Tigers On The Prowl
© Despina Rosales, 2006
First published in School Journal
(Part 3, Number 2, 2006).
The Cat Of Cats
The tiger is not just any cat. It's the biggest cat in the world. The largest of males can grow to be around 4 metres long and weigh up to 300 kilograms. Phew! That’s one big cat! Imagine your pet cat suddenly grew to that size - you’d need to buy a seriously huge kitty litter box.
A Cat With Duck's Feet
Tigers are excellent swimmers. Not even the best human swimmer could beat this cat in the water.
A tiger doesn’t really have duck's feet. But, just like a duck, it does have webbing between its toes that can spread to help it swim very quickly. Although a tiger is officially a cat, it swims using dog paddle.
Unlike most felines, tigers actually like the water. So a tiger tracking prey wouldn’t hesitate to cross a river and go after its dinner. And just as you would jump into a swimming pool in summer, this cat will go for a paddle to cool itself down on a hot day too.
Taking The Leap
Tigers don’t just chase their prey as cheetahs do. They stalk, using their natural camouflage to move unobserved through even the lowest cover.
The tiger creeps silently closer and closer to the unwary animal. When near enough, the tiger springs, taking its victim by surprise.
To capture smaller animals, like wild pigs, a tiger will leap from the front, gripping the creature with its beefy forelimbs and pulling it to the ground. A bite through the nape of the neck fractures the animal’s vertebrae and compresses the spinal cord, killing it quickly.
To capture larger animals, like buffalo, the tiger will attack from behind, diving onto its victim’s back. It grabs the beast’s neck with its front legs and claws and throws it to the ground. Usually this will break the animal’s neck. But if that doesn’t happen, the tiger will suffocate it with a bite to the throat. Regardless of which angle it chooses to strike from, a tiger’s hind legs are so powerful that its leap can cover more than 10 metres.
Imagine rounding up twenty friends and getting them to lie side by side on the ground. Then imagine trying to hurdle the lot of them. Anyone who could make it from the first to the last person without stepping on anyone in between has the leaping power of a tiger, and should join the New Zealand Olympic Long jump Team immediately.
The Meal Begins
A tiger’s jaw strength actually allows it to drag or carry an animal so heavy that it would require thirteen adult men to move it. Tigers haul their kill to a heavily screened area and eat it, starting from the legs and working their way up to the head of the animal.
If undisturbed, a tiger will return to the carcass for up to a week, feeding until it has completely eaten its kill. Even if their food is rotten, the tiger continues eating.
A tiger usually has around 10 kilograms of meat for a meal, but it can eat up to 45 kilograms of meat in one go. Talk about a big cat with a big appetite!
Cat Stats
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Scientific name - Panthera tigris
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Kingdom - Animalia
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Class - Mammalia, which means it suckles its young
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Order - Carnivora, which means it only eats meat
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Family - Felidae
Close To Extinction
Although tigers prefer to live in forest or jungle, they have been known to live in swamps, reeds, grasses, caves, and even old buildings when they have no other choice.
Officially, there are eight subspecies of tiger, but three of them - the Bali, Caspian, and Javan tigers - are already extinct while the rest are endangered.
Of the six thousand or so tigers left in the world, about 1500 are in captivity. This is one of the only ways to protect them from all becoming extinct. In the wild, a tiger can live up to ten years, but in captivity it can live up to twenty.
There are two main reasons why tigers are disappearing very quickly. One reason is that their territory is disappearing. Humans have been cutting down jungles so that they can build cities and farm the land, leaving many tigers homeless, hungry, and often starving to death.
The other reason is poaching. Poaching is illegal hunting of animals. Although it's against the law, it happens all the time. And unfortunately, business is booming.
A tiger is killed for its coat, which can fetch up to $20,000, its bones, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine, and body parts such as the eyes, which are sold as good luck charms. This cat has been - and still is - so hunted by humans that it is in real danger of being wiped out altogether.