pakistan, 155 in Nepal, about 30 in Iran, and some 70 – in Bhutan; Bengal tigers were completely exterminated in Afghanistan. Despite its relatively high numbers, the Bengal tiger is threatened with extinction from the wild, with major risk factors being poaching and destruction of natural habitats. About 150 Bengal tigers are poached annually because of their fur, bones and organs that are widely used in traditional medicine in China and other Asian countries.
The Bengal tiger is recognized as a National Symbol in India and Bangladesh.
The white tiger Panthera tigris (var. Alba)
The white tiger is not an albino and it does not belong to a special tiger subspecies. This phenomenon rather presents a rare pigmentation variant, which occurs in Bengal tigers; white tigers lack the pheomelanin pigment that in normal tigers produces the orange color. They still produce the other color pigment, eumelanin, and hence are not considered albino. White tigers feature brown stripes on white fur and blue eyes. An additional genetic condition can remove most of the striping of a white tiger, making the animals almost pure white.
The mutation is extremely rare in the wild, occurring in only about 1 in 10,000 births. The white color makes the tigers too conspicuous for hunting their prey or hiding from their enemies but they live and breed successfully in zoos, and their behaviors do not differ from those of their orange cousins.
The first case of a white tiger being caught was recorded in India in 1951, when the beaters drove a tigress with four nine-month-old cubs towards hunters. Three cubs had normal pelage color, and the forth one, a male, was white; he was also larger and stronger than his siblings. The white cub was brought to the Maharaja of Rewa who liked the unusual tiger very much. When the cub had grown up, the Maharaja introduced him to normal tiger female; the pair bred three times but all the cubs had normal orange color. Then a female from the second litter was introduced to her father, and later she gave birth to four white cubs that looked like exact copies of their father: brown stripes on the white fur, pink pads on the paws, and pale blue eyes. There are over hundred white tigers living in zoos now, and all of them are descendants of those four cubs.
White tigers are highly respected in India; people believe that an encounter with a white tiger will bring them happiness and prosperity.
Pictures 5, 11 – The tiger's tongue is rough like a grater and the animal uses it for grooming its fur and rasping meat from the bones of its prey.
Pictures 9, 10 – The white tiger is playing with one of its toys at the Moscow Zoo.
Picture 12 – White tiger resting.
Pictures 13-21 – White tiger cubs.
Indochinese tiger Panthera tigris corbetti
The Indochinese tiger is the subspecies found in Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Latin name of this tiger is a reference to the British naturalist Jim Corbett. The males range in size from 2.55 to 2.85 meters long, weighing from 150 to 195 kg (though larger individuals were registered, with the weight of over 250 kg). The females are much smaller, weighing no more than 130 kg. These carnivores inhabit moist and dry subtropical forests, and hilly and mountainous regions on the watersides of the rivers Mekong and Salween. The Indochinese tigers prey mainly on wild ungulates, such as wild pigs, large deer and bovids, but their diets also include smaller animas: porcupines, monkeys, birds, fish and reptiles; these tigers will even eat carrions. The wild population of the Indochinese tiger is estimated at no more than 1,500 individuals, and another 60 tigers live in the zoos. This rare felid is categorized as Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, but in spite of it, poachers still exterminate Indochinese tigers –three quarters of the whole tiger population had been killed in Vietnam with the purpose of trade of tigers’ body parts and organs for the use in Eastern traditional medicine.
Malayan tiger Panthera tigris jacksoni
Tiger видео
The Malayan tiger is a tiger subspecies that inhabits only the southern part of the Malay Peninsula. Panthera tigris jacksoni was recognized as a new subspecies as late as in 2004, when a genetic analysis carried out by the team of American geneticist Stephen O’Brien found that these tigers are distinct from Indochinese tigers. According to the last survey, the population of the Malayan tigers was estimated at 500 adult individuals, which gives this tiger third ranking based on the population sizes of tiger subspecies. The Malayan tiger is the smallest of all tigers. Its coloration and stripe pattern are similar to those of Indochinese tiger but the Malayan tiger is more similar in size to the Sumatran tiger; average weight of the males is 120 kg, and that of the females is 100 kg, maximum body length of the males is 237 cm, of the females – 200 cm. Malayan tigers prey on zambar deer, barking deer, wild boars and other ungulates, and can even kill sun bears. It is possible that the diet of this tiger also includes Malayan tapir, but this prey can hardly be killed easily. Home range of the male is about 100 km² and it is shared by up to 6 females.
Sumatran tiger Panthera tigris sumatrae
Tiger видео
The Sumatran tiger is a subspecies that inhabits only the Indonesian island of Sumatra, with most animals living within the areas of nature reserves and national parks. The Sumatran tiger is very small: males weigh from 100 to 130 kg, and weights of the females range from 70 to 90 kg. Relatively small size is thought to be an adaptation for the wild habitats represented by dense tropical forests. The size of the wild population is estimated at between 400 and 500 individuals. Recent genetic studies have revealed the presence of unique genetic markers, indicating that this subspecies may develop into a separate species, if it does not go extinct. This has led to the suggestion that Sumatran tigers should have greater priority for conservation than any other subspecies. While habitat destruction is the main threat to existing Sumatran tiger population (logging continues even in the strictly protected areas of Sumatra), 66 tigers (20% of the population) were shot by poachers between 1998 and 2000.
South China tiger Panthera tigris amoyensis
